The growing interest in urban agriculture means we need to think about the city in a whole new way.

By Dorothée Imbert
Architecture Boston
Published by the Boston Society of Architects
Vol 13 No 3
August 4, 2010

Dorothée Imbert is the chair of the Master in Landscape Architecture program at the Sam Fox School of Design and Visual Arts at Washington University. She is the author of Between Garden and City: Jean Canneel-Claes and Landscape Modernism (University of Pittsburgh Press, 2010)

Excerpt:

The contemporary enthusiasm for urban agriculture presents a paradox: zoning regulation, olfactory and sound control, and moral opprobrium have erased almost all traces of food production within most Western cities. This contradiction reveals the difficulty of integrating agriculture into urban systems and the need for landscape architects, planners, and community activists to tackle policy. The perception of urban agriculture as a temporary land use for disenfranchised inner-city populations is also likely to hinder its potential to form a new type of open space.

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Rice on the roof

By zenrainman
July 2008

The rice was planted in mid-April and watered with treated greywater and rainwater alone. It was harvested in mid-July. The green roof keeps the house cool. It has two layers of a lining named Silpaulin, which prevent moisture getting through the roof. Mother and daughter harvest the paddy with a sickle each.

The stalks are cut and the grains are collected on a dry surface. Then the women remove the grains with their feet. The grains need to be dried and later husked. The paddy stalk is an excellent fodder for cows.

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