‘A Real Urban Farm’ in Hong Kong. Pokfulam is a residential area on Hong Kong Island, at the western end of the Southern District.

“Pokfulam is like an oasis in the desert, and there is nothing else like it on Hong Kong Island.”

By Grace Tsoi
Hong Long Asia Cities
Feb 21, 2013

Excerpt:

The death of agriculture in Hong Kong is an unquestionable fact. It is hard to believe that farming is still a regular activity in Pokfulam Village—a place that is so close to the urban heart of our city.

While a few households are still tilling the soil in Pokfulam Village, Chan Kwan-tin’s farm is the most eye-catching of them all. There is a large patch of green in front of his little house where he grows a dozen varieties of vegetables, ranging from turnips to watercress. This is Chan’s proudest project; he single-handedly transformed the barren land into a flourishing farm. He carefully carved the fields into rows and planted different vegetables in each area. Across the fields he has hung some colorful, fluffy dolls to keep the birds at bay. Chan’s farm is comprised of two parts that are connected by concrete paths and stone steps. Chan built them all by himself, and the stone stairs are a special point of pride.

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Book forthcoming April 2013

Edited by Francesca Miazzo, Mark Minkjan
Valiz/Transcity
240 pages

The Farming the City project began in November 2010 as an initiative of the Amsterdam-based organization CITIES, bringing city dwellers and urban farmers together to explore inspirational ways of producing, storing, cooking, preserving, distributing and sharing food. Since then, it has fostered urban farming projects all over the world, to great acclaim, and with considerable press coverage. Farming the City: Food as a Tool for Today’s Urbanization looks at this booming global phenomenon, considering in detail 30 projects, from City Growers’ transformation of empty spaces in Boston to Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in New York and FarmScape in Los Angeles; from the People’s Supermarket in London to cultivating the interiors of shipping containers in Rotterdam.

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