In the Third Millennium

I.M. MADALENO FAO/20862/R.Messori Cities of the future: urban agriculture in the third millennium fter the Industrial according to this design in France, Germany, Revolution, urbanites the United Kingdom and the United States, became separated from usually directly linked to heavy industries nature, confined as they and well-known private enterprises (e.g. were to narrow indoor Krupps or Pullman). By the end of the spaces, and prevented century, the Spanish visionary Arturo Soria Afrom feeling the soil under their feet by y Mata expressed his notion of the ideal city modern transportation and urban through a particular form of garden city, i.e. infrastructures. The residence and the linear in shape (Terán, 1982). Residences workplace became separated. Although the were surrounded by woodland and had urban sprawl spread to consume many horticultural spaces and family gardens. The formerly rural spaces, some green areas British planner Ebenezer Howard theorized persisted inside metropolitan areas. Isabel Maria Madaleno has a a concentric model of a garden city, similar The first type of planned urbanization to the satellite towns and green belts of Ph.D. in Human Geography created to bring people closer to nature was twentieth-century cities. the garden city of the nineteenth century, and works at the Instituto de Even so, urban agriculture was seen as designed for low population densities. Small an oxymoron until the 1980s. With the Investigação Científica Tropical houses were surrounded by a garden and evolution of environmental sciences, urban public green spaces were conceived for the (Tropical Institute), Lisbon, planners began to emphasize the whole urban community. Several importance of interrelationships between Portugal. neighbourhoods and towns were built human beings and nature. Urbanites could 14 fna ana 29 2001 appreciate the immutable cycle of seasons Urban agriculture Britain that our ancestors had marvelled at, before experiences In London about 30 000 active allotment the age of artificiality and machines. In gardeners control a total of 831 ha of public most cities, home gardens remained the Europe land, 13.4 percent of which is located inside only bond with nature, and nurturing small France the urban area and the remainder in the livestock or pets, together with watering, Highly productive agricultural activities are outskirts of the British capital (Crouch, fertilizing and cropping fruit plants, or taking place within most European 1997). In the peri-urban areas, market tending spices, vegetables and medicinal metropolitan areas. In the environs of Paris, only gardening dominates, covering 13 566 ha of plants, enhanced the well-being of 10 percent of the Île de France is occupied with public or private land; however, this is largely As urban people in the industrialized world search for green space, cities are being transformed, spreading through the countryside, intertwining built-up and farming spaces urbanites. Today, as some Western intensive farming, yet peri-urban agriculture in decline as a result of continuous urban European and North American urban accounts for about 35 percent of the regional development pressures. There are also eight populations increasingly seek out green crop deliveries in value, mainly in the form of city farms in London, up to 2.5 ha in size, space, cities are being transformed, vegetables, flowers and fruit. Producers usually “with some horticulture production, where spreading through the countryside, sell their produce directly to Parisians or at local animal keeping predominates” (Garnett, intertwining built-up and farming spaces. markets (Pujol and Beguier, 1998). 2000, p. 481). Additionally, there are about A home garden in Lisbon I.M. Madaleno fna ana 29 2001 15 1 000 beekeepers in Greater London, Portugal Tagus valley, intense riverine horticulture producing a total of about 27 000 kg of In Lisbon, intra-urban, microscale agriculture is practised as a highly profitable form of honey annually (Garnett, 2000). is widely practised in inner yards, where peri-urban agriculture. Tomatoes are the oranges, tangerines, dates and even bananas most important products. Some foreign Russian Federation and avocados are often grown, in conjunction firms also use the fertile soil and the mild In the Russian Federation, more than half with subsistence horticulture. In suburban climate to grow ornamental plants, the population of St Petersburg (4.73 municipalities, shifting farms (due to specifically tulip bulbs, which are exported million in 1999) is engaged in cultivation continuous urban sprawl) and roadside to the Netherlands. in backyards and basements, on rooftops, agriculture plots are common, where in vacant spaces near houses and in peri- vegetables, flowers and very good grapes – The Netherlands urban farms (dachas). Dachas are usually suitable for the production of the finest wines The Netherlands has a long tradition of peri- commercially oriented and privately – are grown. In some municipalities cattle, urban agriculture. Community-based Dutch owned and produce mainly fruit, sheep and goats are reared for milk to make organizations of producers and consumers vegetables, potatoes and flowers. They cheeses. Ostriches are also reared – their meat exist, in which the growers provide a suffi- supplement the family budget of about 2 is highly appreciated by consumers, parti- cient quantity and quality of food, while the million urbanites all over the country cularly since the outbreak of mad cow disease consumers agree to provide direct support to (Gavrilov, 2000). Also in St Petersburg (bovine spongiform encephalopathy – BSE) in the producers. One example is a horticulture there are several thousand pensioners and some parts of Europe (Madaleno, 2001). farm located at the city boundaries of middle-aged people who practise Almost one-third of the Portuguese Wageningen, which uses biological farming subsistence-oriented agriculture. population lives in Lisbon. In the area principles that offer urbanites the possibility A main feature in the Russian surrounding the city, along the rich alluvial of deciding when and what to harvest, Federation is maintaining traditional cultivation practices, based on the use of manure and compost. There is not normally enough City farm programmes cash for the purchase of chemicals, so most Russian gardeners and urban farmers are In the European City Farms programme, above all, to stimulate initiatives for active in the field of sustainable organic operated by a federation active within the sustainable development. agriculture (Moldakov, 2000). European Union , the primary activities are practised on a small scale, ranging from Sustainable development Spain watering plants, compost making, planting The term “sustainable development” can be Evidence from Madrid and Barcelona and caring for trees or vegetable gardens, defined as satisfying the needs of the current indicates that, beginning in the 1980s, it or milking cows. The programme aims to generation, without jeopardizing the future became fashionable for urban dwellers to provide children, young people and adults generation’s ability to meet their needs. It spread beyond the city boundaries in with opportunities to develop more respect should be stressed that this sort of ecological search of peri-urban greenery. This trend for the farmers’ tasks and challenges, to sustainability is closely related to economic has led many Spanish to buy or rent small become engaged in community and and technological sustainability, meaning plots of land and to start family-owned educational work, and involved with the efficiency in the use of resources, and with a market gardens. Some of these farms, production of healthy food (Robertson, 2000). demand for social justice, that can be called formed by the middle and upper classes Fast food businesses and super- and social sustainability (Ginsberg, 2000). subdividing large portions of previous hypermarkets tend to give the misleading These programmes could be extended rural property, are considered illegal. In impression that animals, cereals, fruits and to other developed areas and most this way, very small plots have been vegetables come out of paper or plastic developing countries would be advisable. generated clandestinely, which are badly bags in kits, ready to be eaten, in Just as national parks and reserves equipped and lacking the necessary standardized shapes, sizes and forms, contribute to conservation of genetic infrastructure. These plots are used for conveniently hygienic. The idea of city farms diversity and education about the part-time subsistence horticulture and in Europe – already active in Denmark, environment, city farms can act to promote fruit-tree plantations, with excess produce France, Germany, Portugal and the United agriculture and environmental protection in frequently being sold in situ (if the plot is Kingdom – is to reacquaint people with urban settings. City farm programmes aim located close to a main road) or in the livestock and bring them closer to biological to create pedagogic farms; achieving this nearby big city through hawking and agriculture and nature, to encourage a objective is only possible through public street trading (García-Bellido, 1986; desire for a better urban environment and, promotion and political engagement. Garaitagoitia, 1988). 16 fna ana 29 2001 A pedagogic garden in Telheiras, Portugal I.M. Madaleno through a commitment to buying a share of Africa Togo the production (De Kring, 1997). Mali

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