Published by City Farmer, Canada's Office of Urban Agriculture

Subject:

Planning/Policy and Urban Agriculture

Food Production, Urban Areas and Policy Responses

PDF. Paper published in 1998. Frank Ellis and James Sumberg "In a sense the term urban agriculture both claims too much and offers too little in the policy context of urban poverty and family food security. It claims too much by equating all food production in towns with improved food security for poor people, and it offers too little by failing to consider the role of rural-urban interactions in explaining the survival capabilities of the urban poor." Posted December 6, 2007

Design for Food: Sustainable Saanich, Thinking Outside the Green Building

Janine de la Salle, Director of Food Systems Planning at Holland Barrs Planning Group spoke to interested planners, architects, developers, community members, and students about putting food front centre in city planning. ... "Who and how will Urban Agriculture spaces be managed? Requires local solutions; Working with strata councils; Neighbourhood organizations and NGOs; and Partnerships with landscape caretakers. (3.8 MB PDF) Posted November 28, 2007

The North American Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Alliance

The Cedar Tree Foundation has awarded the Urban and Periurban Agriculture Alliance a grant to support its first year. "The aim of this initiative is to form an alliance encompassing a wide and culturally diverse range of actors and stakeholders involved in urban and peri-urban agriculture in North America, to share knowledge and best practices amongst them and to foster linkages externally, so as to give voice to its advocates and recognition and legitimacy to its activities." (Six-page statement: the 'official' Alliance announcement.) Posted November 27, 2007

LA Times Story: Vancouver Envisions Radicchio on its Rooftops

"The Canadian city sees food-producing gardens in urban residential developments as the wave of the future. ... The Southeast False Creek conditions require shared garden plots for 30% of the neighborhood's residential units that lack access to balconies or patios of at least 100 square feet. False Creek buildings also will have a maximum of 12 stories to increase green space and sun exposure. Plans call for fruit trees and raised beds on rooftops, courtyards lined with blueberry bushes, and balcony trellises to support fruit-bearing vines." Updated August 26, 2007

Designing Urban Agriculture Opportunities for Southeast False Creek, Vancouver, BC

( 74 page PDF, 2.8 MB) "Develop design considerations and guidelines, technical considerations, and management strategies for effectively integrating urban agriculture (UA) into a high density neighbourhood. The report focuses on how UA is an innovative tool for urban design and can play a key role in building community around food. Topics covered in the report include: perspectives on food security, design principles for UA, a UA space typology, design ideas and considerations for UA in the public and private realms, technical considerations and support systems necessary for UA, and management strategies for endurance of the UA program over time." Posted June 10, 2007

Urban Agriculture in new "Policy Guide on Community and Regional Food Planning"

The American Planning Association recently set out some guidelines which include urban agriculture: "Planners could play the following roles: Support the development of temporary farm stands, urban agriculture projects, and community vegetable gardens on school, park, and community center sites, and near public agency offices and nonprofit providers offering health, human and social services. Promote the provision of community gardens, urban agriculture projects, and community kitchens in multifamily and low-income housing projects." Posted June 8, 2007

Food MK Report - Garden City Vision for Milton Keynes (England)

Includes chapters on: Growing Food for a Growing City; Eat the City; An Urban Farm for Milton Keynes. "Milton Keynes is a city of trees and green spaces. Its fertile landscape and mild climate makes it an ideal environment in which to grow a variety of vegetables and fruits. With the right support from the local authority and other key stakeholders, Milton Keynes could be a city in which urban agriculture thrives." Posted February 11, 2007

Growing Space: The Potential for Urban Agriculture in the City of Vancouver

PDF 2.1 MB. School of Community and Regional Planning - UBC. "The report documents existing urban agriculture activities and supportive policies that are in place, identifies suitable new sites through the development of a public land inventory and explores other potential opportunities to expand urban agriculture initiatives in Vancouver. This report aims to inform planners, city officials and citizens about the potential of urban agriculture and recommends actions to expand and improve opportunities for urban agriculture in Vancouver." Posted February 1, 2007

London: The Edible Urban Landscape

An Assessment Method for Retro-Fitting Urban Agriculture Into An Inner London Test Site. "This thesis has developed a method, based around Geographical Information Systems (GIS), for retro fitting, measuring and evaluating, a vegetable growing, UA system, which could be integrated into green urban space. The results of the method should be in a format which makes them quantifiable for both architects and planners, so that UA food systems can be considered as a form of renewable energy, along side wind or solar." Posted January 29, 2007

A Lot To Lose: London's Disappearing Allotments

Report by The London Assembly. "The relentless pressure on land in the capital, the need to build at high densities, and, in some cases, neglect and disuse, mean that allotments are slowly but surely being eroded. ... Among our recommendations are an online search tool for allotments in London, greater sharing of information on supply and demand across the capital and the use of boroughsÕ planning powers to compel high density housing developers to allocate land for allotment use." (Excellent report with maps!) Posted January 12, 2007

Worldwatch: State of the World 2007: Our Urban Future - Farming the Cities

Chapter 3 - Farming the Cities. "Despite all that farming can do for the city landscape and the urban soul, politicians, businesses, and planners continue to regard food as a rural issue that does not demand the same attention as housing, crime, or transportation. Policy makers would be wise to realize the nutritional, social, ecological, and economic benefits of reversing this mindset and putting programs in place to encourage cities to feed themselves. Fortunately, urban politicians, businesses, and planners are beginning to regard urban agriculture as a tool to help cities cope with a range of ecological, social, and nutritional challengesÑfrom sprawl and malnutrition to swelling landfills and the threat of attacks on the food chain." (PDF $8) Posted January 11, 2007

Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Policy Prospects in Kenya

"The workshop, which also received support from the International Livestock Research Institute (ILRI), used an issue-based framework as the basis for developing a policy process. Substantive papers were presented on: Employment and Poverty, Health Issues and Waste Management, Food Security focusing on Household Nutrition (Fresh Vegetables and Dairy), Land Use Management and Physical Planning, Legislation and Governance." Posted April 3, 2006

Urban Agriculture - Squamish, BC, Canada

"The Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) is a conventional indicator of productive capacity. There are large portions of ALR lands outside the district in the Squamish River Valley (over 2,800 ha), and smaller areas within the District of Squamish (364 ha). At average BC field crop yields 12 and per capita consumption 13 this smaller area of land within the district (both ALR and non ALR lands) could theoretically provide Squamish with all its annual vegetable needs."
Posted February 28, 2006

Urban Agriculture in Napa - Academic/Theoretical Design Exercise

"In Napa, small fragmented farms are encouraged. Residents, small businesses, and city offices can make a profit by cultivating underused land parcels with food producing landscapes and bringing crops to the Napa City Crop Clearing House. Here's how it works!" Posted January 26, 2006

Urban Agriculture Featured in "2005 San Francisco Collaborative Food System Assessment"

(large PDF) "Within San Francisco County's 31,360 acres of land, there are several large green spaces and 59 community gardens. Over 800 community gardening plots are tended by nearly 700 community gardeners. Within the San Francisco Unified School District (SFUSD), about 25% of the 119 schools currently have a school garden. Community and educational gardens range in size from a few planter boxes up to a few acres." Updated October 14, 2005

Community Food Security and the Landscape of Cities

"The proposed community gardens would use only 1.1 percent of the residual spaces in the community. Backyard gardens and community gardens could provide two to three percent of local consumption needs, probably up to five percent if participation rates increased or if community garden development were expanded." Posted October 10, 2005

Creating a Just and Sustainable Food System in the City of Vancouver

"The benefits of a municipal focus on food are manyfold - social, environmental, economic. Many cities, including Vancouver, are supporting food policy." Posted August 18, 2005

The Diggable City Project - Making Urban Agriculture a Planning Priority

"Prepared for the City of Portland: Completed by students in the Master of Urban and Regional Planning program at Portland State University, the Diggable City Project was an attempt to take an inventory of vacant, publicly-owned land in the Portland area, and to start a conversation about how that land might be used to support urban agricultural activities." Revised July 30, 2005

CFSC Urban Agriculture Committee: North American Initiative

"Members of the Committee envision their primary tasks to be: 1. to advocate for the creation and adoption of public policies to better facilitate and support the future of urban food production; 2. to promote the benefits of sustainable and organic urban agriculture, specifically among non-government organizations addressing the heath and welfare of urban residents; and 3. to bring urban agriculture to the attention of potential financial supporters, such as local and national philanthropic foundations." Posted March 8, 2005

The Women's Garden Project and Gardens in Prisons

"An inmate working in a prison garden can learn job skills, contribute to the common good by growing food for others, and find a focus for their lives post-release. The new Women's Garden at a Corrections Canada facility near Vancouver, British Columbia was inspired by one such program that has run with great success in San Francisco for over a decade." Posted December 2, 2004

Feeding Africa's Growing Cities Into The 21st Century: The Potential Of Urban Agriculture

"From a survey of literature and detailed empirical evidence from Kano and Dar es Salaam, this paper presents a framework for analysing urban agriculture and proposes a number of policy recommendations which could possibly enhance its future sustainability." Posted November 2, 2003

Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture - A briefing guide for the successful implementation of Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture in Developing Countries and Countries of Transition

FAO's "Food For the Cities" web page links to a number of excellent reports in PDF format. As well as the title shown above by Dr. Alex Drescher, there are three other files by the same author titled: "SOFA - Special Chapter on Urbanization "Urbanization - Linking Development Across the Changing Landscape" Updated October 26, 2003

Kenya - Experts Call for Urban Farming Policy

"According to Eric Kisiangani of ITDG "officially sanctioned and promoted, urban agriculture could become an important component of urban development and make more food available to the urban poor in Kenya besides providing employment in a moribund economy that Kenya is"." Updated October 26, 2003

New Agricultuist Magazine - Focus on Urban Agriculture

"Often illegal, and usually ignored by planners and policy-makers, the growing of crops and keeping of livestock by town and city dwellers creates both opportunities and risks. Urban consumers may enjoy improved availability of fresh vegetables, milk or poultry products." Posted August 31, 2003

New Village Journal: Issue Two: Urban Agriculture

Urban Agriculture: A Revolutionary Model for Economic Development Forward and Profiles by Chris Lazarus
Urban Aquaculture by Beth Ferguson
Profiles in Urban Agriculture
The Food Project- Roxbury and Lincoln, Massachusetts
Isles Community Farm- Trenton, New Jersey
Fairview Gardens- Goleta, California
Annex Organics/ Field to Table- Toronto, Ontario
Greensgrow Farm- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
Growing Home- Chicago, Illinois
Village of Arts and Humanities- Philadelphia, Pennsylvania
The Urban Agriculture Network- Washington, D.C.
Resources in Urban Agriculture
Updated May 3, 2003

Southeast False Creek Urban Agriculture Strategy

"While the study of urban agriculture has gained considerable momentum in North America and elsewhere, and even become fashionable in recent years, this study may be the first of its kind in North America to focus solely on the role that food-related activity and urban agriculture could play in the comprehensive planning of a new neighbourhood." Posted December 15, 2002

"Home Grown" by the Worldwatch Institute

"In the United States, food typically travels between 1,500 and 2,500 miles from farm to plate, as much as 25 percent farther than in 1980. For some, the long-distance food system offers unparalleled choice. But it often runs roughshod over local cuisines, varieties, and agriculture, while consuming staggering amounts of fuel, generating greenhouse gases, eroding the pleasures of face-to-face interactions around food, and compromising food security." Posted November 21, 2002

Toronto's Official Plan from the Perspective of Community Gardening and Urban Agriculture

"'Urban agriculture' is often viewed as an oxymoron. The city displaces agricultural land; it doesn't create it. Or so conventional wisdom would suggest. Yet, in cities around the world, urban agriculture and a city's role in supporting it, has gained new prominence." Posted October 3, 2002

Email Conference: Appropriate Methods for Urban Agriculture - Research, Policy Development, Planning, Implementation and Evaluation

4-16 February 2002. Summaries now available. "Urban Agriculture (UA, includes intra- and peri-urban agriculture) is an ancient practice but a recent focus of attention for a wide range of professionals associated with urban management, urban planning and agriculture. In the past these fields have been quite separate, and have elaborated their own approaches and methods associated with policy development, planning, research and monitoring and evaluation. We believe that to strengthen and develop agriculture in the urban environment, there is a pressing need not only to explore the adaptation of the wide range of methods used in rural agricultural research and development, but also to provide an innovative integration of these procedures with the specifically urban methods applied to understanding planning and policy issues."

Updated February 20, 2002

Urban Farming - Reconnecting the City to the Land - by Michael Ableman

"And so in memory of the thousands of people who lost their lives in New York, I propose that a portion of the former site of the World Trade Center be converted to an urban farm, replete with greenhouses and kitchens and an education center. I propose that this farm be established to provide food and jobs year-round to those in need and become a model of a local agriculture-based economy that we can look to as the global and military one begins to crumble." Posted September 16, 2002

Urban and Agricultural Communities: Opportunities for Common Ground

"This new, Council for Agricultural Science and Technology (CAST) task force report, considers the changing role of agriculture in urban settings. The report frames "urban agriculture" in both historical and contemporary American society, providing a picture of geographic, demographic, and economic changes in rural and metropolitan life." ... "This clearly is an appropriate time to redefine agriculture in the context of an urban society. The wealth of knowledge associated with the wide array of agricultural sciences could be put to valuable use in helping to meet many of the challenges of urbanization." PDF file.
Posted June 9, 2002

Proposed Community Garden Legislation in New York

"After more than a month of behind the scenes negotiation, members of the new NYC Council will file legislation that, if passed, can protect community gardens from development. The legislation being proposed will look different from the law that was introduced in the last Council. It now focuses on a stipulation that would turn the GreenThumb program into an independent public/ private partnership to act as a land trust for the preserved gardens."
Posted June 3, 2002

Old Cities/Green Cities - Communities Transform Unmanaged Land

"This report was developed out of a series of documents on urban vacant land by one of the leading gorups in the country dealing with this issue--the Pennsylvania Horticultural Society (PHS). Part 1 of the report addresses the challenges to urban vitality presented by vacant land; vacant land as a neighborhood resource; large-scale greening systems; and the link between urban renewal and sprawl. Part 2 provides an in-depth look at some PHS programs. An appendix provides a list of contacts to the many Community Development Corporations active in the area of urban greening in cities throughout the United States." Posted May 29, 2002

Urban Agriculture and Community Food Security in the United States: Farming from the City Center To the Urban Fringe

The document advocates for policies that promote small-scale urban and peri-urban farming, and thereby prepare the next generation of urban farming leaders. The task is to increase public knowledge and support, in order to transform urban agriculture "from its cottage industry status into a major instrument against hunger and poverty." Posted May 23, 2002

Urban Agriculture: An Overview

Prepared for 'Both Ends'- which supports inspiring environmental initiatives all over the world. "This report provides in very general terms the key characteristics of UA and the barriers that hinder its promotion. It also outlines some of the work that NGOs have been doing with respect to UA. The last section offers some recommendations with respect to the role that NGOs can play in advancing UA." Posted April 14, 2002

Self-Sufficiency Plan for Copenhagen Suburb

"The Environment and Energy Centre (MEC) in Höje Taastrup (population 45,000), to the west of Copenhagen in Denmark, has developed a realistic plan to make the region self-sufficient in food. Double the percentage of garden owners who grow their own vegetables; Triple the number of allotments; Quintuple the number of people owning hens (5 per cent already do); Increase production of honey and strengthen bonds with nearby farms by getting more people to buy produce directly from them; or for people to buy their own animals and rent pasture from the farmers;" Posted March 2, 2002

Food for the Cities: Urbanization, Food Insecurity and Urban Management

This parallel event (6th June 2001) during the United Nations Special Session of the General Assembly for Istanbul+5, aims at sensitizing participants on the issue of urban growth and its impact on urban food security. "Role of Urban and Periurban Agriculture in Urban Food Security and Poverty Alleviation" by Luc Mougeot. "Key Issues in Food Supply and Distribution to Cities" by Olivio Argenti

Posted June 2, 2001

Do Tropical Homegardens Elude Science, or Is It The Other Way Round?

"Tropical homegardens have provided sustenance to millions of farmers, and prosperity to some, around the world, for centuries. They have fascinated the scientists too for quite some time. However, the extent of scientific studies on these systems has been disproportionately lower than what their economic value, ecological benefits, or sociocultural importance would warrant." Posted September 30, 2001

FAO's Horticultural Crops Group Supports UPA

"City farmers have developed small and medium size market gardens specialising in the production of vegetables, fruits and root crops for sale on city markets. This activity is becoming more and more popular as it provides employment and income for women and young farmers." Posted September 28, 2001

City Farmer Uses the Latest Aerial Photos To Find Out How Much Food is Grown in the City of Vancouver

"Looking down from the sky it's easy to see where city farmland lies. Roofs, driveways, sidewalks, swimming pools, trees, lawns and gardens are all clearly visible. The photos on this page were taken of homes in South Vancouver between Fraser and Clarke Avenues. The excellent resolution of the shots (15cm = 1 pixel) allows us to close in from an airplane-view to an almost tree-top view of homes and gardens."
Posted September 3, 2001

Food Security, Urban Agriculture and Urban Management

Outline of presentation by Yves Cabannes and Marielle Dubbeling at the parallel event during the United Nations Special Session of the General Assembly for Istanbul+5. (See above.) Updated July 3, 2001

June 8, 2001, Support Group For Urban Agriculture (SGUA) Meets in New York

Photograph of urban agriculture experts from around the world. Meeting followed United Nations Special Session of the General Assembly for Istanbul+5.

Posted June 17, 2001

News Tidbits

Items that don't go anywhere else. Posted May 28, 2001

Community Agriculture in Metropolitan Sandwell: A realistic vision?

"Sandwell's history of highly polluting heavy industries has left a legacy of degraded and contaminated land that is difficult and expensive to reclaim for food and gardening projects. At the outset, the issue of land contamination was given high priority, and SUGS project workers undertook detailed site investigations as a first step in risk assessment." Updated April 8, 2001

Urban Agriculture And Sustainable Cities

"In the overwhelming and circular maze of problems that we face today, I see two key changes that are required: a reaffirmation of the value of small-scale businesses and communities, and the need to overcome individual apathy and make sustainable lifestyle choices on a personal level. While these are lofty goals which require both localized and systemic changes, I believe that the many facets of urban agriculture can begin to address these needs." Posted March 5, 2001

Food for the Cities Food Supply and Distribution Policies to Reduce Urban Food Insecurity

"Stop destroying food crops and evicting food producers from public lands under cultivation. Revise land-use and ownership legislation and regulations and improve their applicability. Adopt simple "zoning regulations" to support urban and periurban food production and livestock activities. Define criteria for land allocation. Constitute land reservoirs for urban and periurban food production in future urbanized areas. Provide safe water for irrigation and safe fertilizers using city waste." Posted February 4, 2001

The Food System: A Stranger to the Planning Field

"We present evidence for the limited presence of the food system in planning's list of concerns by scanning leading journals, texts, and classic writings, and reporting on a survey of 22 U.S. city planning agencies. We analyze this low level of attention and discuss reasons and ideas for planning involvement to strengthen community food systems." Kameshwari Pothukuchi and Jerome L. Kaufman Posted September 19, 2000

Achieving Urban Food and Nutrition Security in the Developing World

"In a recently released set of policy briefs from the International Food Policy Research Institute's (IFPRI) 2020 Vision Initiative, distinguished experts examine the key factors influencing and shaping future urban poverty, hunger, and malnutrition, and suggest policies and programs to achieve urban food and nutrition security." Example brief: 'Hidden significance of urban agriculture'. Posted August 30, 2000

Urban Agriculture - Justification and Planning Guidelines

"The authors want to show that planned and guided support of urban agriculture can be an effective tool to buffer hardships for vulnerable urban groups and create a better urban habitat." The study is based on the experiences of the Urban Vegetable Promotion Project ... and draws additional information extracted from 20 papers on city case studies on urban agriculture world-wide. [13,000 words] Posted June 21, 2000

Take Your Farm to Town

"Urban Agriculture and food security. The world is moving to the town and is taking its agriculture with it. Urban farmers will contribute even more to our future than they did to our past, but who will take responsibility for them?" Posted April 26, 2000

International Symposium: Urban Agriculture and Horticulture - The Linkage with Urban Planning

Domäne Dahlem, Berlin, 7.-9. July, 2000. "Most of highly developed ancient societies benefitted from the advantages of urban gardens. Modern societies, though much more urbanized, generally forgot about this rich culture. Only very recently, faced with increasing poverty and ecological degradation, the potentials of Urban Agriculture and Horticulture are being rediscovered." Posted March 26, 2000

Backyard Farmers May Hold Major Piece of World Food Puzzle

"As urban populations grow at unprecedented rates here and around the globe, city farmers are becoming more and more important. Under a new initiative launched by the Consultative Group on International Agricultural Research (CGIAR) in Washington, some of the world's leading agricultural scientists will be looking for ways to help those farmers play an even bigger role. The $500,000 Global Strategic Initiative on Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture will link several of the CGIAR's 16 research centers with international aid agencies, nongovernmental organizations, and research networks in Latin America, Africa, and Asia." Posted January 20, 2000

21st Century Cities
What Would the World be Like in the 21st Century if Cities Were Nutritionally Self-Reliant? Paper delivered by Jac Smit in Marmaris, Turkey on April 20, 1996

Growing Cities, Growing Food - Urban Agriculture on the Policy Agenda

Workshop help October 11 - 15, 1999 in Havana, Cuba. The workshop brought together about 60 participants from Asia, Africa, Latin, Central and North America, and Europe. The main workshop target group was composed of those policy makers, administrators and city planners who are actively involved in the development of policy options for urban agriculture. Posted October 30, 1998

Cities Feeding People Project Descriptions

74 project descriptions are now available online. Posted October 30, 1999

AGROPOLIS International Graduate Research Awards
In Urban Agriculture

Read the historic, official announcement of a new awards program named AGROPOLIS, for graduate students, being sponsored by the International Development Research Centre on behalf of the Support Group on Urban Agriculture (SGUA). Posted April 12, 1998

List of Selected Research Proposals for the 2001, 2000 and 1999 Agropolis Graduate Research Awards in Urban Agriculture

Here are the selected proposals! Updated May 28, 2001

Urban Food Production: Evolution, Official Support and Significance by Luc J.A. Mougeot

A major paper (16,479 words) by the Senior Program Officer, Environment and Natural Resources Division at Canada's IDRC.

International Group Supports Urban Agriculture:

Urban agriculture group forms a Global Facility: to reduce food insecurity, create jobs and improve the environment in cities. A new WWW site introduces the work of the international Support Group for Urban Agriculture (SGUA).

Urban Agriculture a Global Initiative

New brochure introducing an international effort by CARE International, City Farmer, Developing Countries Farm Radio Network, DGlS (Netherlands Ministry of Foreign Affairs), ETC Netherlands, FAO (UN Food and Agriculture Organization), GTZ (German Technical Cooperation), lDRC (International Development Research Centre), lFPRl (International Food Policy Research Institute), NRl (Natural Resources International) TUAN (The Urban Agriculture Network), UNDP (United Nations Development Programme), World Bank, World Sustainable Agriculture Association, Members of the academic community. July 1997.

Mayors Discuss Urban Agriculture at the United Nations
Urban Agriculture For Food Security, Jobs And Waste Recovery: Roundtable of Top Local Government Officials, 29 July 1997

Towards the Establishment of a Development and Research/Training Network on Urban Agriculture for East And Southern Africa (UANESA)

UNNESA's founding members include Kenya, Uganda, Zimbabwe, Tanzania and the Republic of South Africa (English-speaking African countries). A similar network is being developed by French-speaking African countries (West-Central Africa). Posted Oct 7, 1999

Urban Growth: Urban Agriculture at South East False Creek

Alexander F. Kurnicki shares with us his Bachelor of Landscape Architecture Program graduation thesis. "The City of Vancouver sponsored project to create a sustainable community at South East False Creek (SEFC) offers us an opportunity to raise the profile of urban agriculture in Vancouver." (14,000 words) Posted May 17, 1999

FAO's Agriculture 21 Magazine: Issues in Urban Agriculture

"Looming over many urban farmers, both men and women, is the constant threat of losing access to their plot and being forced to stop production. In many areas, non-farming households' inability to access land in the city is the major reason given for not farming." Posted January 29, 1999

Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture Report

This report was presented to the FAO Committee on Agriculture (COAG), meeting in Rome on 25-26 January 1999. Updated January 29, 1999

World Urban Growth Means More Hunger, UN says

"By the millennium there will be 20 cities of more than 10m people, nearly all of them in the third world. The number of impoverished city dwellers will have risen from 400 million in 1990 to 1 billion, and there will be an 'anarchic spread' of shanty towns, sickness, corruption and inflation," reports the BBC Online Network. Posted December 3, 1998

Y2K Threatens ... Urban Agriculture to the Rescue
A number of writers are looking at city food production as a response to a possible Millennium Computer Crisis.

Y2K and Our Big Bet

"The bad news," said Levenston, "is that it takes time to grow food. You can't just turn it on. You can't grow food in a panic. It takes planning."

An Edible Park

"The edible park produces multiple varieties of apples, peaches, pears, figs, mulberries, cherries, raspberries, blueberries, nuts, culinary and medicinal herbs." Posted November 19, 1998

Ville Et Nature
Dans Les Agglomérations D'Afrique Et D'Asie

Where does the town end and the countryside begin? Who is urban, who is rural? Pierre-Marie Tricaud and Philippe Blancher analyze the relationship between the two through various examples, taken from large African and Asian cities. A short introduction to the book (in French) is included here as well as most of the excellent bibliography. Updated February 3, 1999

Creating a Center for Sustainable Urban Agriculture and Food Systems at the University of California Gill Tract in Albany

More than 30 non-profits and community organizations in the Bay Area, propose that the University of California enter into a university/community partnership in order to create the world's first university center on sustainable urban agriculture and food systems.

The Significance of Urban Agriculture

A report by Rachel Nugent. "The benefits of urban agriculture include, income to producers (market or in-kind); employment of low-skilled or unemployed residents; value of produced output; improvement of environment (air quality, hydrology, reduced run-off); reduced use/need for rural-urban infrastructure; avoided costs of wastewater treatment; avoided costs of solid waste disposal; import substitution; and reduction of urban blight." (6200 words)

Why Urban Agriculture?

William E. Rees, Professor and Director of the School of Community and Regional Planning at the University of British Columbia, gives us his views on the reasons for urban agriculture. Professor Rees is co-author of Our Ecological Footprint: Reducing Human Impact on the Earth.

Sustainable Urban Food Production in the City of Vancouver: An Analytical and Strategy Framework for Planners and Decision-Makers
Rob Barrs wrote this thought-provoking paper as a project for the UBC School of Community & Regional Planning. (20,000 words)

Funding an Office of Urban Agriculture

Some people assume that City Farmer is a government department and address their letters to "The Minister of Urban Agriculture".

Arable Acres Within City Limits

It's amazing to discover that the City of Vancouver has enough land available so that its inhabitants can grow all their own vegetables within city limits.

World's Urban Population

Majority of world's population will live in urban centres by 2015, UN report says.

City Farmer's Urban Agriculture Survey

Please help us learn more about your involvement in city farming by filling out this short survey form. Thank you!
Posted March 25, 2000

City Farmer's Survey Results - First 100

See our summary. "People from 16 countries submitted surveys - Australia, Brazil, Canada, Denmark, Egypt, England, Germany, Hong Kong, Israel, Kuwait, New Zealand, Peru, Philippines, South Africa, Spain and the USA. The vast majority were from the USA (56%) and Canada (26%)."
Posted May 20, 2000

RUAF: Resource Centre On Urban Agriculture And Forestry

RUAF's web site is now on-line! Some of the projects which will be undertaken by this new, internationally supported organization include the creation of: Six Regional Focal Points on Urban Agriculture; An electronic newsletter on Urban agriculture (3 issues/year); One electronic conference a year on a selected key theme; A database on Urban Agriculture accessible by Internet and on diskettes; and A "Reader" on Urban Agriculture. City Farmer is honoured to be a part of this project.
Posted July 11, 2000

Letters from Policy Makers in Canada to City Farmer - 1980

(And one from Britain, 1993.) "The Prince of Wales has asked me to thank you for your letter of 30th December, with which you enclosed a number of your recent publications and the poster. His Royal Highness was most interested to learn of all your achievements and was grateful to you for taking the trouble to write." Posted May 14, 1999

Urban Non-Farm Food Production

In 1982 City Farmer presented this paper on Urban Agriculture to the Canadian Society for Horticulture Science and the Agricultural Institute of Canada. Posted May 5, 1999

In 1979, almost 20 years ago, City Farmer's founding directors spoke at the 20th International Science Education Symposium about our vision of Urban Agriculture.

"Ideally we believe that simply by changing from suit to jeans, digging up a bit of lawn, and planting vegetable seeds, the city person will begin asking questions about his environment and about his urban behavior and thinking patterns."

International Urban Agriculture.

A number of excellent publications have come out which show International Urban Agriculture being treated very seriously by development professionals.

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