Urban Farmers points out how growing food in cities is not a new idea, but rather is intricately linked to the way humans have inhabited urban spaces throughout history, from the Hanging Gardens of Babylon to wartime urban farming campaigns like Dig for Victory. Each page of Urban Farmers is surprising, revealing something hidden and magic like the acres and acres of saffron that are grown on Parisian rooftops - places you may never have thought existed in a city you’ve lived in, been to or imagined. It is a promising and hopeful read, as well as an instructive one. It demonstrates the resourcefulness and passion generated by people determined to develop their respective projects ingeniously to grow produce in urban environments.
The Covid-19 pandemic illuminated the fragility of our food systems, as empty supermarket shelves went from being a dystopian image to a daily reality. This realisation that the global supply chains are chaotic and tenuous has encouraged many people to reconsider their attitude towards food and to consider growing it themselves or sourcing it locally. Demand for locally grown boxes of vegetables soared over the various lockdowns. Many of the urban farming programs and projects explored in the book address issues of food sovereignty and the socio-political forces behind the creation of ‘food deserts’ and other such systematic problems associated with food production and distribution. But also revealed are the social aspects of farming, and the sense of community that a garden creates - especially important during the pandemic.
According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the UN, vegetable crops worldwide lost 75 percent of their genetic diversity between 1900 and 2000. According to Australian gardener Kat Lavers, “We seem to be facing so many different types of emergency: climate, humanitarian, biodiversity, health.” Whilst cities are never going to be able to provide for all of their inhabitants self-sufficiently, growing food at home can be a part of the solution, allowing us to “be more resilient”, more prepared for the various crises we are facing.
Many are experimenting with innovative ways of growing food in cities – aquaponics is a method returned to throughout the book, as is ‘vertical farming’ – both of these methods are employed by Infarm, a company born in Germany which grows leafy greens and herbs under artificial lighting, vertically and hydroponically in a soil-free set up. In the case of beekeeping, a city can present less problems than a rural environment – Tom Wilk, who keeps bees in New York, explains that in a city you worry less about pesticide use and as there is a greater variety of plants and flowers grown in urban and suburban places, monoculture is less of a concern. Hurdles that growing food in a city presents are being jumped creatively all over the world.
From the chinampas of Xochimilco, Mexico City, artificial floating islands home to two percent of the world’s biodiversity, to the beautiful, sculptural mushrooms and endives grown in a disused multi-storey carpark in Paris, to rooftop vineyards in Brooklyn, Urban Farmers is full of stones unturned to reveal intricate worlds of life and growth, microcosms of creative, laterally thought-out mini-Edens. This book is proof that the changes that need to happen in the way we conceptualise food production are taking place – many are beginning to realise the value of plants as food, and of the processes involved in growing them. Food is money. As Ron Finley, a guerrilla gardener and urban anthropologist based in LA, puts it, “You cannot eat diamonds.”; producing food provides currency and agency, as well as sustenance.
The series of essays, profiles, case studies and step-by-step activities on how to dry flowers, keep bees or make compost that are set out in the book illustrate how growing and farming sustainably in urban spaces - and subsequently living more conscientious and healthy lives in cities - is not only possible, but has always been happening, and is gathering momentum.
SG
Urban farmers is published by Gestalten priced at £30 ; Images / co-edited by Valery Rizzo, words by Monica R Goya
