Paper on Urban Agriculture

So wanna see what paying $500 for a course does for me? I thought I would post some of the papers I wrote this semester (don't worry, they're not too long). I thought that my mom's would want to know what I learned this year.

This paper was a 3 page summary of Urban Agriculture, where it's being used, and how it can make our world a better place.

By the end of writing it, I was so stoked on the idea of Urban Agriculture, and yesterday I went out and bought seeds and plants to start my own deck garden. I bought some salad greens, oregano, chives, and a tomato plant which were all started. And I got carrot, spinach, pepper, cucumber, zucchini, and dill seeds. So I hope it all goes well, I'm stoked to finally grow some veggies. And it's all being done on my deck. Yea! :)

Urban Agriculture: Commentary

Urban Agriculture (UA) is a form of small scale farming practiced in intra-urban and peri-urban areas. It is done on a primarily subsistence basis, but some farmers have small enterprises providing financial stability for themselves and their families. In Latin America UA has successfully been used in Argentina and Cuba over the last few decades (Spaggi, Rosset, Bourque, and Chaplowe), and the United Nations Development Programme (UNDP) has estimated there are approximately 800 million urban dwellers using UA (Urban Agricultural, Internet Clip).

Recently, it has been gaining popularity around the world as a realistic, low energy and low technology solution to provide food for the urban poor. Many authors see UA as a practical strategy for meeting the United Nations Millennium Development Goals, and as a sustainable, eco-friendly approach to urban development. The benefits of Urban Agriculture reach further than just the farmers; it improves the social, environmental and economic stature of the city. However, despite the benefits, UA faces many constraints in periphery nations, which need to be addressed in order for successful urban agricultural enterprises.

Argentina and Cuba’s urban agricultural systems provide food and income for thousands of families. However UA came to existence in different ways for each country, yet both add to the food stability and social wellbeing of their communities. In the Empalme Graneros neighbourhood in Rosario, Argentina, 40% of habitants lived off informal waste collection for their livelihoods (Spaggi. 193). Researchers studying the area began offering workshops on UA and using composting for fertilizer. The response was phenomenal, and now each family who gardens produces a kilogram of vegetables everyday, and sell the surplus (Spaggi, 199). The majority of farmers are women, and UA has increased their self-esteem and their ability to stand up for their rights within their home and community (Spaggi, 199).

Cuba’s UA transformation occurred due to the breakup of the Soviet Union and the United States trade embargo in the late eighties and early nineties. Almost overnight, Cuba lost upwards of seventy per cent of their fossil fuels, which affected the agricultural systems in everything from fertilizers and refrigeration, to transportation (Rosset and Bourque, 364). In response, the state enabled backyards and vacant lots to be transformed into community gardens that ranged from a few square meters to three hectares in size (Chaplowe). Unlike Rosario, the majority of urban farmers in Cuba are males, although women and children participate. The country relies on a minute amount of agricultural inputs, and uses a fraction of the amount of chemical inputs comparatively to other agricultural systems (Rosset and Bourque, 367).

Clearly, as it is outlined in the above examples, urban agriculture is an effective tool for improving the lives of urban dwellers. UA initiatives need to focus primarily those in the periphery, who accounts for almost half of the world’s population. Many low income households are forced to spend 50 to 80 per cent of their income on food yet still do not get enough calories (Mougeot, 267). Urban agriculture can be a strategy to provide food, work, and a better environment for the communities. The keys to successful programs in the periphery are low energy, technology, and capital inputs, and with minimal training; urban agriculture fulfills all those requirements (Pretty, Morrison and Hine, 376, Sachs and Silk).

The use of urban agriculture can help the UNDP achieve the Millennium Development Goals (MDG’s) in numerous ways. First of all, goal 1 aims to eradicate extreme poverty and hunger; urban agriculture can be a valuable tool for providing subsistence food for hundreds of millions more people (UNDP). Goal 3 looks at promoting gender equality and empowering women; in Rosario, women have been empowered through UA. Environmental sustainability is Goal 7, with target 11 improving the lives of 100 million slum dwellers (UNDP); UA helped change a slum neighbourhood in Argentina, and it can change others.

In all of the articles examined, urban agriculture was promoted as a realistic solution to the problems of global hunger and environmental sustainability. Some articles expressed that development policies need to address the various levels of urban agriculture, such as subsistence versus small commercial plots, and separate policies need to govern these activities (Jitsanguan, 91; Bohrt, CFP Report 7). There was a general consensus that in order for UA to succeed, it needs to be from bottom-up development strategies because the farmers know what will be successful within their communities. However, bottom-up is not the only option, as Cuba, a communist country, used a top down approach for their country, but that will not work for every nation. There is no specific model that can be applied to every country, but each needs to be examined as a separate entity, with the countries specific strengths and issues taken into account.

Urban agriculture still faces many issues and constraints in implementation. These issues range from government decentralization, uncertain legal status of UA, insecure land tenure, and access to water. The work in UA is often fragmented, done by privet NGO’s and researchers, but it needs to be a collective effort on governments, international bodies, and NGO’s (Cisse, Gueye, Sy, 146; Bohrt, CFP Report 7). In regards to quality and availability of data, numerous authors conclude that more baseline data needs to be recorded (Mougeot, 270; Pretty, Morrison and Hine, 377). Without quantitative data on numbers of individuals practicing UA, production, and spatial data, UA policies will be slow to follow (Mougeot, 270).

All in all, urban agriculture techniques have been successful in many parts of the world, and in order this number to continue increasing, frameworks and policies need to be implemented. For effective UA, countless individuals and establishments need to be involved; this ranges from bureaucracies and international groups, and down to the individual farmers. It is crucial that urban planners and governments recognize the numerous benefits that UA will provide to their cities in a sustainable manor. What makes urban agriculture a viable addition to development is its ability to incorporate environmental, economic and social impacts, the tripod of sustainable development.