World Ark Magazine - January/February 2008 - (Page 31) dents craving some rural experience. and livestock in Accra, Beijing and In China’s cities, farmers developed Although the share of the city’s popu- Vancouver—indeed, in cities all over complex cropping patterns and lation involved in farming is currently the world—is nothing new. In some trellises that made use of every very small—just about 1 percent—the ways, these three cities are respond- available space. municipal government plans to culti- ing to the same challenges that urban But like the story of all local farming, vate gardens on nearly 10 million gardeners have faced for millennia. a range of forces in the modern era— square feet of roof space over the next The hanging gardens in Babylon, for the Industrial Revolution, the evolution 10 years. instance, were an example of urban of the mega-city, the invention of Vancouver is known for being a agriculture, while residents of the refrigeration—helped to render urban popular destination for tourists. But first cities of ancient Iran, Syria and farming obsolete. In particular, when what most visitors do not realize is Iraq produced vegetables in home cities fi rst combined industrial and that the city is a leader in encouraging gardens. This is partly because cities organic wastes in one sewage stream at its inhabitants to grow and buy fruits, have traditionally sprung up on the the end of the 19th century, they made vegetables and other items produced in best farmland—the same flat land that wastewater too toxic for irrigation. the city. According to a recent survey, an is good for farming is also easiest for And in many cities, urban agriculture impressive 44 percent of Vancouverites constructing office buildings, condo- became not only harder to practice but grow vegetables, fruit, berries, nuts or miniums and factories—and partly illegal as well, thanks to overzealous herbs in their yards, on their balconies because the masses of urban dwellers city officials and public health practior in one of the 17 community gardens create a perfect market for fresh fruits tioners who wanted to eliminate urban located on city property. Vancouver’s and vegetables. livestock production. mild temperatures and ice-free winters Then during the 1970s, something “In ancient times, the cost of transmake it the ideal city to grow food port was much greater,” explains Jac changed. People working for the nearly year-round. There, farming the Smit, head of the Urban Agriculture United Nations, the Peace Corps and city is part of a much larger movement Network, “so the impetus for growing other development groups noticed that includes restaurants buying from food in cities was greater.” Of course, the spontaneous appearance of home local farms, buying clubs in which urban farmers continued to refine gardens and small retail farms in major neighbors subscribe to weekly deliver- their craft. Centuries after the Incan cities throughout Asia, Latin America ies of produce and the heavily attended residents of Machu Picchu raised and Africa. Rapid urbanization, inefFeast of Fields harvest festival twice a food in small, intensive plots irrigated ficient and expensive transportation year on a farm outside the city that with the city’s wastewater, enterpris- and a greater demand for food made exposes city folk to rural life. ing Parisians developed bio-intensive raising produce and livestock in cities production with steam-heated green- possible and necessary. In other words, houses and glass cloches that cover the same needs that had given rise to A RICH HISTORY OF URBAN FARMING individual heads of lettuce; they sold urban farming in ancient times had Growing food and raising fish their produce as far away as London. reappeared. And although cities in . Each dot on this map represents an urban area with at least 1 million inhabitants as of 2006. www.heifer.org January/February 2008 | WORLD ARK 31 http://www.heifer.org
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