Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

This concept of the ‘spaces in between’ is valuable in terms of thinking about thepotential for urban agriculture to expand in Australian cities and urban centres. Thework of Permaculture Gold Coast on a small private site in Ferry Road, Southport, isone example of what can be achieved by creative individuals and community groupsworking in partnership with their local councils.One academic researcher pointed out that urban agriculture means different things indifferent cultural and geographical contexts, with a particular distinction between theglobal North and the South, and between countries in the former:It means different things in developing countries. In Australia, it’s backyard andcommunity gardens, and perhaps peri-urban market gardens. Here [in the innercity] it’s generally not commercial-scale, as in US spin farming, which can bedone on little blocks of land. In countries like Ghana there are stronger economicdrivers, and lighter regulation – for example, they use raw sewage to grow food,which obviously creates a transfer of pathogens. Conversely there are benefitswith the higher nutrient content of the water [Academic researcher].Others looked to initiatives and approaches in some Southern countries and sawvaluable lessons and sources of inspiration for what might be possible in Australia:The model we like is Havana [Cuba], and we ask ourselves how it could bereplicated here. They achieved a 1000% increase in productivity per unit over an11-year period with key factors including intensive research into bio-fungicides,bio-insecticides and integrated pest management, together with the wide diffusionand accessibility of that knowledge. The pro-huerta movement in Argentina hasalso achieved impressive results in urban food production [Academic researcher].Another academic researcher, who had conducted a number of forums with farmersand market gardeners on Melbourne’s peri-urban zones, commented on theirsomewhat disparaging perceptions of activities typically regarded in Australia as urbanagriculture, such as community gardening:[Some] farmers think it’s naïve, one comment after a forum was, ‘They think wecan all grow tomatoes in pots on the balcony, and that there’ll be enough food’.So there’s a perception [amongst farmers] that urban agriculture is just smallscalefood growing in the city, that’s it not commercial, that’s it not going to makeany contribution to food supply. I think we should be seeing [urban agriculture]more broadly, that we should include what’s on the fringe as well ... agriculturethat takes place on the urban boundary. That would include areas of quitesignificant food production; and the same would apply to the fringe areas ofsatellite cities. [For Melbourne] I’d include Casey-Cardinia, and Werribee,Bacchus Marsh, Yarra Valley. If we’re talking about agriculture, it’s more thanpottering around in community gardens. So we have to include peri-urbanagriculture – where agriculture meets the city, and all those issues on the fringeof the city, those tensions [Academic researcher].It was suggested that the terminology of ‘urban agriculture’ might not be appropriate todescribe non-commercial activities such as backyard and community gardening; andwhether instead the term ‘urban gardening’ might be a better description of suchactivities. Such a distinction has however not been made in the literature; and weUrban food security, urban resilience and climate change 41