FARMING THE CITY_ we asked the experts:
Over 100 specialists involved in city making and shaping came together at the Green City Forum - the broad conversation, which ranged over 13 topics, was synthesised and two key themes were chosen to be further discussed by expert panels. From those two themes discussed at the forum we’ve chosen to feature ‘Farming the City’, which encompasses a wide range of ideas about how to reinterpret the city as a shared resource. This was a theme which spanned all the Green City topics and which emerged in our other forums as well.
The participants were asked to consider ‘Farming the City’ by addressing these questions:
What’s in it for me?
What can I do?
What needs to happen?
What other things might benefit from our actions?
What they said:
- ‘Farming the city’ is an opportunity to come up with innovative ways of defining what it means to ‘farm’ – such as food, water & energy production, as well as possibilities for using waste as a resource.
- Through innovative ‘farming’ in the city, we can recreate a strong relationship between food production and community.
- The city community could become more self-reliant - increased self-reliance for the community means reduced pressure on government.
- Farming the city requires an understanding of relationship between city and surrounding ‘food bowl’ - how a more self-reliant city might augment this and nurture a greater appreciation for available resources.
- By taking a farming approach to the city we can identify connections between resources and waste – more importantly we can redefine our collective waste as a resource.
- The Park Lands and our other open spaces (like the city squares) offer opportunities for agriculture, but also for possible water harvesting and filtering from the city and inner rim communities.
- Identifying opportunities for harvesting outputs of the city (be it food, water or energy) is a key move towards a regenerative city - the next step beyond sustainability.
What the public have said:
Many ideas supporting the aspiration for a green city are not necessarily new - Adelaide has demonstrated its capacity to respond to global environmental concerns: for example through the enactment of recommendations of Herbert Girardet from his time as Adelaide Thinker in Residence. Just a few examples of which include:
* Establishment of the Renewables SA Board;
* Programs for improving energy efficiency: installing ceiling insulation, light globe replacement, installation of water efficient shower heads;
* Tindo – the world’s first solar powered bus;
* Three million trees planting program
But clearly there is further to go and moreover, there is plenty of willingness to pursue the highest of goals if the ideas submitted by you are anything to go by.
The life of an idea – or the next step:
By considering what might be ‘farmed’ from the city as a way of achieving the goals set by the 30-Year Plan and South Australia’s Strategic Plan targets such as zero waste, we have an opportunity to consider the bigger picture of energy efficiency – there is an opportunity for the whole of our city and its strategies to be greater than a sum of their parts.
There are many international examples of a future thinking approach to sustainable cities which are informing the work of 5000+ and its partners. To read more about examples of great ideas being acted upon around the world – see the ‘Resources’ pages of our website.
One example from New York is offered up here with regard to food security and what practices need to be put into place now in order that future generations might enjoy the same, if not better, access to fresh food that we do:
FoodWorks: A Vision to Improve NYC’s Food System is a “comprehensive plan that sets a bold vision for a more sustainable food system—a ground-to-garbage approach unprecedented in the history of our city. The plan, ‘FoodWorks’, provides a blueprint for addressing issues at every phase of the food system - from agricultural production, processing, distribution, consumption and post-consumption. The proposals focus on combating hunger and obesity to preserving regional farming and local food manufacturing to decreasing waste and energy usage.”
In order to assess whether or not any of our ideas can have any positive impact, we need to conduct a benefits analysis:
How might Adelaide benefit by using our city squares and or the Park Lands for production of edible food, for example? If the only way to make this happen was as a community garden, would you be prepared to donate your time and energy to care for such a garden in return for benefits such as: fresh produce, social connections, economic benefits and the experience of being part of a productive community?
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Comments
I support this idea to bring food growing closer to the city, would reduce "food miles" issue, educate all people all ages on growing & using fresh food, and utilizes unused area of the city to replace hills & northern areas being taken over for residential. If done properly & all ideas fulfilled it would be a fabulous feature for Adelaide & I would work there to help with children / adolescent programs educating on growing & eating fresh and from backyard. :)
For more comments on the idea of farming the Adelaide Parklands visit the Sunday Mail article here - http://www.adelaidenow.com.au/news/south-australia/farming-in-adelaide-parklands-could-be-a-vision-of-future/story-e6frea83-1226239004146