Our exploration into the world of urban farming in Asia has raised learnings so far with a number of research leads (or epiphanies) created by our Plant This Movie (2014) livetweeting session. Some of the leads that stood out to me include:
- The idea of replacing lawns with produce gardens, using less water and resources.
- The value of public canneries to enable the storage of excess production (anyone with a fruit tree understands this, hence all that jam being made because you can’t even give all that fruit away).
- The fact we are at the first point in history where individuals no longer all grow food for personal consumption, and that new farmers will start from scratch.
- The use of urban farming as tool to adapt to rapidly expanding urban areas.
The last point is what I chose to pursue for further autoethnographical study. With the internet as my field site, I followed the path set by my previous blog post on urban farming in in China.
Urban farming is not the whole solution to food security problems, it is widely accepted that it isn’t likely to create self sustaining cities anytime soon (Mougeot pp.32). The limits on space, even when used creatively, still limit the amount that can be grown.
But for those living in urban poverty, that limited amount can be significant.
The part of the documentary about retired Chinese farmers stuck out to me after my previous research. These farmers, after being pushed out of land by urban development, move into the newly created apartments, and begin urban farming on a smaller scale in the surrounding area. I imagine being forced to change jobs (or retire) because of conditions outside one’s control would be stressful to say the least.
As the cities constantly expand, farmers have no choice but to assimilate, and urban farming appears to provide a way for them to continue their lifestyle and occupation somewhat.
Balcony farms, such as the prototype we built, help with the growth of produce in these limited spaces. However, relying solely on vegetables grown from a balcony of about six square metres – the standard Chinese size – would only be enough to feed a family two days a month (Pinghui 2012). While the documentary presented other space around apartment complexes in use, it would be difficult for everyone to rely soley on such space for food.
I suspect that these retirees are also using the urban farms as a means of coping with the rapid transition from agricultural life to apartment life. While not a full-time pursuit, it would help retain a connection to nature and the past. Susie touched on the benefits to mental health in this tweet.
Regardless, China’s rates of urbanisation are expected to continue rising from 37% in 2000, to 60% by 2020 (Hamilton, et al. 2014 pp.16). The mass movement of agricultural expertise into urban areas is set to continue, and these people will have to adapt to different kinds of work as a result. Not everyone will be able to retire, and not everyone will be able to continue financially sustainable farming in the urban environment.
References
Hamilton, A. J., Burry, K. & Mok, H.-F., 2014. Give peas a chance? Urban agriculture in developing countries. A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 34(1), pp. 45-73.
Mougeot, L.J., 2000. Urban agriculture: Definition, presence, potentials and risks, and policy challenges. Cities feeding people series; rept. 31.
Pinghui, Z., 2012. Urban farming a growing trend in China. [Online]
Available at: https://www.scmp.com/business/china-business/article/1018114/urban-farming-growing-trend-china
[Accessed 15 October 2019].
Sunny Commandeur 