A city of gardeners: What happens when policy, planning, and populace co-create the food production of a novel peri-urban area?

Abstract

Urban re-orientation on feeding the city in a city-region context has encouraged local policies to spur urban agriculture by stimulating bottom-up citizen participation in urban food production. However, in real life, tensions occur between policies and practices. The misalignment of policy goals with planning instruments and the needs of practitioners in urban agriculture hampers the development of substantial urban food production. This paper introduces Oosterwold, a new peri-urban area of the Dutch city of Almere that pivots urban agriculture. Oosterwold is a unique experiment in which a top-down policy goal – producing 10% of the future urban food needs – is handed over to the self-organisation of new residents, who are bound by the rule to allocate 51% of their plot to urban agriculture. This study deploys a social practice theory–informed analysis to appraise the performance in urban agriculture. Novel in our methodology – combining an online survey ( n=111) with an analysis of aerial photos ( n=199) – we unpack the unruly nature in which urban policy and planning are shaping up through bottom-up citizen participation. Our study demonstrates that (i) it takes time for residents to adopt urban agriculture as a substantial practice in their heterogeneous lifestyle and (ii) that a focus on bottom-up approaches, such as Oosterwold residents’ self-organisation, does not imply laissez faire from planning and policy. It is inferred that a balance in policy goals, planning instruments, and the needs of the practitioners requires a shared vision and builds on supportive conditions.

Edible Garden Cities: Rethinking Boundaries and Integrating Hedges into Scalable Urban Food Systems

“…Inevitably, these developments raise the spectre of low-density, unsustainable expansive suburbs designed around human liveability, capital accumulation and the desires of narrowly defined socio-economic groups. Without a shared, implementable vision to bind together relevant stakeholders and supportive planning instruments [14,32], these schemes may offer an artificial version of a healthy, farm-fresh lifestyle, permitting highly managed, commodifiable human-nature exchanges. Yet evidence provided from developers, farmers, planners and local residents suggests that well-designed and actionable models of equitable agricultural production can succeed in improving residents' health, creating important sites based on social and ecological exchange among diverse communities [30].…”

“…Typically, though not exclusively, such developments operate under the purview of community/homeowners' associations, though professional services are required to work through construction-related costings, budgets for operating, maintenance and administration, and the scale of operation (type of crop production, for example). Under this arrangement, food procurement strategies, food education and purchasing systems with public agencies (local authorities, for example) can emerge, incorporating sectors involved with the distribution, processing, marketing and consumption of food [32]. Management and business plans would be needed for farm-related activities, including accounting for projected revenue streams, staffing, labour, and ongoing costs [30].…”

Agricultura periurbana na consolidação de distritos de inovação: o caso de Paris-Saclay

“…Nos últimos 15 anos tem aumentado a adoção de políticas públicas e incentivos à AUP, por parte de planejadores urbanos, na forma de financiamento, programas de acesso à terra, construção de infraestrutura entre outros (Horst, McClintock, Hoey, 2017). Ademais, a urgência de reconectar a agricultura localmente e regionalmente, torna-se ainda mais explícita quando o sistema alimentar global está sob pressão devido às incertezas que podem afetar o abastecimento alimentar local, como crises geopolíticas, desastres naturais, alterações climáticas, pandemias como a da Covid-19, entre outros (Jansma, Wertheim-Heck, 2023;Horlings at al, 2021).…”

“…A governança participativa na AUP vem sendo cada vez mais estimulada por políticas públicas, tornando-se atividade catalizadora de novos paradigmas de cidades alimentares, paisagens comestíveis, infraestrutura verde, inovação em sistemas alimentares periurbanos, entre outros (Jansma, Wertheim-Heck, 2023). Diversos estudos evidenciam que políticas exitosas visando agendas alimentares locais são baseadas em modelos de ação articulada entre políticas locais, planejamento e sociedade civil trabalhando em cocriação para soluções locais.…”

“…Diversos estudos evidenciam que políticas exitosas visando agendas alimentares locais são baseadas em modelos de ação articulada entre políticas locais, planejamento e sociedade civil trabalhando em cocriação para soluções locais. Isso implica na participação ativa das comunidades locais em planejamento espacialque convive com conflitos e assimetrias entre políticas públicas ambiciosas e os produtores na base (Jansma, Wertheim-Heck, 2023;Horlings at al, 2021).…”