The case for urban agriculture

15th November 2022 | Eativity editors

Food is a central part of so many cultures around the world. And at a fundamental level, our bodies need it to survive. However, food production can be quite removed, even absent, from our daily lives, with much of the population living in urban areas far from distant agricultural regions. Could urban agriculture be the answer to this disconnect?

Dr Joshua Zeunert, a landscape architect and urban designer from the University of NSW School of Built Environment, says many people have an “urban disconnect” from our food systems, with a growing divide between food consumption and food production.

“Because we can’t see where it is our food is coming from, we sometimes don’t value the connection with what we eat,” he says. “It’s the idea that kids don’t know that milk comes from cows, or that vegetables are grown in the ground.”

The case for urban agriculture
Get creative: there are many ways to bring urban agriculture into your own backyard.

A chance to reconnect

Dr Zeunert says we need to reconnect with our food, beginning with the means of food production. One way to do so is to bring agricultural practices back into urban life.

“It’s important to have an appreciation of just how hard it is to grow food,” he says. “And it’s an excellent life skill to have. It would also be great for our society to have more options of where we’re getting our food from.”

With several global challenges, including the COVID-19 pandemic, it’s now also more important than ever for us to reconsider our food systems and to try to make sources more local while increasing our own food production skills.

“We’re incredibly blessed with our food system here in Australia,” Dr Zeunert says. “We do produce more than we eat in terms of sheer volume. But, in the UK, for example, they’re a net importer of food. So panic buying or food shortages could be more pronounced because of the reliance on imports.

“But when we think about the diversity of what we want to eat, we still import a noteworthy amount of food. And it adds up if you consider the food miles and embodied energy.”

The case for urban agriculture
A rooftop garden can make great use of an otherwise lifeless space.

Architecture you can eat

One possible solution is “aesthetic foodscapes”. These edible landscape designs incorporate fruit and nut trees and vegetables in streets and other public areas.

“An aesthetic foodscape design is really about how we frame and structure edible plants in public spaces,” Dr Zeunert explains. “We have the capacity to not only reconnect with food production but also to create an engaging public domain that’s also productive.”

In addition to providing a supplementary source of fresh produce, these foodscapes could also have benefits for our health and wellbeing.

“If we can engage with nature beyond the superficial level, there are mental and physical health benefits,” Dr Zeunert says. “Along with giving people more agency in public spaces.”

The case for urban agriculture
Imagine being able to go to the local park and pick yourself a fresh lemon.

More than something pretty to look at

Historically in Australia, urban landscape design has drawn from the legacy of ornamental botany, with edible species rarely incorporated on a large scale.

“It’s something we’ve inherited from the British, so we’re living with the hangover of ornamental botany,” Dr Zeunert says. “But if we look to the Mediterranean, it’s quite common to see citrus growing in public parks and streets of Spain, Italy and Portugal.”

While there has been some local experimentation with aesthetic foodscapes here, they’ve mostly been temporary or on the fringes of public space.

“Some more progressive local councils have brought in food officers to facilitate more spaces like community gardens on spare blocks,” Dr Zeunert says. “I’m hoping to see more designed, visible and ongoing food landscapes. It could be a mixed orchard in a major public park, or a vegetable parterre [ornamental garden bed] in an urban square.

“That’s where landscape architects and urban designers have a big role to play as the central disciplines in designing public spaces. Along with the selection of plant species, their spatial arrangement and understanding their ongoing needs.”

The case for urban agriculture
Jewel Changi Airport, Singapore: bringing nature into focus.

Championing urban agriculture

While maintaining an aesthetic foodscape wouldn’t be without challenges or risks, it could be easier than you think. While urban agriculture landscapes can require a bit more effort to maintain, they can be comparable with such things as short-lived floral displays.

“Any edible species need to be suited to the context and microclimate,” Dr Zeunert says. “And the local government managing the public space needs to be on board. But we actually have some great agricultural land in Australian cities.”

One way to incorporate more aesthetic foodscapes would be to mandate that new developments use more edible species in their landscapes.

“NSW used to mandate that new developments have a certain proportion of the landscape planted with Indigenous plant species,” Dr Zeunert says. “So I don’t see why we wouldn’t look into mandating an area of species that can be eaten too.”

With a groundswell of community support, there’s no reason why edible public urban agriculture landscapes shouldn’t become commonplace.

“It makes a huge difference to have a local community that’s hands-on and can champion this approach,” Dr Zeunert says. “While you do have to go a few extra yards to make it work, it’s really satisfying to pull off.”