Category — thesis

Call for papers for an issue of Géocarrefour, 2013

Agriculture urbaine et alimentation : entre politiques publiques et initiatives locales
Appel à contribution pour un numéro de Géocarrefour, 2013
See the link to the French website.

Sylvie Lardon, directrice de recherche à l’Inra, professeure à AgroParisTech, UMR Métafort
Salma Loudiyi, Maitre de Conférences à VetAgro Sup, UMR Métafort

Between public policies and local initiatives, how to integrate city-agriculture links

There has been a constant insistence on the demographic challenge of the mid-21st century where urban growth forecasts for 2050 sound the alarm on questions of food security for cities, even for food autonomy, and on the sustainability of territorial systems which are more and more vulnerable. The stakes associated with these dynamics question our ability to think change, to invent new methods of action that are founded both on voluntarist public policies and on local initiatives that aim for a better integration of the urban-rural links, and more precisely, city-agriculture links.

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Illustration by Virginia Poltrack.

The potential for urban agriculture to contribute to food sovereignty as defined by Via Campesina, with a case study set in Kampala

By Christopher Yap
Email: chriskyap@gmail.com
Masters dissertation, supervised by Professor Yves Cabannes
Development Planning Unit, University of London
2012

Excerpt from Conclusion:

It appears that urban agriculture is making a significant contribution to the realization of the Right to Food in low-income households in Kampala. At the Outcome level, there is a clear link between urban farming and child nutrition in low-income households. Moreover it is possible to legitimately suggest that urban agriculture is increasing physical and economic access to food at a household level through a combination of income generation activities and substance farming, although there is insufficient data to quantify the rate at which the process is happening.

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From 2 page project poster. See complete poster here.

This study examines the business models and economics of Metro Vancouver’s urban farms

By Marc Howard Schutzbank
E-mail: marc.schutzbank@gmail.com
Master of Science – MSc
UBC’s Integrated Studies in Land and Food Systems
2012

Abstract:

Increasing food insecurity, lack of sustainable food systems, and a desire to participate in the food system are prompting the growth of various forms of urban agriculture: community gardens, urban homesteads, and urban farms. Urban farms, as distinct from other urban agriculture projects, are defined by the sale of their product. They raise produce and grow ornamentals to sell in neighbourhoods, all while building urban food networks that connect communities to their food.

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Poster “Get Your Farm In The Fight!” 1942. Credit: National Archives Photo no. 514376 44-PA-871.

Call for Abstracts/Papers for Special Issue of ‘Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems’

Special Issue Editors:
Carolyn Dimitri (New York University, carolyn.dimitri@nyu.edu),
Andy Pressman (National Center for Appropriate Technology-ATTRA project, andy@ncat.org)
Lydia Oberholtzer (Penn State, lso3@psu.edu)

Interest in urban food is growing, not only on the part of consumers, but also on the part of federal and local policymakers. While policymakers typically focus on the food access aspect of urban farming, growth in urban and suburban agriculture can provide new opportunities for small and medium-sized farmers. Worldwide, according to the United Nations Development Programme, an estimated 15 to 20 percent of food is raised in urban settings. Urban agriculture is best known for its widespread adoption in developing country where often many urban residents rely on urban farms as a key source of food. Recently, however, attention has turned to urban agriculture in the United States, and other developed countries, where it has been offered as a solution to increase the food security of low-income households in cities.

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Map of Chicago showing home food gardens (residential and single-plot vacant lot gardens) identified through manual interpretation of high resolution aerial imagery in Google Earth superimposed on the city’s 228 neighborhoods.

“Home gardens actually contribute to food security,” Taylor said. “They’re under-appreciated and unsupported.”

Research from the College of College of Agricultural, Consumer and Environmental Sciences
Urbana, IL
Jan. 3, 2013

Excerpt:

John Taylor, a doctoral candidate working with crop sciences researcher Sarah Taylor Lovell, was skeptical about the lists of urban gardens provided to him by local non-governmental organizations (NGOs).

“Various lists were circulating,” he said. “One of them had almost 700 gardens on it.”

On closer inspection, however, many of these “gardens” turned out to be planter boxes or landscaping and were not producing food. On the other hand, Taylor suspected that there were unnoticed gardens in backyards or vacant lots.

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In Forthcoming Special Issue of International Planning Studies – ‘Urban Food Planning’

Brent Mansfield and Wendy Mendes
International Planning Studies
19 Dec 2012

Abstract:

At a time when the majority of world’s population live in urban areas, the role of cities in addressing food system vulnerabilities is vital. One response has been a renewed focus by local governments in the global north on a host of individual food system issues. Still lacking are comprehensive municipal food strategies that take a coordinated approach to the food system as a whole. A municipal food strategy is an official plan or road map that helps city governments integrate a full spectrum of urban food system issues within a single policy framework including food production (typically referred to as urban agriculture (UA)), food processing, food distribution, food access and food waste management.

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Urban farmer, Bamako. Photo by donkeycart.

Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) covers 5% to 36% of an African city’s total food supply and up to 90% of its fresh vegetable consumption.

By UrbanFoodPlus

Excerpt:

African food security not only depends on productivity increases in marginal rural areas, but increasingly also on a more efficient use of niche environments such as (peri-)urban zones, where innovations are more easily adopted due to close market linkages between producers and consumers. Across different climatic zones urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) covers 5% to 36% of an African city’s total food supply and up to 90% of its fresh vegetable consumption. However, little is known about how to overcome problems in resource use efficiencies, negative externalities, and UPA-related income effects on gender or different population groups.

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Urban ag is diverse in production methods, and crops may be grown in vacant lots, on rooftops or in high tunnels, a type of greenhouse. Penn State photo.

Study to examine trends in urban agriculture

Penn State News Release
August 17, 2012

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. — Farming in the city is a hot topic in some circles, but an exact picture of urban agriculture has not yet been painted.

However, researchers in Penn State’s College of Agricultural Sciences, along with faculty from New York University, soon will begin a study to examine the state of urban agriculture in the United States today.

The project, titled “The State of Urban Farming in the United States: Enhancing the Viability of Small and Medium-Sized Commercial Urban Farms,” is funded by a $453,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture.

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Allotments in Leith, Edinburgh. Photo by By Christian Eriksson.

Towards an agenda for Green communitarianism

By Christian Eriksson
From his blog
20 Aug, 2012

Excerpt:

Of the many political movements to have sprung up over the past century, none have encompassed such a diverse range of beliefs as urban agriculture. Movements have taken Green, liberal, communitarian – even libertarian – forms, at once a testament to the movement’s flexibility and its apolitical nature. In this series of articles, I’ll be examining the many grandiose claims made on behalf of urban agriculture, and exposing a selection of delusions to which some of its adherents have been subject, beginning with the strange case of libertarian urban agriculture.

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Mate plant, or Yerba mate.

“In 1998, two scientific missions to Belem, Amazonia, have registered ninety seven species in the home gardens.” Paper in Spanish

By Isabel Maria Madaleno
Instituto de Investigação Científica Tropical
Isabelmadaleno8@gmail.com
Paper presented at The Association of Spanish Geographers, Urban Geography group, 9-14 July conference 2012. Galicia and North of Portugal.

Excerpt translated to English: Conclusions

The 20th century succeeding financial crisis, which number and cycle only increased in the 21st, constituted an excellent opportunity for all Latin American citizens to organize themselves in order to produce fresh food and to grow medicinal herbs in their home gardens, to mitigate pains and aches. To the urban agriculture plots whose produce they use in case of mild and chronic diseases, they add the collection of wild herbs on vacant lots, peri-urban farms and rural areas.

The compelling necessity to decrease the trade deficits and the sovereign debts led to the destruction of the national health care systems, worldwide. This fact, together with the decrease of the natural resources available to feed an increasing population, gave path to a widening gap between the rich and the poor in the last decade, and explains why the medicinal species are widely grown in front and backyards, as I’ve been observing in the last fifteen years, in Latin America.

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At Snug Harbor Heritage Farms, Carolyn Dimitri and her students get a chance to visit a real farm and “get their hands dirty” planting, composting, and transplanting vegetables. “It makes our theoretical discussions in the classroom very concrete,” Dimitri says.

The State Of Urban Farming In The United States: Enhancing The Viability Of Small And Medium-Sized Commercial Urban Farms.

From At A Glance
News from the NYU Steinhardt Community
Apr 23, 2012

A recently awarded $453,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture’s National Institute of Food and Agriculture will allow the associate professor and researchers at Penn State to study urban agriculture in fifteen cities. The project is titled, The State Of Urban Farming In The United States: Enhancing The Viability Of Small And Medium-Sized Commercial Urban Farms.

Urban farms are not easy to characterize because in many cities farms are located on roofs, vacant lots, or in greenhouses. The researchers will be analyzing data from the agricultural census, a survey of farmers, and information gathered from interviews to evaluate the technical assistance needs of urban farms.

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Centre for Environment and Society Research – Birmingham School of the Built Environment, Birmingham City University

Deadline for applications was 20th June 2012.

Applications are invited for a 3 year PhD Research Studentship within the Centre for Environment and Society Research. It will pay University fees at the home/EU level, and a tax free living allowance equivalent to UK Research Council level (approx £13,590). The Centre for Environment and Society Research (CESR) studies human intervention in the physical and social environment with a strong desire to improve current and future conditions. In the latest RAE, the research centre demonstrated that 10% of its research outputs were of “world class”, and 55% were of international, quality standards.

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Cartoon of a food productive house garden. Dig for Victory campaign. June, 1943. Source: Spartacus, 2011.

Using Social Practice Theory To Assess How Transition Norwich Can Upscale Household Food Gardening In The City Of Norwich

By Dionysios Touliatos
Thesis – Master of Science
School of Environmental Sciences University of East Anglia University Plain Norwich
© 2011 Dionysios Touliatos
August 2011

Excerpt:

The choice of household gardens

According to Jeffcote (1993) urban household gardens in the UK represent a significant percentage of the total surface of a city, occupying more than ten times the area of protected nature reserves (Loram et al., 2005). The UK is the country with the highest number in private gardens per capita of any nation in Europe (Alfrey et al., 2004: 9) but only 20% of garden owners grew food in 1996 compared to 35% ten years earlier, with lawn and flowers being the dominant theme (MINTEL, 1999). Thus, it can be argued that a significant potential of food production in terms of quantity lies in household gardens.

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Vegetable Vancouver 2010: An Urban Farming Census. See the two page flyer PDF here. (1.7 MB)

An Urban Farming Census – Project Description

By Marc Schutzbank, MSc. Candidate
University of British Columbia
November, 2010
Presented at the Vancouver Urban Farming Forum

The Food and Agriculture Organization’s Food Price Index is at the highest level ever recorded. Wheat crops have failed in Russia and in China due to severe heat and draught. International food access issues are stirring local public and private responses, one of which is urban farming. To ascertain the community impacts of urban farming, I propose the development of an urban farming census to measure the economic, social and environmental outcomes of urban farming.

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By Eli M. Krispi
California Polytechnic State University – San Luis Obispo
Thesis: Master of City and Regional Planning
June 2011

Abstract:

The objective of this project is to develop land use planning strategies that can be used to preserve and enhance the economic viability of agricultural operations surrounded by suburban development in Santa Barbara County’s Eastern Goleta Valley. This project focuses on two key techniques: buffers between agriculture and other land uses, and agritourism. In the case of buffers, academic literature is examined to determine how effective buffers are at various tasks (filtering runoff, mitigating dust and wind, providing habitat, etc.) and how to construct buffers to maximize their effectiveness.

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While the long term role and significance of urban food production in feeding the global population is unclear, understanding its myriad benefits and positive impacts locally and globally is imperative.

Thesis by Helena K. Farrell
Master Of Landscape Architecture
University of Massachusetts – Amherst
February, 2011
106 pages

Abstract

Modern, conventional food systems vulnerable to declining fossil fuel resources are a 21st century plight demanding rapid transition to regenerative agricultural practices. Urban agriculture is currently responding; expanding and diversifying from recent and historic roots worldwide to help meet the needs of contemporary urban dwellers and ameliorate the aftereffects of industrial agriculture.

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Greenhouses on Schaaf Road, Cleveland, Ohio area, with a buggy in the foreground, April, 1927.

This study shows that Cleveland city can meet up to 100% of its fresh produce need.

By Sharanbir S. Grewala and Parwinder S. Grewal
Center for Urban Environment and Economic Development, The Ohio State University,
Wooster, OH 44691, USA
Available online 20 July 2011
Cost of paper at Science Direct $19.95

Abstract

Modern cities almost exclusively rely on the import of resources to meet their daily basic needs. Food and other essential materials and goods are transported from long-distances, often across continents, which results in the emission of harmful greenhouse gasses. As more people now live in cities than rural areas and all future population growth is expected to occur in cities, the potential for local self-reliance in food for a typical post-industrial North American city was determined.

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The Australian Community Gardening Movement And Repertoires For Change

By Claire Nettle
Bachelor of Environmental Studies Master of Applied Science (Social Ecology)
Thesis submitted for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy
School of History and Politics, University of Adelaide, December 2010
359 pages

Abstract:

There has been a resurgence of community gardening activity in Australia over the past decade. This coincides with increasing concern about food security, urban sustainability, social isolation and the preservation of community space. Community gardening has been adopted by divergent actors, from health agencies looking to increase fruit and vegetable consumption to radical social movements seeking symbols of non-capitalist social and spatial relations. This thesis contributes to a systematic research account of the Australian community gardening movement by considering community gardening as a site of collective social action.

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Understanding the recent trend in food production activities within the limits of a developed nation’s capital

By Peter de Lange
Master thesis in the program Environment and Resource Management
University Amsterdam
Aug. 21, 2011
69 pages

Abstract

Urban agriculture, the practice of growing food inside a city, can play a significant role in a cities food system, especially in feeding the urban poor. Its presence varies greatly across regions, however, and it is predominantly seen in Asia and Africa, where it is often practiced out of necessity, in order to feed families or gain much needed additional income.

Urban agriculture is not confined to developing countries, however, and, in recent years, is becoming increasingly popular in cities across the United States and Europe. One such city is Amsterdam, the capital of the Netherlands, where especially community gardens have sprouted up in the last three years.

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Urban agriculture functions as a catalyst for larger food system transformations.

By the Urban Design Lab
The Earth Institute and Columb1a University
Prepared by Kubi Ackerman
Project Team:
Richard Plunz, Urban Design Lab, Columbia University
Michael Conard, Urban Design Lab, Columbia University
Ruth Katz, Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture
Sarah Brennan, Lenfest Center for Sustainable Energy, Columbia University Patricia Culligan, School of Engineering and Applied Science, Columbia University
2011, 112 pages

Excerpt:

Key findings in brief

• Urban agriculture can play a critical role as productive green urban infrastructure. There is significant potential for urban agriculture to provide critical environmental services to the city through stormwater runoff mitigation, soil remediation, and energy use reduction. At a time when municipalities are straining to address complex infrastructural challenges with limited budgets, productive urban green spaces will be increasingly important in their capacity to function as a cost-effective form of small scale, distributed green infrastructure.

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