About Urban agriculture essay

Urban Agriculture Through the Ages

Urban agriculture has long been a part of urban growth in the cities of today. The renowned Babylonian garden serves as proof that it began many years ago. However, urban gardening now has a very different scope and concentration. Urban gardening has typically been seen as a primarily aesthetic activity. Urban gardening, however, has developed into a fundamental urban land use in our cities as a result of the current complexity of living. It is urging substantial concentration on urban planning (Lovell, 2010). The population of the globe is moving into cities. According to projections, half of the world’s population will reside in urban areas by the year 2050. (Campbell, 2014). Such changes in human society impromptu change in the manner of doing things especially in providing basic human needs in a changing environment. Urban agriculture is one way of alleviating urban poverty and increasing food security in cities. This does not write off the traditional value of urban gardening but complements it. When more spaces in urban areas are under green cover, the beauty of the city and aeration are improved to make life in urban areas fresh and lively.

Emergence and Development of Urban Agriculture

Presently, urban agriculture can be defined as the growing and distribution of food and nonfood plant and tree crops as well as the rearing of livestock within and on the fringe of urban centers, directly for consumption or sell in the urban market (Lovell, 2010). Golden (2013) noted that the purpose of urban agriculture is beyond the obvious farm production for home consumption and education. She rather argued that the production is in a small space but innovative production methods/technology is used to maximize the output to supply the urban market. Urban agriculture takes different forms. Urban agriculture can be carried out any of the following forms; small urban farms, community gardens, home vegetable gardens, school gardens, rooftop vegetable gardens, backyard poultry, beekeeping, fish farming among other forms (Campbell, 2014). These agricultural activities are carried out at different scales in different cities in the world. They are tailored to respond to the needs of the people in their respective cities (Lovell, 2010).

Figure 1: Rooftop garden at Tenderloin Development Corporation’s Curran in San Francisco.

Photo Courtesy: Sheila Golden

The idea of urban gardening has been in existence since time immemorial. The documentation of Hanging Gardens of Babylon is a typical example that shows how long the idea got into people’s mind. However, as mentioned earlier, the perspective of urban gardening was different at different times. The modern perception of urban agriculture can be attributed to ancient Egyptians. The Egyptian ancient architecture enabled planting and maintenance of kitchen gardens that used compost fertilizer and reused domestic water (Warnes, 2015). This helped increase food supply to families. In the nineteenth century, the concept of communal gardening emerged in Europe. The practice which begun in German produced over five hundred million pounds of farm produce in the early 1900s (Warnes, 2015). This was an indication that the urban areas can contribute to ensuring food security in urban areas. During the World War II, the US took the urban agriculture practice into a higher level. It came up with policies that established urban farming plots, farming at the backyard of urban homes and even architecture that enables farming at the rooftops of houses (Warnes, 2015). That movement saw over 5.5 Americans participate in urban farming practice and in the first of practice, they harvested farm produce worth over 1.2 billion US dollars (Warnes, 2015). That confirmed that there was real potential in producing food in urban centers. However, the urban agriculture could not be viewed as a competitor to rural agriculture. It is far much limited to space and activities. It best viewed as a complementary to the latter (Lovell, 2010).

In the twenty-first century, urban agriculture has taken another dimension.

City planners and designers are becoming to consider urban agriculture as a crucial land use. They are ardently advocating for policies those enable city residents to grow crops and rear animals to supplement food supply in urban centers (Lovell, 2010). However, due to the high value of land in urban centers, the integration of urban agriculture in urban planning has only been possible in architectural activities only. There is the emergence of green architecture that designs houses with gardens at the rooftops. This type architecture has many benefits accrued to it other helping increase food supply in cities.

Impacts of Urban Agriculture

Urban agriculture has various impacts on human life. The phenomenon affects social life, health, economy, and environment. This section focuses on the impacts the practice of urban agriculture has on the above-mentioned sectors of life.

Social Impact

One major social benefit of urban agriculture is the beautification of the living environment. Community gardens and urban farms improve the physical appearance of neighborhoods (Golden, 2013). These farms also provided employment to residents of those neighborhoods. The beautification and employment creation results to increased attachment to the land and property. This, in turn, results to fewer crime incidences such as vandalism (Golden, 2013). Also, the farms were noted as major bonding places for the neighborhood residents. They are places where people meet and create trust on one another [Armstrong, 2000 in (Golden, 2013)].

Another significant impact of urban agriculture is the effect on community development and social capital building. The community gardens give an opportunity for residents of a particular urban area to meet and exchange views. Therefore, they act as agents of social change (Golden, 2013). Interaction through decision-making on crop growing and other farming issues modifies how people relate. The residents end forming strong social bonds.

Opportunity for personal development is another social impact of urban agriculture. Youth and women who mostly suffer from unemployment get the opportunity to learn and acquire skills that help them generate incomes (Golden, 2013). In most cases, government agencies or non-governmental organizations offer education services or youth leadership opportunities to community gardening groups. The skills acquired in such experiences help improve the self-esteem of involved individuals. They can, therefore, end up being new entrepreneurs.

Health Impact

Urban agriculture has proved to be a major strategy in ensuring food security in urban centers. [Armstrong, 2000 in (Golden, 2013)]. Though urban agriculture cannot provide all the nutritional needs of a community, it helps improve food access especially in urban areas which are food insecure and/or with high levels of poverty. Urban farming has increased consumption of fresh produce for urban residents. The people who participate in growing crops in community gardens or home backyards can produce more than they can consume, thus giving the surplus to their neighbors or sell at nearby markets.

Another key benefit of urban gardening is the fact that those who have participated in home or community gardening eat more vegetables and fruits than those who do not. It was noted that a family that has a member who participates in community gardening or that practices home gardening is likely to eat fruits and vegetables 3.5 times more than the family that does not participate in home gardening [Alaimo, Packnett, Miles & Kruger, 2008 in (Golden, 2013)]. Also, a neighborhood with farmers markets has a good supply of fresh fruits and vegetables. The residents of such neighborhoods get access to healthy foods. Ober Allen et al in 2008 noted that youths who participated in community gardening ate fewer junk foods and more fruits and vegetables. This results in the prevention of dietary problems such as obesity and deficiency diseases common among city dwellers.

Economic Impacts

The major economic benefit accruing from urban farming is, of course, employment creation and business incubation. The youth and women who participate in community gardening get the opportunity to be trained on how to manage crops among other skills. They also benefit from the profits which accrue from the sale of surplus from their urban farms (Bradley & Galt, 2013). The skilled acquired and the monetary benefit can provide a good ground for one to employ himself/herself.

Another economic benefit from urban gardening is the saving on food. Research has indicated that the participants in urban farming save a good amount from the food expenditure (Suarez-Balcazar, 2006). It is reported that some gardeners save from 475 to 15000 US dollars on food (Suarez-Balcazar, 2006). This is because the gardeners are sometimes given the plots at no charge or at very little charges. Also, the availability of a ready market for their surplus produce helped earn more from urban farming.

Conclusion

Urban agriculture is a concept which has not been widely embraced but it is gaining momentum in recent years. Increasing challenges in cities such as increased population and decrease in agricultural hinterlands are compelling city planners to devise new ways of feeding the cities. Its benefits are not only limited to improvement on food access and security but they are cross-cutting to all aspects of life. It creates a platform for social interaction that revives the cordial rural social relations through sharing of ideas.

The concept is deemed to get more support as the government agencies and other key stakeholders in urban development matters such as city planners are showing great interest in it. There have been considerable publications on urban agriculture as a viable way of bringing sustainability in contemporary cities.

Last but not least, I strongly advocate for the concept of urban gardens due to their multiple uses and versatility. They have a plethora of advantages that must be utilized in order to achieve urban versatility and efficient design. However, it is worth noting that as design elements, these gardens ought to be carefully placed so that they can effectively serve their purpose. As a matter of fact, this is what architecture is about, particularly when intertwined with urban planning. In a nutshell, urban gardens are a part of urban design that is gaining traction after having revitalized by current environmental concerns and population pressures. It is likely to gain popularity around the world in a manner that shall make it the norm.

References

Bradley, K., & Galt, R. E. (2013). Practicing food justice at Dig Deep Farms & Produce, East Bay Area, California: self-determination as a guiding value and intersections with foodie logics.

Campbell, M. (2014). What is urban agriculture. Largo: Pinellas County Extension.

Golden, S. (2013). Urban agriculture impacts: Social, health, and economic: A literature review sheila. Davis: University of California.

Lovell, S. T. (2010). Multifunctional urban agriculture for sustainable land use planning in the United States. sustainability, 2: 1-16.

Suarez-Balcazar, Y. (2006). African Americans“ Views on access to healthy foods_ What farmers”. Market Provides. journal of extension, 44(2), 1–7.

Warnes, K. P. (2015). Urban agriculture. Salem Press Encyclopedia.