Urban Farming
Eleini Rau March 23rd, 2010
“Urban Farming’s mission is to create an abundance of food for people in need by planting gardens on unused land and space while increasing diversity, educating youth, adults and seniors and providing an environmentally sustainable system to uplift communities.” [1]
This declaration of purpose is the first thing you see when you go to www.urbanfarming.org . It is obvious that this movement has a wide range of activities, far beyond simply growing vegetables in someone’s back yard. It is not a “green” movement, it is a social movement.
I recently read an article in the Swedish magazine Ordfront about urban farming in Detroit, it was the first I had ever heard of it. However, this movement is old, and stretches around the world. In the book Cities Farming for the Future -Urban Agriculture for Green and Productive Cities (2006) , edited by René van Veenhuizen, case studies from Beijing, Montevideo, Porto Alegre as well as Vancouver are used. The organization in Detroit is called Urban Farming and founded in 2005 by Taja Sevelle with the purpose if making the world a greener place and putting an end to hunger. In other words, the purpose of this movement is both ecological and structural, as well as personal and economical. Research about urban farming during the last 20 years indicates that it serves several purposes, such as:
o enhancing urban food security, nutrition and health;
o creating urban job opportunities and generation of income especially for urban poverty groups and provision of a social safety net for these groups;
o contributing to increased recycling of nutrients (turning urban organic wastes into a resource);
o facilitating social inclusion of disadvantaged groups and community development; and,
o urban greening and maintenance of green open spaces.[2]
These areas are all addresses in Urban Farming, through a number of projects, such as “Environmental Justice and Green Collar Jobs”, “Youth/Adult Entrepreneurship and Financial Literacy Program”,“The Urban Farming Health and Wellness” and “The Urban Farming Community Garden and Green Science Garden”.
Urban gardening has been more common in “developing” countries, which makes the movement in Detroit interesting. Especially considering that Detroit has been the capital of the car industry, the motor city of the world. However, as the car industry failed and was forced to fire people and reduce costs, the former motor city became more and more like a ghost city, with increasing poverty and abandoned houses. The population of Detroit has diminished by 50 % since the 1950’s and 46 % are unemployed.[3] And this combination of poverty and abandoned gardens made it possible to start growing food. Besides increasing poverty and access to land, there is another reason why the people of Detroit started growing in an urban environment. Detroit is called a “food desert”, the reason being that the large food chains have left Detroit. Without economically strong consumers, they see no possibility of profit in Detroit. There are also those who claim that if is a question of racism, as the population of Detroit is 90 % African-American.
This movement, and the act of urban farming, is a form of resistance. Resistance against poverty, class society, racism and capitalism. On the surface it might seem as though it is simply a part of a growing movement for a greener planet, but in reality it is mush more than that. It is of course a way of saying that the planet is in danger, that we need to be aware of the fact that the environment needs our attention and it demands a change if we want to continue to live on this planet. But, it is also I reaction to the logic of capitalism, a system which is concerned only about profit and surplus value. It is a reaction against the failure of the state, which seems unable or unwilling to address the injustice of society, regarding both race och class. What started in Detroit as a necessity, a response to hunger, has developed in to a broad based movement, an organized form of resistance, a local reaction to national as well as global structures of inequality.
[1] http://www.urbanfarming.org/index.html (2010-03-01)
[2] Cities Farming for the Future -Urban Agriculture for Green and Productive Cities, René van Veenhuizen (red), (International Institute of Rural Reconstruction ; Ottawa [Ont.] : International Development Research Centre, 2006) , s x
[3] Mo(rot)town, Björn Forsborg, Ordfronf magasin, nr 1/2010
- Occupation , Protest , Resistance
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