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The whole thing is silly. Farming is a full time job.
Most people in cities and suburbs already have full time jobs, and relatively few want to make an almost-full-time hobby out of growing food. Those that want to, can, in some urban areas and most existing suburbs (though not all; I lived in a townhouse development which had an regulation banning growing edibles.) You're not going to make suburbs or cities non-food-importing no matter what you do. And personally, I do not wish to make my hands, minds, surplus time, and discretionary entertainment budgets available for growing food... what am I, a farmer? Heck, I'm allergic to just about anything that grows; gardening is the last thing I want to be doing.
What Duany is talking about is "recreational farming" - "gardening is the new golf", that sort of thing.
Increasingly, people want to know where their food comes from, and what better way to do that, than to grow it yourself.
The concept of a kitchen garden is making a huge comeback amongst city-dwellers. And if/when the next crisis hits and there is another big round of job cuts, people will be able to use their time productively, growing some of the food they need.
FOOD: Getting it into the city... during the Long Emergency
I do want to discuss this Risk, and how one might hedge it...
=== QUOTE : J. === '' My fear is that not enough food will get into the city at times, or what shows up at the walkable stores will become very limited and expensive. This risk deserves more discussion, if you want to "go there" and talk more about it.''
Time to flesh out this possible narrative.
=== UNQUOTE ===
Okay.
Here are some possibilities:
+ More people (who have the space) will have their own "kitchen gardens"
+ Businesses and Co-ops will grow food in urban farms
+ People will eat less meat, more vegetables, which are easier to farm
+ Central supermarkets and wet markets will play a bigger role in food distribution
+ Farmers markets will spring up around the urban areas
+ New distribution methods, not using trucks, will be found to move the food
+ Agricultural urbanism “refers to settlements equipped with a working farm... but few of the residents participate in the productive activities.” A number of modern developments — some new urban in design — fall into this category, including:
- Village Homes in Davis, California,
- Prairie Crossing outside Chicago,
- Serenbe near Atlanta, and
- New Town at St. Charles, Missouri.
- Village Homes in Davis, California: : :
. Natural corridors near residences for wildlife / Local agriculture for local consumption.
L:
This flood control-way between homes at Village Homes in Davis, CA., allows running water streams to flow year-round, making animal and bird habitat accessible to residents. Note that these south-facing homes maximize passive solar heating. The walkways along the waterway are in constant use by residents for bicycles, tricycles, walking and jogging.
R:
In sight, and in the backyards of some homes at Village Homes in Davis, CA., grapevines rest during winter, then produce prolifically in summers. Residents bottle the harvest for local use and sale, and all of this happens in their own community.
===
/source: Donald Aitken Associates
- Prairie Crossing outside Chicago:
To assure views for everyone, Prairie Crossing built its houses around common garden areas, and in one case a 22-acre manmade lake. All the buildings are constructed to high-energy-efficiency levels.
But Prairie Crossing's most startling feature is its farm — 50 acres, nestled in the community and producing, organically, beets, grapes, herbs and fresh eggs. With an on-site farmers market and one other outlet, the husband-wife farmer team avoids wholesale markets and grosses an amazing $14,000 to $15,000 per acre per year.
===
/source: Brudaimonia: Smart Growth and the Future of Our Cities: A Photo Tour
- Serenbe near Atlanta:
Serenbe, a utopian experiment in New Urbanism being molded out of red Georgia clay, about 30 miles southwest of downtown Atlanta. In just a few years, this idyllic community — which aspires to be something of a Sonoma for the New South (though without the wine) — has become a destination for Atlantans in search of a day trip with the kids or a getaway without them.
===
/source: http://travel.nytimes.com/2009/03/01...l/01heads.html
I really don't think it matters for adults who grew up in cities. But having worked with environmental clean-ups, I can almost guarantee you that those brown fields (i.e. former building and industrial lots) have contaminants that will get into the food chain.
Good point. Most industrial land is useless for farming, at least for the next 10 to 15 years (or longer) until the soil cleans up. Those vast blocks of formerly residential land in Detroit, however, may not require such a substantial cleanup.
Quote:
Originally Posted by uptown_urbanist
Yeah, that's a definite issue. That's probably a bigger concern for people casually growing stuff at home, rather than the people doing it professionally; I assume the pros are more aware of the soil concerns, while the casual would-be gardener is probably less likely to think about it or to get their soil tested.
The backyard gardener, though, is gardening in soil that most likely went directly from farmed or fallow or wooded to residential, and there aren't likely too many toxic chemicals in the soil.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Geologic
+ New distribution methods, not using trucks, will be found to move the food
Pony Express? Shoe-leather express? Horse and buggy?
FOOD: Getting it into the city... during the Long Emergency
I do want to discuss this Risk, and how one might hedge it...
=== QUOTE : J. === '' My fear is that not enough food will get into the city at times, or what shows up at the walkable stores will become very limited and expensive. This risk deserves more discussion, if you want to "go there" and talk more about it.''
Time to flesh out this possible narrative.
=== UNQUOTE ===
Okay.
Here are some possibilities:
+ More people (who have the space) will have their own "kitchen gardens"
+ Businesses and Co-ops will grow food in urban farms
+ People will eat less meat, more vegetables, which are easier to farm
+ Central supermarkets and wet markets will play a bigger role in food distribution
+ Farmers markets will spring up around the urban areas
+ New distribution methods, not using trucks, will be found to move the food
What is "the Long Emergency"? Care to elaborate? Is this yet another conspiracy theory? If so, please take it to politics, where threads about these conspiracies abound.
You might not be aware of this, living in Hong Kong, but "farmers's markets" have become EXTREMELY popular here in the US.
Please expand upon these "new distribution methods, not using trucks". Like Ohiogirl81, I'd love to hear about those. "Truck farms" have long been a staple near many cities. My father's uncles had one back in the 1920s.
yes, farmers markets have become staples in American cities (and suburbs and small towns, for that matter). Not all of them are year-round (as obviously it's tougher to grow much in many places in the winter, although sometimes there are winter markets that sell the vegetables that store well), but they are definitely now an American staple. Many even are set up to accept food stamps, making them even more accessible to people at all economic rungs.
I would assume that it's partly due to the growth of these markets that small urban market farms can make a come-back. They provide a place for the small-scale farmers to sell their produce directly to the consumer.
What is "the Long Emergency"? Care to elaborate? Is this yet another conspiracy theory? If so, please take it to politics, where threads about these conspiracies abound.
You might not be aware of this, living in Hong Kong, but "farmers's markets" have become EXTREMELY popular here in the US.
Please expand upon these "new distribution methods, not using trucks". Like Ohiogirl81, I'd love to hear about those. "Truck farms" have long been a staple near many cities. My father's uncles had one back in the 1920s.
The Long Emergency (do a search on JH Kunstler's books) may have a huge impact on where and how we live, and anyone interested in the Big Picture should be aware of JHK's predictions.
He believes that the communities best poised to do well in the future, will be the ones with "a meaningful relationship with agriculture."
I can't find any old advertising, but I am pretty sure the original commuter railroads touted growing your own food as an advantage to living in the suburbs. Now the only crop grown in most suburbs is grass. It is apparently cheaper in time to just buy it at the store. But some have small gardens to get fresher food.
Last edited by pvande55; 03-02-2013 at 05:18 PM..
Reason: Add garden note
I can't find any old advertising, but I am pretty sure the original commuter railroads touted growing your own food as an advantage to living in the suburbs. Now the only crop grown in most suburbs is grass. It is apparently cheaper in time to just buy it at the store. But some have small gardens to get fresher food.
I think "some" underestimates how pervasive gardening is in the 'burbs. It's not subsistence gardening, but everyone in my neighborhood growing up and where I am now has food growing in the yard. Everyone. Just glancing around you can see fruit trees over every fence line. I in fact just recently got converted to home grown lettuce greens instead of the staple tomatoes, cucumber, eggplant, etc., from picking out of a friend's backyard garden. Dang, it's "alive" tasting! I can't emphasize any more strongly that there is almost no one around here who doesn't grow food of some kind.
Urban community gardens are not common enough. In California taking empty lots has a lot to do with water restrictions. Who sets up irrigation? Who pays for it? Otherwise, plenty of empty residential lots could be rehabilitated at the grassroots level. It's true that gardens on former industrial sites need to be on raised beds because of soil contamination, and even then there are roadblocks to approval just because of the soil. That's understandably a liability issue.
One current problem in a local community garden isn't contamination but required backfill with a particular type of sand. I don't know the botanical, agricultural or geological reasons but it's apparently a requirement. We'll face these kinds of unforeseen issues when we start taking urban agriculture seriously.
If anyone's skeptical about gardening in American suburbs I'm curious about their experience. There aren't definite numbers, although one site indicates in the 2000 Census that 61% of Americans garden. This is without a citation, though, and doesn't distinguish vegetable/fruit gardening from ornamental (my experience is they go hand in hand anyway, however). This article from 2010 indicates about 1/3 of Americans have food gardens, but as a whole without separating urban from suburban respondents.
I can only speak from anecdote. Not only has it always been part of the traditional home-owning dream, the decades of immigration probably predict the practice, as in my neighborhoods. The recession has inspired a growing trend. The above article shows lower income households do less food gardening, and we can correlate that with apartment living or renting.
This of all urban topics should not descend to another indictment of suburban living. Really, of all topics...
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