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| Should the farmer start a food factory? |
In countries where cities are expanding fast - like China and India – governments buy up land like it’s for free. Land around cities which used to be used by farmers. Farmers are sold out and promised a better life in city. A life in which they can live in luxury. A life in which they do not have to work that hard, in which they are not dependent on the harvest. A life which everyone likes to live.
This phenomenon causes two problems. The first one is that farmland is now used as land for developers filling it with houses, big apartment blocks and offices. As a consequence no food can be produced close to the cities anymore while actually more food is needed. Although it seems a big problem, the local and national governments of these fast growing countries have already found a solution: They buy land in other countries like Ethiopia where land is plenty and prices are low. This seems a smart solution but it actually only shifts the problem from one country to another and makes it even a bigger problem: where does the Ethiopian farmer get’s his food from, who will pay him the right wage, how do we handle carbon emissions caused by long travel distances between Africa and China, and so on?
The second problem is that farmers in those developing countries usually have no education. They are brought up by their parents and started to work on the farm as soon as they were old enough to help. When they move to the city it is hard for them to find a job since they cannot read and are not used to work in the hierarchy of a company. If the ex-farmer is able to find one he probably has to work hard for a minimum wage most probably as a construction worker on one of the many building sites.
Some of them seem to be smart. They build an apartment block for themselves which they rent out to others. Others resist the shift in their life and continue farming. Not in the way they and their parents and grandparents used to do this, but in a way adapted to the modern city. So called urban farming. Rooftops and leftover spaces are used to produce their own food. Partly because those farmers just love their profession, partly because they cannot do anything else other than farming. It is their way to deal with the circumstances they are forced to live in.
Those urban farmers have not chosen for this type of live. But sooner or later they might become very important for their neighborhood. When it gets more difficult to import food into those enormous cities the small urban farmers are capable to still produce food. Food which will be appreciated by others living close by. Not only because it is food, also because prices are reasonable and not influenced by transport costs, import taxes and big companies.
For the same reasons mentioned above it could be good for us Western people to start or continue urban farming. Like it used to help Londoners a few years ago to survive in an unexpected and exceptional situation. So as soon as spring turns up, go to the shop, get your hands dirty and start to farm!
If you like to have more information on current initiatives or urban farmers check Farming the City (the Netherlands) or - among others - Zappata Romana (for Italy).
