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| Villa Augustus in the Dutch town Dordrecht is immensely popular by all kind of people |
I already announced that this weeks’ post will deal with the fact that nowadays urban farming seems
to happen everywhere. It seems the only
solution for any urban problem is to put in a garden which solves social and
health problems and get’s people in the same direction again. What the reason
for the success?
Growing your own food has been everyday practice until the
Second World War. After that period people preferred to spend their time on
other things rather than on gardening.
It was the city of Havana (Cuba) which was confronted with
the fact that being able to buy food in a supermarket wasn’t as self-evident as
it seemed to be. At the end of the eighties - when the country was in deep
crisis - import and export declined and oil and oil-based products became
scarce.
The Havanese responded immediately and started to grow their own food in every
corner of the city: gardens, gutters, balconies, rooftops and the like.
The government of this country responded to this bottom-up
project by opening up and Urban Agriculture Department
in 1994. This department ensured that everyone who planned to grow food was
given some piece of land free of charge! Now they still advice and disseminate
knowledge based on organic agriculture.
The crisis in Cuba was just the beginning of a whole lot
of events which made urban citizens aware of the fact that they were really
depended on others to foresee in their food. London made a food strategy as is done by other cities like
Milan and Barcelona. Recently the Dutch cities of Rotterdam and The Hague decided more attention needs to be paid to growing food in cities.
It seems more people become aware of the fact that it is
good not to depend on others completely. Although the attention paid to urban
farming is sometimes a bit overdone it might be the only way in which we can
convince everyone. Therefore we should be glad that all kinds of people are
involved. Not only governments stimulating people to grow food, but also city
farmers, artists, architects and urban planners, chefs, supermarkets and
consumers. Don’t resist the hype. Join it!
