As we envision and plan for the sustainable cities of the twenty-first century, it’s becoming increasingly clear that urban agriculture must be treated as a core component of city infrastructure, just like transportation, water, and energy systems. The traditional model, which often sees urban agriculture as a temporary or peripheral activity, is no longer sufficient to address the complex challenges our cities face. This requires a new relationship between city planning and urban agriculture, with the central goal of inviting food back into our lives and our cities.
Harnessing an Urban Food Systems Approach
The development of a city’s food system as an integral part of its urban fabric begins with a simple question: “How do we create conditions that will allow for each community to feed itself?”. This requires a paradigm shift, viewing food as part of an ecological model rather than a purely commercial one.
Currently, the dialogue around urban agriculture is largely driven by grassroots movements in cities like San Francisco, New York, and Detroit, as many cities lack legislation to protect agricultural land or permit it on a large scale. The conversation between planners, governments, and communities must focus on creating integrated infrastructure, flexible policies, and open-space designs that support food landscapes within the city.
A new urban planning approach must consider:
- Integrated Systems Thinking: Solutions must be based on the interconnectedness of systems as a whole, rather than treating them as independent units. A city’s infrastructure is a complex web of interdependent elements like land use, transportation, and utilities. The strength of this web increases as the connections become more integrated. The industrial food system, for example, is often an outlier with minimal connections to the urban infrastructure.
- Integration of Natural and Urban Systems: Urban agriculture can serve as a new node within this infrastructure web, strengthening the entire system and reducing the need for outside inputs. Urban agriculture models offer new ways to rethink how water, energy, people, and materials move through a city for the benefit of both urban and regional systems.
Building a Comprehensive Policy Framework
For urban agriculture to truly take root, a city needs a supportive policy framework. This involves addressing general planning issues and integrating an overall food policy into the city’s planning process. The following elements are crucial for this framework:
- Establish a Regulatory and Legislative Framework: Many existing zoning regulations do not support an integrative approach to food systems. Cities must establish a new regulatory framework that streamlines permits and allows for these new landscapes to thrive. Cities like San Francisco, New York, and Baltimore are leading the way by making rapid changes.
- Set Food and Agriculture Goals Early: All stakeholders, including city officials, communities, and residents, must be included in the planning process from the beginning. This helps to build consensus and avoids future conflicts. Tools such as community workshops and forums can be used to facilitate this dialogue.
- Include Local Governments: Local governments are on the frontlines of sustainable community planning and are key to addressing issues like climate change and economic development. Their involvement is essential for creating a land-use strategy that supports urban agriculture.
- Establish a Research Component: There is a need for more research and information sharing to support both city departments and food entrepreneurs. Most urban agriculture landscapes have emerged from grassroots activism, and there is a need for a “scale aggregate foundation” to increase their prevalence across the city. Organizations like the National Policy & Legal Analysis Network (NPLAN) offer valuable resources, including free legal information and business plan templates for community gardens.
Implementing the Policy Development Process
To ensure urban agriculture policies succeed, they must be integrated early and supported by a clear implementation process. Key activities include:
- Community Visioning: Without stakeholder engagement, policies that promote urban agriculture will likely fail. A strong community visioning process ensures that the policy is embraced and sustained by the people it serves.
- Goal Setting in Master Planning: Establishing goals and objectives early in the master planning process allows for a more holistic system that connects urban agriculture to traditional city systems. For example, a master plan can address how produce distribution connects with transportation systems or how a zero-waste urban agriculture project links to a neighborhood’s waste-removal system.
- Building Awareness and Momentum: Creating awareness is crucial for building a successful urban agriculture vision. This can be achieved through educational forums, informational meetings, and other platforms that inspire people to build on the vision. Such a process builds consensus, increases stakeholder support, and helps to shape and realize the vision.
- Integrating into Green Infrastructure: It is vital to create awareness of how urban agriculture is a permanent and essential part of a city’s green infrastructure, not just a temporary activity. Including urban agriculture in city planning criteria for addressing climate change ensures that it is seen as a solution for ecological degradation, pollution, and the heat island effect.
- Design Development Process: Urban agriculture can be integrated into the standard design development process from planning to permits through sustainability rating systems like LEED and SITES. These commitments can help projects move forward and establish urban agriculture as a vital project component.
By adopting these strategic planning and policy changes, cities can transition from viewing urban agriculture as a niche activity to recognizing it as a permanent and vital system that strengthens the entire urban infrastructure web.
