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Growing Food in Cities a Report to Highlight and Promote the Benefits of Urban Agriculture in the UK

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Growing Food in Cities a Report to Highlight and Promote the Benefits of Urban Agriculture in the UK NFA Growing food in cities A report to highlight and promote the benefits of urban agriculture in the UK A NATIONAL FOOD ALLIANCEG SAFE ALLIANCE PUBLICATION This report was prepared by Tara Garnett on behalf of the National Food Alliance and the SAFE Alliance working party on Growing Food in Cities. Working party on Growing Food in Cities: Chair: Professor Tim Lang, Trustee of the National Food Alliance, Council member of the SAFE Alliance, Professor of Food Policy at Thames Valley University Secretary: Jeanette Longfield (National Food Alliance) Project officer: Tara Garnett Members: Eric Booth: Soil Association Sue Clifford: Common Ground David Crouch: Anglia University Ian Egginton Metters: National Federation of City Farms Pauline Pears: Henry Doubleday Research Association Herbert Girardet: Schumacher Society Dave Melling: Bradford City Council Vicki Hird: SAFE Alliance Hugh Raven: Independent food writer and consultant Kate de Selincourt: Journalist Carl Smith: British Permaculture Association Geoff Stokes: National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners Peter Woodward: Shell Better Britain Campaign At the time of going to press, the general conclusions of the Growing Food in Cities report, and in particular, its recommendations, are endorsed by the following organisations: Arid Lands Initiative Biodynamic Agricultural Association B Bioregional Development Group B Black Environmental Network B Bradford Environmental Action Trust B British Diabetic Association B British Heart Foundation B British Organic Farmers and the Organic Growers’ Association B Caroline Walker Trust B Children’s Society B Common Ground B Commonwork Land Trust B Community Nutrition Group B Consumer Watch B Country Landowners’ Association B Diet Breakers B Friends of the Earth B Elm Farm Research Centre B Food Additives Campaign Team (FACT) B Food Commission B Genetics Forum B Global Action Plan B GMB (Britain’s General Union) B Green Network B Green Party B Health Education Trust B Henry Doubleday Research Association B Horticultural Therapy B Land Heritage B Learning Through Landscapes B LETS-Link UK B McCarrison Society B National Association of Teachers of Home Economics B National Federation of City Farms B National Society of Allotment and Leisure Gardeners B Neighbourhood Initiatives Foundation B Permaculture Association B Pesticides TrustB Public Health Alliance B Royal Society of Health B Rural Agricultural and Allied Workers’ Trade Group B Soil Association B The Ecological Foundation B The Ecologist B The Land is Ours B The Poverty Alliance B Town and Country Planning Association B Vegetarian Society B Waste Watch B Willing Workers on Organic Farms B Women’s Environmental Network B World Cancer Research Fund Growing food in cities A report to highlight and promote the benefits of urban agriculture in the UK Written by Tara Garnett for the National Food Alliance and SAFE Alliance working party on Growing food in cities National Food Alliance D SAFE Alliance June 1996 Contents Foreword . .5 Summary and recommendations . .6 How to use this report . .13 1.Introduction 1.1 Why grow food? . .15 1.2 Why in cities? . .19 1.3 Why now? . .21 2.The benefits of growing food in cities 2.1 Community Development . .29 - affirming identity and active citizenship - combating discrimination - preventing crime and rehabilitating offenders 2.2 Economic development . .35 - training for jobs and for living - creating local goods and services - building an alternative economy 2.3 Education . .43 - learning at school - acquiring skills beyond school - involving people with special needs 2.4 Environment . .49 - increasing biodiversity - tackling waste - reducing transport 2.5 Health . .55 - improving diets - encouraging physical activity - promoting mental health 2.6 Leisure . .61 - stimulating volunteering - generating sustainable tourism - developing arts and crafts 2.7 Sustainable neighbourhoods . .65 - reviving allotments - diversifying parks - regenerating housing developments 3. Taking action 3.1 Issues affecting food growers in cities . .71x - land - water - money and other inputs - people, knowledge and skills 3.2 Sources of useful information . .81 Appendix Glossary . .93x Foreword In early 1995, the National Food Alliance and the Sustainable Agriculture, Food and the Environment (SAFE) Alliance decided to manage jointly the development of the Growing Food in Cities project. It was clear to us and to our members that the significant benefits of urban food growing were being ignored and that opportunities for developing its potential were being missed. This, we felt, was due to a lack of recognition and support for the concept in certain sectors; suspicions which were confirmed early on in the preparation of this report. The organisations represented on the working party, many of which have been involved in urban food growing for some time, believed that it could provide an effective means of addressing a range of interconnnected social, economic and environmental concerns. There was, they felt, a clear need for a report which would highlight the considerable advantages of urban food growing and explore how their own work might provide a base on which to develop future initiatives. It would be foolish to suggest that this is not a complex issue. Constraints to growing food in cities, such as access to land and water, and the question of soil contamination, are very real and are explored here. Yet case studies throughout the report show how obstacles have been effectively overcome. The challenge now is for local and national government, voluntary bodies, the private sector and citizens to take the ideas and recommendations contained in this report further. The goal is for more food to be grown in cities. This report vividly demonstrates that social, health, environmental and other benefits will follow. Vicki Hird - SAFE Alliance Jeanette Longfield - National Food Alliance June 1996 National Food Alliance D SAFE Alliance •1• Summary Why grow food? Food is central to our lives. It is a source of enjoyment as well as nourishment. But food is also at the core of many problems in society. Nearly 800 million people in the southern hemisphere are chronically malnourished1, while in the industrialised world, many die from the effects, such as stroke and coronary heart disease, of overconsumption. In the UK, many poor urban neighbourhoods have become food retailing deserts, where access to good food shops2 and markets is rare. Parts of the countryside too are becoming desertified - economically - with farming employing only 2.2% of the population3 - and environmentally - as chemical residues contaminate waterways and destroy wildlife, and processing and distribution by road and air also generates pollution and packaging waste. As a nation of town and city dwellers, we have lost contact with the land and with the way food is produced. Although cookery books and TV programmes are enormously popular, cooking, for many people, has become a spectator sport - reliance on processed ‘convenience’ food has never been greater. And whilst shops are crammed with transcontinental luxury produce, British local and regional foods and recipes are disappearing. One way of reconnecting with the land and with our culture is by growing food. Why in cities? Food growing can also improve the quality and sustainability of urban living. 89% of us live in cities.4 At present, most cities are highly unsustainable; covering only 2% of the earth’s surface, they nevertheless consume 75% of its resources.5 For instance, London’s total foot print - its social, environmental and economic impact upon world resources - extends to about 125 times its surface area, to nearly 20 million hectares. Home to only 12% of Britain’s population, London nevertheless requires the equivalent of the entire productive land area of Britain to sustain itself. 6 This unequal relationship is not inevitable. Indeed, cities are potentially highly sustainable, and one aim of this report is to show that through urban food growing, the country can, in a sense, be brought to the town - to the advantage of both. Why now? Urban food growing has a long history; people have cultivated their cities for thousands of years. The allotment has been an urban institution for centuries in the UK while the ‘Dig for Victory’ campaign was crucial to the country’s survival during World War II. Overseas, too, there are countless examples of urban food growing. Now, at the cusp of the millennium, the time to promote urban growing food has never been better. The 1992 Earth Summit in Rio de Janeiro produced Agenda 21, a blueprint for sustainable development which urges everyone - from the individual to the global institution - to tackle society’s problems in an integrated manner. June 1996 saw another major UN event - the Habitat II conference on sustainable human settlements. And in November 1996, Rome will host the UN’s World Food Summit. Its preparatory documents already acknowledge the contribution of urban agriculture to meeting the world’s food needs. Food and cities are both urgent and topical issues. Growing food in cities tackles them together. •2• National Food Allian57ce D SAFE Alliance The aim of this report The Growing Food in Cities report shows, through analysis and a wide variety of case studies, that urban agriculture can, in a very practical way, yield a range of benefits. These include: Community development: by reaffirming community identity, promoting active citizenship, combating age, gender and ethnic discrimination,
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