UrbanAgWWW - urban agriculture worldwide web

On the Road Again

2011-11-22T17:22:00.000-08:00

I spent last week in Western Australia at the invitation of the Western Australian Department of Agriculture. I spoke to 9 groups of people including growers, planners, policy makers and concerned citizens. The reason for my visit was to advocate for multifunctional agriculture as an option to deal with the threat to the continued horticultural land use around Perth posed by any or all of the following:
1. Free trade as an expression of the dominant economic rationalist paradigm
2. Loss of markets due to cheap imports
3. Loss of export markets due to cheaper produce grown in other countries
4. The cost/price squeeze
5. Price inequity in the supermarket dominated food system
6. The impact of urban development on things such as land prices
I used Hawkesbury Harvest as an example of a developing multifunctional model:
www.hawkesburyhavest.com.au

This week I am traveling around the Hilltops Region of southern NSW (Young, Boorowa and Harden) presenting to a group of people in each town on multifunctional agriculture as a mechanism to bring urban income and capital onto farms and into associated rural communities to complement income from farming activities. This increases the economic viability and adds to the sustainability of small to medium family farms and local towns thus increasing the resilience of these rural sectors in the context of increasing climate and economic uncertainty.

Update

2011-09-12T18:13:00.000-07:00

The International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability article mentioned below was published. I think my blog/web site has run its course as there has not been much movement in hits beyond 18,500 for some time. It is likely I will start a new blog and if I do it will be www.urbanagwww.com

INTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURAL SUSTAINABILITY

2009-10-06T18:12:00.000-07:00

The International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability has advised that the paper my co-author, Ian Knowd and I submitted for consideration for publication in the special international Urban Agriculture issue has been accepted. The paper will be published by Earthscan, the world’s leading publisher on climate change, sustainable development and environmental technology (www.earthscan.co.uk). I anticipate the publication of the special issue by the end of this year. The title of the paper is 'The Emergence of Urban Agriculture - Sydney Australia'.

The paper explores the history of agriculture in the Sydney region from the time of the arrival of the First Fleet in 1788 until now. It begins with the first successful strategic intervention by government to provide food security in the region when Governor Macquarie (1810-1820) established the five Macquarie Towns to service the surrounding agricultural area 60 kms to the NW of the new settlement of Sydney Town.

The paper goes on to provide evidence of how Sydney community concerns and actions about urban sprawl and its progressive sterilisation of agricultural lands; the supermarket dominance of the food chain; the fast food industry and associated health problems such as obesity; and globalisation are placing pressure on local, state and federal government to recognise agriculture as an important component of Sydney's land use and social culture. The motivating factor is food security in the context of neo-liberalism, climate change, pandemics, natural disasters, human and environmental health, carbon footprint, biosecurity/terrorism, peak oil, waste management, and landscape and natural resource management.

While it is a research paper we have written it as a narrative that will engage with as many people as possible. I will advise on this blog when the paper is published and how to access the special issue.

WHAT I HAVE BEEN DOING OVER THE PAST THREE YEARS

2009-08-16T19:57:00.000-07:00

Since my Churchill Fellowship trip I have been very busy including meeting requests to give talks and presentations around NSW and some other states based on my study tour experiences and my past experience with urban agriculture in the Sydney Region (I came to Sydney from rural NSW in 1993 to deal with the issue of agriculture in Sydney’s urban and urbanising environment as an employee of the then NSW Agriculture). Since then the agency has been renamed NSW Department of Primary Industries and recently Industry & Investment NSW (www.dpi.nsw.gov.au).

The urban agriculture issue is gathering pace in Australia. Sooner rather than later all three levels of government in Australia are going to have to deal with it at policy and strategy levels. It is an issue whose time has come. It's grass roots community wellspring is increasing in volume with implications for political recognition and action.

In December 2008, the NSW Department of Primary Industries in conjunction with Penrith City Council and the NSW Department of Planning hosted a forum, Sydney’s Agriculture – Planning for the Future. The forum provided an opportunity for agricultural specialists from across industry, planning, business and government sectors to:

· Examine key issues affecting the future of agricultural production in the Sydney Basin in the context of projected population growth, continued urban development and loss of productive agricultural land

· Explore strategies for ensuring the sustainability of agriculture in Sydney to secure the supply of fresh foods to the city’s growing population)

This forum was called for by the NSW Minister for Primary Industries, the Hon Ian Macdonald in response to representations from industry and local government to seek his support for the retention of agriculture in the Sydney Region. Approximately 120 people attended the forum. A Sydney Agriculture Reference Group has been formed to make recommendations to consider opportunities to broaden and inform the land use planning framework so as to facilitate sustainable agriculture industry development in the Sydney region (www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/resources/land/general/sydneys-agriculture-planning-future).

This activity was an expression of one of the outcomes of a strategic planning meeting conducted by the Agriculture and Fisheries Division of NSW Department of Primary Industries at the Yanco Research Institute in southwest NSW in April 2008. This is consistent with the ‘Strategic Plan for Sustainable Agriculture – Sydney Region’ released by the then Minister for Agriculture The Hon Richard Amery in 1998 (www.dpi.nsw.gov.au/agriculture/resources/land/planning/sydney).

As senior author I have recently submitted a paper to the International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability in the UK for consideration for publication in a special Urban Agriculture issue at the end of this year. My co-author is my fellow Hawkesbury Harvest Board member (www.hawkesburyharvest.com.au) Ian Knowd. The title of paper is ‘THE EMERGENCE OF URBAN AGRICULTURE - Sydney Australia’. It explores urban agriculture in the Sydney region and around the world. It is a narrative that allows for comparison of what is happening in the Greater Sydney metropolitan area and a number of developed countries in the Northern Hemisphere where urban agriculture is establishing its position.

Since February of this year I have been working in the newly established Office of the Hawkesbury-Nepean to establish its position. The Office of the Hawkesbury-Nepean is a NSW Government initiative to improve the health of the Hawkesbury-Nepean River System. The Office was created under the Hawkesbury-Nepean River Act 2009. This move provides me with the opportunity to have an input into the role of urban agriculture in Sydney’s water use debate.

The Office will ensure that the management of the river is more coordinated and less complicated. It will provide a single point of contact for the community so that their questions or concerns about the river will be dealt with directly and effectively (www.ohn.nsw.gov.au).

REACTIVATING SITE

2009-08-16T17:40:00.000-07:00

I began this blog exactly three years ago in August 2006, just before I commenced my eight-week world wide Churchill study tour of urban agriculture in the October of that year. I fully intended to develop the web site after my return. However as you can see I did not.

In the mean time the site has received more than 10,000 hits. I also get people asking me to reactivate the site. For both these reason I have decided to continue to develop it.

The blog site will remain as www.urbanagricutlureworldwide.blogspot.com

The website is www.urbanagricultureworldwide.com. I have also registered the following names to access the website: www.urbanagwww.com and www.localagwww.com

I will advise when these two URLs are active.

CHURCHILL STUDY TOUR REPORT

2007-02-01T19:23:00.000-08:00

My study tour report can be accessed by clicking on: report on my fellowship tour. It is also available from The Winston Churchill Memorial Trust website http://www.churchilltrust.com.au/. The content of the report is subject to normal copyright provisions. By that I mean information can be referenced as long as the source is recognised, and any information that is referenced in the report is given appropriate recognition. I indemnify the Churchill Trust against any loss, costs or damages it may suffer arising out of any claim or proceedings made against the Trust in respect of or arising out of the publication of the Report I have submitted to the Trust and which the Trust has placed on its website for access over the internet.

This blog is automatically linked with the web site: www.urbanagricultureworldwide.com which I am developing as an international point of reference for the many people with an interest in agriculture in urban and urbanising environments. It is structured to provide a systemic appreciation of urban agriculture as depicted by the urban agriculture mind map that can be acccessed as follows: Archives - August 2006 - What is Urban Agricuture?.

CANADA 7-11 December

2006-12-08T07:28:00.000-08:00

THURSDAY 7th DECEMBER - I met with a group of people, most of whom I had met with in June of this year when I attended the inaugral World Planners Congress in Vancouver. I had co-written the paper 'Growing Food and Growing Houses - it's a landscape thing' which one of my co-editors, Ian Knowd presented at the Congress. I contributed to the Congress in the Urban Agriculture Roundtable session. I also gave a presentation titled 'Urban Agriculture - the new frontier' at a Whole of Canada Urban Agriculture Forum following the Congress. Sixty people were at that Forum one of the outcomes of which was the establishment of a network to futher the gains made through the Congress and Forum.

The meeting today was the last official duty of my journey. I could not think of a better way to end my tour than in the company of a great bunch of people who are totally committed to the cause of urban agriculture and the many social, economic and environmental benefits it has the capacity of, and in many instances is providing to both urban and rural communities.

Those in attendence were Richard Balfour, Director, New Planning Initiatives, New City Institute, Vancouver, BC; Gary Hall, Policy Planner, Agricultural Land Commission, BC; Roger Cheetham, Planning Officer, Agricutural Land Commission, BC; Mark Robbins, Regional Agrologist, Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, BC; Jim LeMaistre, Land Use Planner, Strengthening Farming Program, Ministry of Agriculture and Lands, BC; Devorah Kahn, Food Policy Council, City of Vancouver; Karen Thomas, Land Use Agrologist, Resource Management Branch, Ministry of Agricultural and Lands, BC; Carole Christopher, Food Policy Council, City of Vancouver; Janine de la Salle, Food Policy Council, City of Vancouver; Tara MacDonald, Executive Director, Farmers Markets Vancouver; Barry Smith, Planning Consultant, Vancouver; Harold Steves, Farmer and Councillor, City of Richmond, BC; and Gail Knox, Snr Journalist, Hawkesbury Gazette, Richmond, NSW, Australia.

Topics discussed included the direct marketing of local food in BC; case studies of how the community values local food and associated agriculture; farmers markets; and the relationship between local food and community health. I gave a summation of my world wide impression of urban agriculture. It was a very productive day. Information arising from the day will be incorporated into my report which should be ready for public display by the middle of March 2007.

Its been a great journey - a once in a lifetime experience and there are many people, groups and organisations to thank. So I don't miss anyone out I will do that in my report. If you would like to receive a copy of the report please let me know by sending me an email at: dwmason@bigpond.com

Best wishes to all those who have been reading my blog. Have a great Christmas and may the New Year bring you many good things.

USA 26 November to 6 December

2006-11-29T02:24:00.000-08:00

Toledo University. Photo courtesy Department of Geography and Planning

SUNDAY 26th November: Arrived Toledo, Ohio, USA

MONDAY 27th – TUESDAY 28th NOVEMBER: For these two days I was the guest of the Urban Affairs Centre (UAC) of the University of Toledo. The people I was directly involved with from UAC for all of the time were Professor Neil Reid, Director; Mr Joe Perlaky, Project Manager; and Ms Paula Ross, Research Associate.

The University of Toledo has 17,000 students. Its layout and architecture is stunning. Toledo itself is a great city of 300,000 people with a very interesting industrial history. Its history is associated with the automobile and glass industry and its architecture and infrastructure reflects the prosperity that those industries brought.

When preparing for my study tour I had identified a number of factors/concepts etc that I believed were very important to the sustainability of agriculture in the urban and urbanising situation. Cluster production and marketing was one of them. When I Googled those words, the UAC at Toledo University kept coming up. I related to what I read and contacted Neil Reid.

The UAC is working with a group of flower growers called the Maumee Valley Growers Association - http://www.maumeevalleygrowers.com/ - hit ‘About MVG’.

What I found extremely valuable and interesting was the role the UAC was playing in the development of the Maumee Valley Growers Association and how they were playing that role. Essentially UAC has established a systemic process by which it has engaged with at least 33 individual and very independent growers who saw absolutely no reason to come together to form any type of group. An example of one of the benefits that the group has achieved is that they can now purchase their energy needs at a significantly discounted rate compared to what they could buy it for as individuals. There are other benefits as well but I will draw all that out in my report. I will examine the process in the report as well.

I met with one of the growers, Richard Bostdorff and his family. The name of their family business is Greenhouse Acres Ltd. One of their enterprises is growing out and direct marketing poinsettias. The poinsettias are a favourite plant at Christmas time. When I suggested to Richard that the Association was similar to a cooperative he would not have a bar of it. As far as he was concerned it was a group of people who have found commonalities through a process that allows those involved to remain independent yet do what they can agree to do collectively without a rigid structure such as a cooperative. I recognised that UAC had empowered these growers to come together as a group through a process that was truly systemic and it was this process that was driving the associated economic development. It was also driving social aspects (family involvement and get togethers and associate sharing of ideas) as well as environmental aspects (best practice).

What UAC is effectively doing is what I have said somewhere else in this blog about what I believe is the new role of government in this day and age. UAC is tapping into and releasing the creativity that is inherently embedded in communities which in UAC’s case is the collective individuals in the Maumee Valley Flower Growers Association. The inherent capacity to make dramatic improvements to social, economic and environmental situations is an untapped resource that exists in individuals, groups, and organisations within communities. The facilitative intervention of government and organisations such as universities and other change agents/organisations can release and shape that resource through systemic processes. Systemic process is what is required to deal with the complexity of the many problems of today.

The beautiful colours of the poinsettias at Greenhouse Acres Ltd

A highlight of my visit to Toledo was that I was invited to give a talk on my work in Sydney and what I had learnt from my Churchill study tour in the Toledo Public Library.
A link to the invitation of the event can be found by clicking here: http://uac.utoledo.edu/What%20Works/ww-flyer-11-27-06.pdf.

Among those who attended were Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur and Lucas County Commissioner Pete Gerken. Congresswoman Kaptur is the longest current serving woman in the US Congress. She is in her 12th two year term and is a champion of urban agriculture. It was a pleasure to meet and talk with her.

Talking with Congresswoman Marcy Kaptur and Commissioner Pete Gerken

I also had meetings with many other people including those I met on field visits. I will provide information on those meetings and what some people in particular are doing in due course. In the mean time the following sites provide some details of my visit:

The UAC record of my visit - http://uac.utoledo.edu/What%20Works/Mason-11-27-06/ww-11-27-06.htm; and

The research website for the UAC project - www.ohiogreenhouse.com

WEDNESDAY 29th NOVEMBER: Flew from Detriot to San Franciso via Dallas/Fort Worth which took seven hours. Who says that flying is fun?

THURSDAY 30th NOVEMBER: Spent the day dealing with emails, other administrative matters, and recording on the blog. My wife Gail joins me tomorrow for the balance of my journey. I have not had a day off since I started seven weeks ago and I think I have earned time for a rest in between the few official duties remaining for the balance of my time away.

FRIDAY 1st - TUESDAY 5th DECEMBER: Things did not work out quite as I had planned in San Francisco however both Gail and I made some interesting observations about the people of San Francisco, the environment, the quality of life and local food and beverage and the relationships between all of those factors. Gail is a journalist and she engaged with the local people easily. When we get home we will write our observations and impressions to include in this section of the blog.

WEDNESDAY 6th DECEMBER: Flew to Vancouver. Vancouver was covered in snow. It was very beautiful from the air. It is such a beautiful city with its setting on the water with the snow covered mountains in the background.

EDITORIAL NOTE

2006-11-20T03:46:00.000-08:00

I have received a couple of emails from people who cannot get the pictures on the blog when they down load. I have spoken to my blog advisor and it could be that those people are on dial-up rather than broadband. There is so much detail on the blog that the dial-up method can't download it all and leaves the pictures out. The other suggestion is that hitting the refresh button on the IP home page may help overcome the problem. Other people are getting all of the text and the pictures.

As of Saturday 9th December the site has been accessed 1083 times at an average of 15 per day with a maximum of 34 in one day. USA accounts for 53%, Canada 21%, Australia 19%, UK 2%; and Singapore, Italy, India, Bangladesh and an unknown country 1% each.

CANADA 19-25 November

2006-11-19T15:26:00.000-08:00

A snapshot of the landcape with its associated flora, fauna and rural lands protected by the Toronto Greenbelt

I am going to have to apologise up front because I am not going to be able to provide more than a thumb nail sketch of what I have done this week. I have seen so much, spoken to so many and received and recorded so much information that I will only be able to deal with it when I get back to Australia.

MONDAY 20th NOVEMBER: Met with Mr John Turvey, Land Use Planning Specialist; Ms Donna Mundie, Land Use Policy Specialist; Ms Carol Neumann, Rural Planner; and Mr Ken Slingerland, Tender Fruit & Grape Specialist of the Ontario Ministry of Agriculture and Food. We travelled by car from Guelph to Niagara Falls through lands zoned for growth as well as for greenbelt within the Niagara Horseshoe, so called because the land involved lies between a ridge in the shape of a horseshoe left as a glacial deposit eons ago. This zoning is supported through recent legislation. For further detail refer to: www.pir.gov.on.ca/english/growth/index.html.

Because of the proximity to the Falls we made a detour and enjoyed the spectacle.

Getting cold at Niagara Falls

Warming up at one of the many wineries in the region

TUESDAY 21st NOVEMBER AM: Spent the morning in a seminar where a number of people spoke of their involvement in agriculture associated with urban and urbanising environments. Those who spoke were:
- Mr Elbert van Donkersgoed, Executive Director, Greater Toronto Area Action Plan
- Dr Brady Deaton, Assistant Professor, Agricultural Economics and Business, University of Guelph
- Ms Melissa Watkins, Executive Director, Ontario Farmland Trust
- Ms Carol Neumann
- Mr Andrew Jamieson, Farm Implements Coordinator, Ministry of Agriculture and Food

The discussion ranged across local food, land use planning for local food, and land use planning affecting direct marketing and agri-tourism; research into the effect that greenbelt zoning is having and will have on property prices; farmland preservation; programs to assist young farmers into growing organic food; and programs to protect farmers from nuisance complaints.

Mr Clarence Haverson, Manager, Business and Organisational Manager of the Ministry of Agriculture and Food provided me a copy of a report titled 'Jurisdictional Analysis and Best Practice for Land Use Planning Affecting Direct Marketing and Agri-Tourism Operations in Ontario'. For further infomation go to www.ontariofarmfresh.com.

TUESDAY 21st NOVEMBER PM: Travelled by car with John Turvey and Donna Mundie to Bradford West Gwillimbury, North of Guelph where we met up with Mr Art Janse, Drainage Superintendent/Commissioner of the Holland Marsh Drainage Scheme. Holland Marsh is 7000 acres of peat based organic soil. One hundred and sixty farmers grow mainly onions and carrots with some Asian vegetables in this soil. The soil is essentially a growing medium only into which the nutrient requirements of the crops are supplied by the farmers – a bit like nature’s own hydroponic set up. The marsh was originally a wetland which was drained. It is part of the green belt zone.

Holland Marsh

WEDNESDAY 22nd NOVEMBER: Spent the day organising the rest of my trip.

THURSDAY 23rd NOVEMBER: Caught a Greyhound Bus from Guelph to Toronto and met up with Dr Wayne Thomas, Project Co-ordinator and Ms Leslie Toy of the Toronto Food Policy Council. One of the defining aspects of the Food Policy Council is that it makes the connection between local food and human health as well as environmental health. In that regard it leads the world – a simple concept but one generally ignored at all levels in societies across the world. Further details can be accessed at: www.toronto.ca/health/tfpc_index.htm

FRIDAY 24th NOVEMBER: Met with Professor Alan Wildeman, Vice President (Research) University of Guelph. We spoke about how the Agribusiness Research Park was established on University owned lands, and the issue of agriculture in the urbanising environment. In regard to the Agribusiness Research Park, my framework of thought was centred on the Hawkesbury Campus of the University of Western Sydney where my office of the Department of Primary Industries is located and where I undertook my Masters in systems thinking. I have no doubt the way of thinking, not necessarily the degree, is a major reason I am on this trip.

SATURDAY 25th NOVEMBER: Participated in the Farm Folk City Folk Annual Local Food Conference 2006 in Toronto. This conference titled “What Does Local Food Really Mean? Getting Down to Business with Local Jobs, Sales and Economic Development” was sponsored by the Toronto Food Policy Council, Caledon Countryside Alliance, Local Flavours Plus and the Greater Toronto Area Agricultural Action Plan. I was on the agenda and made a presentation on Sydney Region agriculture with particular emphasis on Hawkesbury Harvest – http://www.hawkesburyharvest.com.au/.

More than 100 people attended to hear topics that provided a greater understanding of what local food means, where it currently sits in the minds of consumers, how it is contributing to the viability of local farms and its contribution to not only local economic development but also its contribution in regard to new immigrant groups and human and environmental health. During the day I spoke at length with David Cohlmeyer, a local farmer who provided much of the food used by the conference centre restaurant at lunch time. David sells most if not all that he produces on his 60 acres by direct marketing to restaurants and hotels. He is very successful. Details of his operation are available on http://www.cookstowngreens.com/.

SUNDAY 26th NOVEMBER: I travelled by Greyhound Bus from Toronto to Detroit, Michigan on my way to Toledo, Ohio, USA. I wanted to travel across the land rather than above it to get an appreciation of the countryside. I spent the next few days in Toledo.

USA 4-18 November

2006-11-09T03:21:00.000-08:00

The new American frontier: The farmland/rural/urban edge - Denver, Colorado. Photo courtesy Ian Sinclair, Edge Planning, Australia

NOTE: 2006 marks the first time in the history of USA that it is a net importer of food - a reason for concern for those who understand the social, environmental and economic implications of this.

MONDAY 6th NOVEMBER: I met with Mr Bob Lewis, Chief Marketing Representative, Division of Agricultural Protection and Development Services, Department of Agriculture and Markets, New York State. Bob without a doubt is a human dynamo. He has spent the last 30 years of his life totally dedicated to the well being of small farmers and the consumer through local food. The major mechanism he has worked with to do this is the Farmers Market system which he has been instrumental in getting in place in New York State. He has also been involved in implementing other local food direct marketing options. Bob is a ‘champion’ within the government system.

In 2002 the ‘New York Direct Marketing Survey 2000’ was released. Some stand-out details from that report are as follows:

- 6667 New York State farmers representing 18% of all of the State’s farmers sold their agricultural products worth US$230 million directly to consumers.
- Average sales per farm was $34,530.
- 36% of sales occurred through farm buildings; 27% was from mail order, home delivery and community supported agriculture, and 25% was from farmers markets.
- The leading method of direct marketing for 40% of fruit growers was pick-your-own.
- Other methods include roadside markets, open (roadside) stands and direct wholesale.
- 1866 producers sold products worth $138 million direct wholesale, ie to other growers, stores, restaurants, schools and institutions.
- 5571 producers derived >50% of their gross value of sales from direct marketing of which 4393 producers derived 90% of their sales.
- 39,507 people were employed in the direct marketing of agricultural produce. 30% were unpaid, mostly family members; 9% were all year full time paid employees; 13% were seasonal fulltime; 3% worked full time during certain times of the year and part time during the balance; 4% worked part time all year; and 3% only worked part time during certain periods.

Any market is a response to a demand and the capacity to supply that demand. The direct marketing system is no different. So what demand does the New York local food direct marketing system satisfy? One step to answer that is to show the increase in types of direct marketing methods and sales (US$) between 1987 and 2000.

Year: 1987 --- 2000
Road side: 859 --- 1043
Open stand: 1002 --- 1622
Pick your own: 748 --- 1475
Farm building: 3110 --- 2388
Farmers Market: 712 --- 1690
Other: 1130 --- 1796
TOTAL: 6125 --- 6667 (9% inc)
SALES: $112.25m --- $230.2m (120% inc)

The 'Greenmarket' network is one form of Farmers Markets in New York City. Almost 200 local farmers, fishers and bakers sell what they grow, raise catch and bake themselves. Middlemen and brokers are not allowed. Greenmarket is a program of the Council on the Environment of New York City (NYC) which is a privately funded citizens’ organisation in the Mayor’s Office. There are approximately 80 Farmers Markets in NYC, 40 of which are Greenmarkets. The Greenmarkets range from two (minimum required to start a market) to fifteen stands. The factors on which Greenmarket is based are preservation of farmland, strengthening rural economies, food security, improving urban neighbourhood economies, creating community and urban renewal, education, best management practice, healthy water, food miles, and bio-diversity. I visited Borough Hall Greenmarket in Brooklyn which had 12 stands on Tuesday 9th November.

Borough Hall Greenmarket, Brooklyn, New York

The other 40 or so NYC Farmers Markets are community based. The conditions under which each market operates can vary from those with strict guidelines such as those who sell must grow or value-add the food, to situations where one farmer can sell his/her produce as well as that grown by other local farmer/s. The major criterion is that the consumer gets what they want – local grown and value-added food. Another criterion that some market operators see as important is the maximisation of the economic capacity that can be derived from local food networking and integration. Such flexibility requires that sufficient checks and balance are in place to ensure that the ‘local’ requirement is met and that the person selling is in fact a local farmer or value-adder. Successful examples of this type of Farmers Market system of operation exist in Maryland State (where I visited) as well as in NYC.

By comparison in California there is a strict regulatory system. This arose from the fact the original laws did not allow for direct sales. However when the decision makers realised the value of direct local food marketing they changed the laws to allow it but with the proviso that those who were selling the food had to have grown or value-added the food.

The Farmers Market system began in the 1970s because, due to action by the agricultural community, the legislators realised there was no provision in the food retail system for small farmers to market their produce and get an equitable return. At the Federal level programs such as the Farmers Markets Promotions Program were introduced and provided legislative support such as through the Farmers and Consumers Direct Marketing Act.

In the 1980s the connection between local food and direct marketing was taken one step forward by the recognition by legislators of the connection between local food and direct marketing, nutrition and public health. This recognition resulted in programs such as the Women, Infants and Children (WIC) Program. WIC is a special supplemental food program for women, infants and children up to the age of five that provides nutritious food and nutrition education. It operates through the Farmers Market System and is linked to other vital health care and social services. WIC is supported by the WIC Farmers Market Nutrition Act.

As recognition of the public good provided by Farmers Market and other direct marketing mechanisms the New York State Government provides funding to the Department of Agriculture and Markets to implement and protect those mechanisms.

WEDNESDAY 8th NOVEMBER: I travelled by train from NYC to Washington DC.

THURSDAY 9th NOVEMBER: I met with Mr John Zawitoski, Director of Planning and Promotions, Department of Economic Development, Derwood, Maryland. This meeting is the first of many I will be having over the next week on the issue of farmland preservation. This includes the many people I will meet at the American Farmland Trust’s National Conference in Newark, Delaware from Sunday 12th to Wednesday 15th November. John, like all of the people I have met, is a champion of agriculture in the urban and urbanising situation. The quality and breadth of his involvement is outstanding.

I recognise I have a dilemma at the moment. I am going to be able to tap into a great deal of information from many sources from all over the USA over the next week. I have decided to spend as much of my time as possible speaking to as many people as I can. Therefore I am not going to be able to keep the blog up to date as I have been doing. Mind you, I have been only able to do that because I wake at 4 am (no matter what country I have been in) every morning and get up and write up the previous day/s activities.

What I intend to do is simply record on the blog whom I have been talking to and the broad nature of what we talked about. When I return to Australia I will distil the information into my report.

FRIDAY 10th NOVEMBER: The 10th November is a public holiday – Veterans Day. It is the US equivalent of Australia’s ANZAC Day. For those who don’t know ANZAC is the acronym for Australia and New Zealand Army Corps. ANZAC Day occurs on 25th April and commemorates the landing of Australian and New Zealand troops at Gallipoli at the base of Turkey in the First World War. The military objective was not achieved and we lost a lot of young Australian men. However the military defeat was in fact a victory for the young county and its people because it soon came to symbolise the Australian character - resolute in adversity and charitable always to all. Australians can define themselves in defeat and in victory and find comfort in both. That does not mean we like losing though. Our tough environment has played a significant part in that journey of identity.

I had a few hours to spare in the morning so I decided to have a look around Washington DC. It was a beautiful day and it is a beautiful city – its layout reminded me a lot of Canberra, Australia’s capital city. The architecture is vastly different however.

Later in the day I travelled to Baltimore and was met by my hosts for the next 24 + hours Steve and Deborah Bowers. Deb is the Editor and Publisher of her own Newsletter – the ‘Farmland Preservation Report’ for which there are many subscribers throughout the USA – http://www.farmlandpreservationreport.com/. She is also politically savvy and has contributed greatly to the preservation of farmland in Maryland particularly in Harford County where she and Steve live on their farm. Deb personifies ‘the power of one’ principle. She single handed prevented a country road from being widened and tarred because it was of such historical value in form and situ.

Deb Bowers – Champion of historic dirt roads and farmland; passionate about birdlife.

That evening Steve and Deb conducted me on a taste, learn and buy experience of Baltimore’s local food and beer. We were in South Baltimore. The houses were originally occupied by people who worked in the steel industry over a century ago. They are now being bought and renovated by professionals and young people on good salaries.

This area is in transition and local food and beverage is playing a significant part in the way the community is defining itself as part of that transition.

We started off with a pint of ‘Resurrection’ ale at Mothers Pub. This was followed by a few more pints at The Thirsty Dog Pub & Restaurant a couple of blocks away. The Thirsty Dog has a range of local beers named after dogs including – Red Setter, Brown Dog, Black Dog and Hoppy Dog (I remember them because they are the ones I drank). The alcoholic content is variable in the local beers, some up to 9%, and those have the capacity to sneak up and give you a good bite (sorry). The other great thing about the Thirsty Dog is patrons are able to bring their dogs into the pub. Deb and Steve brought their dog Rudy along and she met up with some of her pals and had a great night. At some stage during the proceedings I mention I would like to try the crab cakes for which Baltimore is renowned. Deb took me around the corner to ‘Crazy Lils’ to have some as the Thirsty Dog only did pizza. Rudy was having such a good time Steve stayed with her at the Thirsty Dog. Put Crazy Lils' crab cakes on your ‘must do’ list when you visit Baltimore. The cakes were a starter followed by Thirsty Dog pizza which is made of fresh local ingredients – one of the best pizzas I have ever had. Later we drove 40 minutes north east of Baltimore to the farm.

SATURDAY 11th NOVEMBER: Deb took me for a tour around her part of the world, being Street, Maryland in Harford County. We saw examples of what works in the preservation of farmland and what doesn’t. Later that day Deb and Steve drove me to the University of Delaware at Newark where the conference is being held.

LOSS OF FARMLAND IN THE USA

Farmland loss emerged as a national issue in the late 1970s. In 1978, the U.S. secretary of agriculture commissioned the National Agricultural Lands Study (NALS)—a two-year project to document the extent and causes of farmland loss. Findings from NALS spurred Congress to enact the Farmland Protection Policy Act (FPPA), as part of the Agriculture and Food Act of 1981, to reduce the unnecessary conversion of agricultural land by federal programs. At the same time, dozens of state and local governments were creating their own programs and policies to protect farmland from development. (American Farmland Trust Fact Sheet August 2004).

AMERICAN FARMLAND TRUST

The following is taken from the American Farmland Trust’s (AFT) website: http://www.farmland.org/
America is losing 1.2 million acres of farmland annually, much of it the best and most productive farmland near where most Americans live.
American Farmland Trust is committed to protecting the nation's best farm and ranch land and improving the economic viability of agriculture. During the past 25 years, AFT helped to stimulate the creation of 27 state-level farmland protection programs, as well as countless local ordinances and programs that give landowners the tools they need to keep their land in farming. We've been the catalyst for unprecedented levels of funding for federal programs that protect farmland and improve the environment.AFT works with federal, state and local leaders and communities to develop legislation, implement policies and execute programs that keep farmers on their land and protect our environment.

SUNDAY 12th NOVEMBER: Went on a seven hour bus trip, hosted by the Delaware Agricultural Lands Preservation Foundation. The tour illustrated the successes that have occurred in joining highways, history and Delaware’s horse industry to protect Delaware State’s agriculture. This trip was on the eastern side of Delaware. It was the first event of the American Farmland Trusts National Conference held at the University of Delaware in Newark. All of the sessions I attended are listed below. There were plenty more but these are the ones that I thought would have relevance to the Australian situation.

MONDAY 13th NOVEMBER (PM)
- Session 1 of the conference: ‘Evaluation of the United States Department of Agriculture’s (USDA) Farm and Ranch Lands Protection Program (FRPP)’. The assessment includes a survey of 441 agricultural landholders who sold development rights and received funds provided by USDA’s FRPP program.
- Keynote Speaker 1 – Gary Hirsberg, CEO, Stonyfield Farm. Mr Hirsberg started producing organic milk with seven cows 25 years ago and now has an organisation that turns over more than $200 million a year in organic dairy produce and products. His message is that organic is the way to go both environmentally and economically. See http://www.stonyfield.com/.
- Had dinner with Jac Smit and Alan Hunter. Jac Smit has been an internationally recognised advocate/expert of urban agriculture for 30 + years – Google Jac Smit. Jac’s work at the moment is concentrated on the role that urban agriculture will play in the context of global warming. He sees technologies such as that developed by Australian’s Andrew Bodlovich and Hogan Gleeson as having a significant part to play (see ‘Australian Eco-City Farms’ chapter on this blog).

Alan Hunter is President of the Urban Earth Project. Alan is a universal thinker and facilitates projects of community benefit. His belief in the principle that thoughts/beliefs create physical expression is unshakeable and his work and life provides proof. He epitomises what the ‘American Dream’ actually means.

TUESDAY 14th NOVEMBER
- Session 2: ‘Protecting Farmland is a Community Investment’. Information was presented on how farmland and open space protection achieves preservation goals and avoids the greater costs of community services related to residential development, which is more expensive than preservation. The American Farmland Trust has conducted many studies across the country that demonstrates that the residential development costs to the community are greater than any hoped for revenue whereas the costs associated with preservation are cost effective.
- Session 3:
A) ‘Building Support and Finding Funding for Purchase of Agricultural Conservation Easements (PACE)’. This was an exploration of the variety of funding sources used to finance state PACE programs.
B) ‘Healthy Landscapes, Parks and Living – protected areas, food producers and communities working together’. This session was built on the principle that sustainability is an outcome of developing relationships between people and people and people and the social, economic and bio-physical environments with which they interact.
- Session 4: ‘Planning a Future for Agriculture at the Town Level’. This presentation highlighted the challenges and opportunities facing both farmers and municipalities interested in supporting a future for agriculture. An overview of principles was provided including the role town Agricultural Commissions can play; the role of Transfer of Development Rights and Purchase of Transferable Rights programs; also how to create a supportive environment for agriculture; and how to use zoning and other town land use tools to support farm viability.
- Keynote Speaker 2: Mr Ralph Grossi, President, American Farmland Trust. Mr Grossi spoke of the achievements of the AFT as well as the many challenges ahead.
- Session 5: ‘Guaging Support for Innovative Preservation Techniques.’ The relationship between the value of farmland preservation among Connecticut and Delaware residents, and the attributes of the policy process used to accomplish preservation goals were examined. Also discussed were innovative agricultural land preservation programs and funding sources needed to attract landholders and how to measure public support for farmland preservation.
- Session 6: ‘Keeping Farming Viable in the Face of Urban Sprawl’. This presentation included a ‘diagnostic check-list’ to assess Comprehensive Plan and Zoning Ordinances and whether they are compatible with right-to-farm provisions and promote direct producer to consumer marketing and agritourism. Discussion also involved the impact of economic development and public communication efforts supporting traditional and alternative agricultural enterprises. This session used humour very effectively to get the message across. The PowerPoint presentation can be accessed at www.homepage.mac.com/jsegedy. Click on 'there's gold - new uses - Iowa.pps'. It takes a while to download but it is worth the wait.
- ‘Lets Get Fresh Dinner’: The official dinner where all ingredients and beverages were ‘local’ each course prepared by a different restaurant.

WEDNESDAY 15th NOVEMBER AM
- Session 7: ‘Farming for Credit’. The discussion centred on ‘growing new farmers’ and associated successful programming, curriculum development, challenges faced and the community characteristics that enable success. Current models of attracting and education the next generation of sustainable farmers were critiqued.
- Session 8: ‘Protecting Critical Farms and Critical Farmers’. Discussion was centred on assisting young farmers to purchase their first farms which are of high productivity and strategic importance.

- CONFERENCE ENDS

WEDNESDAY 15th NOVEMBER PM: Travelled to Philadelphia, Pennsylvania with Mrs Nancy Weissman, Director, Economic Development, Philadelphia Water Department. Nancy showed me a successful program to utilise land associated with the Philadelphia water supply system for organic vegetable production at the City’s Somerton site where two 5 million gallon tanks supply NE Philadelphia – see photo below.

In 2000 Nancy proposed an experiment to utilise approximately 100 acres of unused grassed areas associated with the Philadelphia water supply infrastructure for organic vegetable production. Her objective was to demonstrate that economic and environmental benefits could be achieved – environmental because it would provide a working example of how land could be used to minimise environmental impacts (with water quality specifically in mind) and economic because she budgeted to achieve a US$50,000 gross return off the half acre within five years.

The revenue generated from the area to the middle of November this year is $67,000 gross and rising. The recent addition of a simple hoophouse (igloo/greenhouse) structure has provided the capacity to increase the length of the growing season so that figure will increase for 2006. It is anticipated that the greenhouse will also provide the capacity to grow crops valued at between $1000 - $3000 from January through to March 2007.

Harvested crops are immediately washed onsite (water is not a problem!!), packaged according to the market they are to supply and placed in an onsite cooler. Nancy has eaten vegetables harvested and handled this way up to three weeks after harvest. During summer the food is direct marketed through three Farmers Markets, 45 CSA (community supported agriculture - see the Netherlands chapter) participants and three restaurants.

The Institute for Innovations in Local Farming is the Philadelphia Water Department's non-profit partner in the Somerton Tanks Farm. The contact for the Institute is Roxanne Christensen. The program is designed on rapidly growing high return crops, minimum fallow land, and a crop rotation plan to maintain soil fertility and minimise pests and disease. The farm development is based on a concept created by Wally Satzewich, Owner, Wally's Urban Market Garden in Canada. For further details on that concept and to contact either Roxanne or Wally go to: www.spinfarming.com

Nancy Weissman and her government fostered organic vegetable experiment

THURSDAY 16th NOVEMBER: Travelled to Lancaster County, Pennsylvania with Professor Tom Daniels, School of Design, City and Regional Planning, University of Pennsylvania. Tom has written a number of books including ‘When City and Country Collide’ and another he co-wrote with Deb Bowers titled ‘Holding Our Ground’. He has played a major part in having significant agricultural lands in Lancaster County preserved for agriculture. Before he took up his position at the University of Pennsylvania four years ago he was Director of Lancaster County Agricultural Preserve Board for nine years. Tom said that 7 million people visit Lancaster County each year essentially for its agriculture and associated scenic amenity and leave behind $1 billion.

FRIDAY 17th NOVEMBER: Tom and I went to meet Mr Matt Knepper, the current Director of the Lancaster County Agricultural Preserve Board which is part of the Lancaster County (Local) Government. Our discussion was based on land use maps that showed the extent and emerging strategic pattern of agricultural land preservation in Lancaster County. Following that meeting Tom and I drove into parts of Lancaster County to observe how the strategic approach to farmland preservation was effectively blocking urban expansion by providing frontiers of preservation and appropriate back up density of preservation that prevented leapfrogging of development. We also observed preserved farmland that was completely surrounded by development. The analogy in that circumstance is one of farmland being surrounded and under siege yet staring back with the 'eye of the tiger'.

The overall analogy however is ‘the worm has turned’ - that agriculture is fighting back against greed, ignorance and avarice and is giving a good account of itself. It is purely and simply a political issue that is now at the stage where no person would seek political office in this part of the world or for that matter in many other parts of the US unless agricultural land preservation was part of their platform.

What we need in Australia right now are two things. The first is that those who want agriculture to remain as part of the land use and as a form of human activity in urban and urbanising environments need to band together as one voice (instead of the separate and sometimes conflicting groups that now exist). Secondly the time is right for the emergence of political champions for agriculture in the face of urbanisation at the three levels of government.

I am not suggesting that the USA model is the one for Australia, however there are many principles and examples on which the farmland preservation movement in the US is based, as well as processes and mechanisms to preserve agriculture in the other countries I have visited, that can be applied to the Australian circumstance.

SATURDAY 18th NOVEMBER: Travelled to NYC to fly to Toronto tomorrow.

ENGLAND 28 October - 3 November

2006-11-02T14:15:00.000-08:00

MONDAY 30th October AM: Met with Ms Alice Elliot, Policy Food Officer, London Development Agency. Mayor Ken Livingston of London has developed a ‘Healthy and Sustainable Food for London Strategy’. This is in response to the UK Government’s push for more sustainable food and farming. This direction is essentially in response to two major factors – a number of food safety and biosecurity problems that have occurred and the obesity epidemic affecting the British populace. However the London strategy has widened its brief to take a systemic approach to food. The strategy aims to:
- Improve Londoners’ health and reduce the health inadequacies via the food they eat.
- Reduce the negative environmental impacts of London’s food system.
- Support a vibrant food sector.
- Celebrate and promote London’s food culture.
- Develop London’s food security.

In Order to achieve this, the Strategy identifies six areas of action:
- Ensuring commercial vibrancy.
- Securing consumer engagement.
- Levering the power of procurement.
- Developing regional links.
- Delivering healthy schools.
- Reducing food-related waste and litter.

Mayor Livingston set up the London Food Board to develop the Strategy. The Strategy sits alongside a number of other key London policies and initiatives including the London Spatial Development Strategy (also know as the London Plan). Other London policies with links to food include the London Cultural Strategy, the Economic Development Strategy, the Transport Strategy and the Municipal Waste and Management Strategy.

At local and community levels, partnerships with the London Boroughs is essential and it is intended that the Mayor’s Food Strategy will feed into the actions of local councils and other public bodies such as Primary Care Trusts and Local Education Authorities.

Mayor Livingston makes it quite clear that this Strategy is intended to entitle London to be considered a sustainable world city. The London Development Agency is working with him to achieve that status for the city.

Further details are accessible at: http://www.lda.gov.uk/.

MONDAY 30th October PM: Ms Emma Hockridge of Sustain accompanied me to meet with Ms Jenny Usher on her organic farm at Epping which she has farmed for 25 years. Ms Usher is a member of the Board of the Soil Association UK and is also a member of the Horticulture Standards Committee of that organisation. Some details of the Association are as follows:

- The Association celebrated its 60th anniversary this year.
- The basic objective of the Association is to make food and farming more sustainable.
- It has two arms – one as a charity and the other generates income from the certification of farms as organic.
- It has two categories of membership: consumers and producers.
- It provides technical and marketing advice to its members.
- It is responsible for 70% of the organic certification in the UK and it has the highest standards. Standards are set by the European Union and the Asociation also develops standards.
- The Association receives funding from the Government for each certification. Those being certified also pay a fee to the Association. Profits from the business arm are channelled to the charity arm.
- There are approximately 60 privately owned Associatioin demonstration farms in the UK.

The organic movement in the UK began its major push at the beginning of the 1990s. Since then it has grown exponentially. Ms Usher said that it is expected that the demand would allow it to grow by 30% in the next 12 months. There will not be enough produce to meet that demand. There is however more land in transition from conventional farming to organic farming in the UK than ever before. My interpretation of this is that it is an indicator of what I have mentioned in other places on this blog - that consumers are beginning to make their demands and the food system will have to respond all the way down the line to those demands in time.

Ms Usher said that organic food can attract a price differential of between 10% to 50% over conventionally grown food. She also believes that Government has a role to play particularly in getting the planning provisions right so that organic food can be grown. One of the government programs, ‘Food for Life’, targeted at children in their schools has a requirement that the food provided through the school canteens is 30% organic, 50% local and 70% unprocessed. There are also programs in place to train the food handlers in the canteens.

Ms Usher grows most of her produce in the open. She does however have a glasshouse (see photo) which enables her to extend her season for crops such as tomatoes and cucumbers. The glasshouse is one that has been replaced by new glasshouse technology in the Netherlands and transported to the UK for use in organic and other types of food production. There is a strong business in doing that. Ms Usher has a niche by selling her product through a small local retail chain.

Further details of the Soil Association UK are at: http://www.soilassociation.org/.

TUESDAY 31st October AM: Met with Ms Catherine Miller, London Development Worker, Federation of City Farms & Community Gardens. We met at the Kentish Town City Farm, London NW5 4BN. The Federation is a charity which supports and represents Community Gardens and City Farms throughout the UK.

Projects range from long established residential gardens to pocket-sized urban spaces saved from development; from shared allotment plots and organic orchards, to the largest urban farms. They have one thing in common: they are managed by the community for the community. There 65 City Farms and an estimated 1,200 Community Gardens in the UK of which 18 and 31 respectively are located in London.

According to John at the Kentish Town City Farm, that farm started the City Farm movement 30 years ago. A group of locals decided they wanted to grow their own vegetables and identified a piece of land of about 2 hectares next to the railway line near Gospel Oak Station. The land was partly owned by the local council and the railways. Somehow those involved have secured a 99 year lease on the site. Over time animals have been added making it a complete miniature farm yard with chooks, turkeys , geese, ducks, goats, 2 saddleback pigs, a cow, three horses (who were having their annual holiday in the country) and sheep.

There are two gardens – one in which local pensioners grow their own food and the other to provide children with the opportunity to plant, tend and pick some vegetables to take home for eating.

Personally I found the farm a haven to escape the hustle and bustle, noise and crowds of London. I observed the delight of a young local girl who came with her mother to do a little project on the nature of a farm. I imagine her school mates would have found out all about it when she returned to school.

Benefits provided by City Farms and Community Gardens include closer communities, high quality public open spaces, increased local food growing, plus volunteering and training opportunities in deprived areas. People of all ages come to help out on the Kentish Town City Farm.

The Federation actively promotes good practice and is actively involved in several partnerships including the School Farms Network, the Allotments Regeneration Initiative, Sustainable Communities and Food Consortium, and the Sustainable Production in Active Neighbourhoods. Further details are available at: http://www.farmgarden.org.uk/.

TUESDAY 31st October PM: Met with Ms Emma Hockridge, Mr Matt Castle and Ms Ida Fabrizio, Project Officers, Sustain, London. Sustain-the alliance for better food and farming, represents over 100 national public interest organisations working at international, national, regional and local levels. Its aim is to advocate food and agriculture policies and practices that enhance the health and welfare of people and animals, improve the working and living environment, promote equity and enrich society and culture.

There are many projects that Sustain is involved with, too many to mention here. The project categories are: London Food Link; Grab 5; Hospital Food Project; Sustainable Food Chains; Food Poverty Network; Children’s Food Bill; and Food and Mental Health.

I will however outline one – ‘The Better Hospital Food’ project. This pilot project, run over the past two years in partnership with the Soil Association aimed to increase the promotion of sustainable food in four London hospitals to 10% of their routine catering. The hospitals ranged in size for 250 beds to 1100 beds. One hospital is now spending 15% of its budget on local and/or organic food. Another achieved the 10% target, one is making progress and one failed to make any changes. Funds have just been made available to build on what has been achieved so far.

The work undertaken by Sustain feeds into the Healthy and Sustainable Food for London Strategy. Details of Sustain and its projects can be accessed at: http://www.sustainweb.org/.

WEDNESDAY 1st NOVEMBER: I caught the train from Paddington in London to Ludlow in Shropshire. The pleasure of getting out into the English countryside was just what I needed. The beauty of the countryside, the ever changing landscapes (the Welsh valleys are stunning), the hamlets and villages washed over my tired brain and revived me for the next enjoyable and very interesting 24 hours.

During that time I met with the Mayor of Ludlow, Clr. Graeme Kidd, Mr John Fleming, Chair of Ludlow Slow Food, and Clr. Graeme Perks, President of the Ludlow Chamber of Trade & Commerce and Vice-Chair of the Ludlow Food and Drink Festival Committee.

Ludlow is a town of 10,000 people. There are thousands more in the surrounding region. Its main feature is the ruined castle (complements of Cromwell) around which the town is built. After William the Conqueror invaded England in 1066 he created a boundary or ‘March’ to define his border with Wales. Ludlow is referred to as Ludlow Marches. In due course a line of fortifications was established along the England/Wales border, with work starting on Ludlow Castle in 1085. The streets are narrow and medieval architecture is a common feature. Ludlow is a lovely town. The pub where I stayed for the night, the Bull Hotel, dates back to the 14th Century. The photo below is of the Feathers Hotel across the road from the Bull.

Twelve years ago Ludlow was in the doldrums. Small business was struggling, shops were closing down and there was concern for the future. The Ludlow Chamber of Trade & Commerce took the initiative and decided to have a Food & Drink Festival. It was a great success and today it attracts more than 20,000 people from all over the UK and the world for three days each September. It has been a catalyst for the revival of a vibrant local and regional economy where food and drink plays a significant part. One thing it has done is make a very strong contribution to the identity of the town and region as a cente of local and regional food. The constituents are very proud of that identity.

The evolvement of the benefits provided by the Food & Drink Festival continued with the setting up of a local Slow Food Convivium in 2002. This convivium covers the Shropshire, Hereford, Worchester and Powys areas.

The Slow Food movement began in 1986 when Carlo Petrini, an Italian journalist visited Rome and saw a new branch of McDonalds at the foot of the Spanish Steps. He was horrified and saw it as a global takeover of traditional regional Italian food by industrialised, standardised food. He established the Slow Food movement. The following words are from the Slow Food Manifesto 1989: "Our defence should start at the table with Slow Food. Let us rediscover the flavours and savours of regional cooking and banish the degrading effects of Fast Food". I shall paraphrase a well known saying with the following “The way to a community’s heart (passion) is through its stomach”.

Last week the biannual Slow Food Terra Madre was held in Turin in Italy. More than 6000 people from around the world attended. Carlo Petrini does not refer to people as consumers of food, rather he speaks of them as ‘co-producers’. This is consistent with what I am beginning to hear from a number of quarters – the food system is moving to one that is consumer (co-producer) driven – not retail driven as many say is the case now. Slow Food also speaks in terms of ‘eco-gastronomy’. For details of Slow Food go to: http://www.slowfood.com/.

A small example of the increasing economic activity and the social capital developed through the Slow Food movement in Ludlow is that arising from and friendly competition that exists between the five butchers in the main part of the town. Each business has identified a market to meet specific Slow Food demands. Each also produces its own style of sausages with its own secret recipe. One of the features of the Food & Drink Festival is the Sausage Trail where visitors can go from butcher to butcher to experience the difference. The people who take the trail can vote on the best sausage which is encouraged with the reward of a free sausage at the end of the trail at the Castle. The results are eagerly awaited by the butchers. One of the signs outside the butcher shop below says "Choice Sausage Winner 2006". Another says "We are Ludlow's only accredited rare breed butcher". The word "local" appears six times in all of the signs.

Ludlow – A case study – what follows is an interpretation/distillation of a couple of publication of Cittaslow Ludlow and matters as I observed them: In the 18 months before the May 2003 local government elections the Ludlow Town Council was in crisis. Feuding was rife between councillors. The community was marginalised. There was talk of the Council being taken into administration. The 2003 elections saw a change in the people who made up the Council. Mr Graeme Kidd was elected Mayor and has remained so since that time. Necessary changes were made to the Council’s committee system where by each councillor was an automatic member of all Council committees with full voting rights.

One of the first things the new Council did was apply to Italy to become what is termed ‘Cittaslow’. Cittaslow is a movement that links towns that wish to develop a local/regional food ethos together. ‘Citta’ is Italian for town. A Cittaslow town is one which has a number of policies in place including: one to help maintain and develop the distinctiveness and characteristics of the area; another to encourage enhancement of the area based on cultural heritage; and the use of technologies that enhance the quality of life of the area. There are more. In order to qualify as Cittaslow a town has to score 50% against a set of goals in the categories of environment, infrastructure, quality of urban fabric, encouragement of local produce and products, and hospitality and community. Further details can be accessed at http://www.cittaslow.net/. Click on the British flag for English if you don’t read Italian.

Cittaslow Ludlow was set up as a sub-committee of the Ludlow Council. All fifteen councillors were allowed to sit on the Cittaslow Ludlow Committee. It also allowed non-councillors to speak and to vote. This committee structure in which the Cittaslow Ludlow Committee plays a significant role began a new and very successful phase of organisational relaunch for the Council. The process by which local food and drink continues to provide a significant contributon to the well-being of the local and regional community based on Ludlow is on-going and therefore contributes to the sustainability of the town and surrounding region.

The Ludlow model includes the local people and interest groups directly in the work of the Town Council, and taps into the expertise and opinions of a much wider range of local people than are not prepared to stand for election. Participation in local democracy is widened and the Cittaslow Goals provide a set of ambitions that local organisations find easy to sign up to, and work towards. The process catalyses existing existing partnerships and creates new partnerships ‘on the ground’.

The reason I have devoted a significant amount of time and space to what is happening in Ludlow is because I have a fundamental belief that government at any level is unable to meet the challenges facing society today without tapping into the creativity/expertise within a community. There is so much creativity in communities and harnessing that creativity is absolutely imperative to dealing with the social, economic and environmental problems that besets us all. From what I ascertained in a very short time, Ludlow Council is doing that and its constituents are benefiting. There is no doubt in my mind that facilitating the release of community creativity and working with the community as an equal partner is a prime role of government in this day and age.

FRIDAY 3rd November: I met with Mr Ben Gill of the BioRegional Development Group at the Beddington Zero Energy Development (BedZED) in Helios Road, Wallington, Surrey. This development was completed in 2002. The following information is from one of BedZED's web pages.

The Beddington Zero Energy Development, or BedZED, is the UK’s largest eco-village.
The multi-award winning development is one of the most coherent examples of sustainable living in the UK.

Initiated by BioRegional, BedZED was developed by the Peabody Trust development in partnership with BioRegional Development Group and designed by Bill Dunster Architects.
Located in Wallington, South London, BedZED comprises 100 homes, community facilities and workspace for 100 people. Residents have been living at BedZED since March 2002.

BioRegional are working to show that eco-construction and developing green lifestyles can be easy, accessible and affordable, and provide a good quality of life. For example, the heating requirements of BedZED homes are around 10% that of a typical home. We have produced research reports and training to save industry professionals time and money.

The BioRegional team is keen to work with local authorities, developers and the construction industry on a consultancy basis in order to see more eco-village developments built in the UK and abroad.

Web sites to visit are: www.bioregional.com, www.peabody.org.uk/bedzed, and www.zedfactory.com/bedzed/bedzed.html.

The reason I wanted to see this project was because there is a garden allotment as part of the site area as well as the capacity for each home to have a small home garden as part of the structure of the building complex. The roof area is covered in grass. While travelling on the Churchill Fellowship study tour I heard about the success of Andrew Bodlovick’s Ecocity Farm project, located on the North Coast of NSW Australia, on the ABC TV’s ‘New Inventors’ program. See http://www.rivendellorganics.com/. I have put Ben Gill and Andrew Bodlovich in touch with one another.

The first of the following photographs, courteousy of the Royal Institute of British Architects, depicts the project. The second is the ‘sky garden’ of one of the homes.

THE NETHERLANDS 21-27 October

2006-10-26T06:12:00.000-07:00

SATURDAY 21st OCTOBER: I arrived in the Netherlands at the Amsterdam airport. The flight from Singapore was two hours late in departing so I missed my connecting flight from Heathrow to Amsterdam. My luggage then went on a journey of its own until we had a happy reunion two days later in Wageningen where I am ensconced for the week. Murphy’s Law is alive and well. Murphy has decided he wants to travel with me and so I have decided to embrace his presence with dignity and humour. However at the end of the trip I am going to do my best to throttle him.

Wageningen was given official city status in the 13th century, and since then has become an important regional town. Today it is a lively university town with a population of 35,000 people. Students account for almost 5,000 of them. The large number of students here means that there is a good nightlife and cultural scene, and the city centre bustles with coffee shops, bars and restaurants. The Wageningen University (WUR) was founded in 1918 and was originally an agricultural college. Today it is a major centre for food and social sciences. The campus is located in the city centre (Cardiff University).

SUNDAY 22nd October: I decided to go for a walk to explore the city. I also wanted to buy some basics to meet my needs until my luggage arrived. Everything was closed except for a few restaurants and hotels here and there. Sunday is literally a day of rest. One could have fired cannon down some of the residential streets and not hit a sole. I walked up onto the main dyke that protects the city from an arm of the Rhine River. Some people were walking dogs or riding their bicycles as a family. A peaceful and civilised ambience pervaded both the town and the country side. In Roman times this arm of the Rhine, which reminded me of the Hawkesbury River and associated flood plains, was the main river. Over the centuries the main trunk has moved about 20 kilometres southwards.

MONDAY 23rd October AM: I was met at my hotel by Dr Leo van den Berg, Assistant Professor in the Socio-spatial Analysis Unit of the Landscape Centre of WUR. I hired a bicycle and we cycled around the eastern edge of the city for the morning. The first place of interest we came to was where community action saw the halting of urban expansion in the 1960’s. The photograph below shows the demarcation of the urban and the rural.

The community action in the 1960’s resulted in the land being zoned as ‘Agriculture’. However in the face of technological advancements the community saw the threat of the agricultural lands being developed for intensive agricultural industry. Consequently in the 1980’s and 1990’s the original legislation was overlain with landscape and environmental protection legislation. This multiple layer of protection is required to prevent development to retain the landscape for the benefit of future generations as well as the current generation. The thing that struck me is that community/environment interest groups play a significant part in determining what happens to the land, particularly in this part of the Netherlands – perhaps it is the same all over the Netherlands.

We saw a man working in his allotment garden and we went and spoke to him. His name was Mr Wiggers. His allotment was 50 meters x 8.5 meters. Mr Wiggers is a member of a 100 strong association of allotment farmers called ‘The Guild’. The Guild owns approx 6 hectares which it purchased 35 years ago from a traditional farming family that grew potatoes and maize.

Mr Wiggers harvests his crop at the end of October and stores it in his freezer at home. He has enough vegetable and herbs to feed his family until the next May. I asked him if he sells into a market. He said no. There is not a Farmers Market system in Holland. Basically that is because the consumer does not see a need for one as the current system meets their requirements.

The marketing system is essentially geared to larger scale producers not only in the Netherlands but also across Europe and the rest of the world. The auction system is still healthy however the larger supermarkets contract directly with growers and grower organisations. Price and food safety are the major factors of consideration by the consumer. There is a small and increasing number of consumers who buy on quality as the dominant consideration. Their needs are met by another layer of smaller supermarkets or organisations that specialise in sectors of the market such as organics, for example: www.odin.nl/nl/index.htm.

A point of interest: a large farm in the Netherlands is anything above 60 hectares up to a maximum of approximately 200. The larger size is related to animal production. The amount of greenhouse area needed to be profitable for growing crops is 2-5 hectares.

Dr van den Berg and I continued on our way with our next stop being a community supported agriculture farm. For information on community supported agriculture (CSA) go to: www.nal.usda.gov/afsic/csa.

Details of the CSA farm we stopped at can be viewed at: www.home.zonnet.nl/denieuweronde. For those who don’t speak or read Dutch you will still get a good understanding of the nature of this particular organisation by surfing across its menu. It is approximately 3 hectares and has 200 members.

By this time morning had gone. We had worked up a good appetite . We found a nearby restaurant and had a very pleasant lunch.

MONDAY 23rd October PM: After lunch both Dr van den Berg and I cycled over to Wageningen UR –Alterra, Landscape Centre where I met Dr Peter Smeets. Dr Smeets is an international authority on Agriparks

We began our meeting with a PowerPoint presentation of Dr Smeets views of agriculture in the Netherlands past, present and future. Information from that presentation will be included in my final report.

Firstly some facts and figures:

The total area of the Netherlands is 4.2 million hectares of which 3.2 is dryland and the balance is covered in water.
Agriculture accounts for 3.2 million hectares of which greater than half is used by the dairy industry; 500,000 ha is arable with the three main crops being potatoes, sugarbeet and grain.
11,000 ha are used for greenhouse (glass not plastic) production and this area contributes 50% of the added value of primary production in the Netherlands. Cut flowers and pot plants are a major contributor to this because they are targeted to the fashion industry.
The GNP of the Netherlands is Euro 400 billion and agriculture and agribusiness constitutes 10% (Euro 40 billion) of that, of which 20% (Euro 8 billion) is primary production and the balance (Euro 32 billion) is value adding. Of that value adding 50% comes from what is produced in the Netherlands and the other 50% comes from the value adding to raw produce imported from other countries eg cocoa to make chocolate. The Dutch dominate the world chocolate industry.
One third of all transport in the Netherlands is associated with agro-food production i.e. one in three trucks on the road.

A profound comment by Dr Smeets: “Traditional economics will tell you that as a society develop into a service and knowledge economy, agriculture is the first thing to go. No so. The most important thing is for traditional agriculture to regenerate as ‘urban agriculture’ through its integration with the urban. Where this happens the logistics, associated with producing food for heath and fashion and plants for fashion which is where the demand exists, also contributes to a knowledge industry”.

Dr Smeets and I drove to Bergerden where we met with Mr Stef Huisman, a Director of Hydro Huisman, a company that specialises in hydroculture: http://www.hydrohuisman.nl/.

We then visited a 300 hectare agripark nearby. The land was originally owned by farmers. The local council bought the farmers out and have worked with industry and a range of scientific and other stakeholders (to be properly identified in my report) to plan for a closed system agripark that will produce and value add to a range of plant and animal produce and products. Companies buy the land from the Council and as part of the deal they have to sign an agreement to be part of the cooperative and to contribute to the management and utilisation of the energy, water, and ICT systems in place.

We went into one of Hydro Huisman’s glasshouses and the following photos will provide you with an idea of the company’s business as well as associated technology.

Visit this web site to get an appreciation of the technology associated with the glasshouse energy management: www.countryside.dk/Temaer/Master/Seminar_032006/Smeets.pdf. (Page 28). This presentation by Dr Smeets covers a number of aspects of what I spoke to him and other people about during the week including agriparks, innovation and planning.

The Bergerden Agripark has a common energy utilisation plant and a common water catchment and reuse system as part or the infrastructure.

To view further Dr Smeet's work, Google 'Peter Smeets'.

TUESDAY 24^thOctober: I met with Dr Pieter Vereijken, Senior Researcher, Multifunctional Land Use and Agriculture, Plant Research International B.V, Agrosystems Research, WUR. Dr Vereijken’s expertise extends to biology, agriculture, agriculture in Europe, land use planning, and water management

A premise of some of Dr Vereijken’s research is that the reformation of the European Union’s (EU) Common Agricultural Policy will result in the abolishment of subsidies and tariffs protecting EU-farmers. He develops his argument that this, in the context of the progressive liberalisation of the world food market, will lead to a progressive transition to non-agrarian land use (including environment, recreation, scenic amentiy as well as urban) with the agriculture (the major forms of traditional agriculture – my interpretation) only persisting in the areas most suited to those forms. Regions will differ in the transition rate depending on the competitiveness of their agrarian holdings on food, land markets and the pressure of the inhabitants on the land market.

Dr Vereijken’s work invokes a great deal of healthy debate about the current and future role and spatial place of agriculture in the urban and urbanising environment of Europe. His work also considers the impact of climate change on the adaptive capacity of agriculture and the people associated with it. He has also provided me with a PowerPoint presentation titled ‘Reedlands Sanitising Surface Waters to Meet EU Water Framework Directives’. I will attempt to link that presentation here. The work involved is the use of constructed reedlands to get the P, N, ZN, NI and Cu levels in the Ijsel River (a tributary of the Rhine) below the maximum tolerable levels. The project involved asks three questions:

Can reedlands sanitise the river (ecological)?

Can the green biomass of the reeds be processed for bio-fuel (climate change)?

Can constructed reedlands be more profitable than graze and maize (alternative cash crops)?

Dr Vereijken’s work and the summary of our discussion is worthy of more time than I can provide at this point. In the meantime Google ‘Pieter Vereijken’ to see the depth of his work in both quality and quantity.

WEDNESDAY 25^thOctober: I met with Dr Ger Vos, Director, Innovation Network, at his office in Utrecht. Innovation Network was established in 2000 in response to the many factors impacting on agriculture in the Netherlands. Those factors include the increasing demand on agricultural lands for urbanisation; the danger of impaired quality of life resulting from this and other factors; the need for food chains to be more transparent; animal welfare issues and biosecurity requirements; the increasing requirements imposed by consumers, retailers, international competition, national and European legislation and WTO influence; and the fact that these problems are not self-contained with many being interrelated and reinforcing one another.

The Netherlands Government realised that current structures and processes were not capable of dealing with these and other issues in the time frame demanded. They thought outside the square and established Innovation Network. It is essentially a process rather than a structure. Any structure is an outcome of the process/s and not the other way around. It is not attached to any Ministry or organisation but rather has the mandate to act totally independently. Its data base of those it has identified as having the potential to contribute to the process for the identified projects is 5000 with up to 200 working on projects at any one time.

It actively seeks and encourages champions at the community, environment, farmer, industry, academia, bureaucracy and political levels. It is expected that 50% of its projects will fail, and anything less is regarded as the organisation not doing what it is meant to do. It is about seeking solutions, not making excuses and spending time in damage control. Dr Vos told me that for one particular program agreed to by the Innovation Network Board they needed Euro 4 million. A phone call got the money in five minutes. It is based on systems thinking.

The agripark concept is an outcome of Innovation Network. Other projects include the New Villages concept (a village can be greater that 16,000 people). This project includes various projects for identifying possibilities for combining some seemingly incompatible wishes in rural areas. It is not just a question of creating possibilities for living in the countryside, but also about improving rural quality, recognising regional differences, taking into account future needs for water storage and meeting future residents’ social and cultural needs. Since its inception it has worked on at least 32 concepts.

Further information can be obtained by viewing www.agro.nl/innovatienetwerk/. For those who don’t read Dutch click on the British flag for English.

THURSDAY 26^th October: I met with Dr Antoon van de Ven, Strategic Advisor and his colleague Mrs José Kools with the Westland Municipal Council at Naaldwijk near The Hague. Some facts and figures:

Westland is a municipality of five villages (> 16000 people in a village) with a total population of 100,000 people.

Westland covers an area of 9,000 hectares of which 2, 600 hectares is covered in green houses.

In the Westland there are 50,000 jobs and 22,000 of those jobs are associated with the greenhouses.

Every square meter of land in Westland had what is termed a ‘destination’. In other words every square meter has a strategic future.

There is an average turnover in green house technology every 15-20 years.

I can’t describe the intensity of greenhouses except to say that it is impressive. Apparently it as pretty as a picture from the air at night with all the greenhouses lit up. The white in the photograph below is greenhouses. Apparently the people who live in Westland are very proud of the greenhouses and the sense of identity of place it provides them. This issue of identity is very important to sustainability. The photo was taken from the roof of the flower market centre in Naaldwijk.

Dr Smeets PowerPoint presentation provides some spatial perspective of the Westland area as part of the Green Heart and Randstad: www.countryside.dk/Temaer/Master/Seminar_032006/Smeets.pdf.

FRIDAY 27th October AM: I met with Dr Kees Musters, Dr Paul Vos and Mr Steven Knogten from the Institute of Environmental Sciences, Department of Environmental Biology at the University of Leiden. The focus of their work and that of their colleague Dr Geert de Snoo who was on leave, is based on the relationship between agriculture and nature conservation. There are essentially two areas of research. One is associated with pesticides in which the development of a pesticide calendar is an important feature. The other is nature conservation through finding the balance between the need for good agricultural management practices that optimise on-farm biodiversity without causing loss of income.

Farmers can in fact participate in environment programs, supported through legislation, for which the farmers gets paid when certain indicators are met. An indicator for a farm may be the number of meadow birds that the farm supports. The number of nests is the measurement. The impetus for this scheme was a grass-roots one in which the farmers recognised the changing community values and demands in regard to the environment. They and the scientists came together to find ways to deal with the situation in terms of practices and government support. The research involved was on the basis of what was feasible for the farmers to contribute and make improvements without loss of income. Funding for this research is provided at regional, national and EU levels.

An interesting matter that arose out of the conversation was the difference in the environmental reference points between one generation and another. It would be reasonable to say that the reference points for each person/generation is based on what they have experience in their life. A person of 80 remembers a different world to a person of 18.

Another project that was talked about was one associated with benchmarking the environmental performances of farms. This benchmarking takes into account the competitive nature of farmers where individual agricultural performance is characterised by quantitative criteria and compared with scores of other relevant farms. A pilot study on this has indicated that there is potential for benchmarking in the above context to form the basis for agreement between farmers and their customers. There is also potential for this benchmarking tool to be used by other partners in the food industry such as food retailers where they can play a part in the establishment and adoption of standards by suppliers. For a more detailed account of this project go to: http://dx.doi.org/10.1065/lca2006.01.235.

Details of Dr Musters work is available at: www.leidenuniv.nl/cml/sem/staff/EM_musters.html.
Details of Dr Vos and some of his work is available at: www.leidenuniv.nl/cml/sem/staff/EM_vos.html. and www.leidenuniv.nl/cml/sem/projects/urbannat_UK.html.
Mr Knogten’s work is associated with his PhD thesis.

The work of these scientists and their colleagues has made a significant contribution to the development and implementation of the environmental programs mentioned above.

FRIDAY 27th October PM: FRIDAY 27th PM: I met with Mr René van Veenhuizen, and his colleague Mr Henk Kieft of the ETC Foundation in Leusden. Mr Veenhuizen is the Consultant Editor of the Urban Agriculture Magazine: http://www.ruaf.org/. The work of ETC and the editorial of the Urban Agriculture Magazine embraces both developed and Third World countries – it is systemic in terms of disciplines as well as spatially on a local, regional, national and international scale. It is in fact so systemic it is not possible to summarise to the degree that I would like to do so in the time that I have available. I will be reviewing the work associated with ETC and RUAF to be included as part of my final report. In a nutshell their work is associated with:

Getting urban agriculture onto the world agenda.
Facilitating capacity building for farmers.
Tapping into and utilising farming knowledge in urban and urbanising environments.
Reforming the functions of agriculture and rural areas as an adaption to urbanisation.
Influencing agricultural policy through a participatory and multi stakeholder approach.

Details of the work of ETC are available at: http://www.etc-international.org/

SINGAPORE 14-20 October

2006-10-20T00:03:00.000-07:00

NOTE: Photographs and links will be added to this and subsequent posts as they become available.

SATURDAY 14th October: I arrived in Singapore at midnight from Sydney. Singapore is 699 sq kilometers (267 sq miles) in which nearly 4.5 million people live. The population density is 6222 per sq kilometer. The annual population growth is 2.6%.

The land used for agricultural production has decreased from 15,000 hectares in the 1960's to the present approximately 1,500 hectares. This land produces about 5% of the total amount of vegetables consumed in the country. This amounts to 17,000 tonnes of a total of about 380,000 tonnes.

SUNDAY 15th October: I met with Dr Belinda Yuen, Associate Professor of the School of Design Environment with the National University of Singapore. Dr Yuen attained her PhD in Environmental Planning in Melbourne. She is the current President of the Singapore Institute of Planners. Her interest is green space in urban and urbanising environments.

We met on the Sunday afternoon because Dr Yuen was due to fly out of that night to Spain for a week long conference. We however spoke at length about what Singapore is doing to preserve and develop its green-space from the planning perspective which of course includes urban agriculture. Essentially the Singapore government is committed to the preservation of green space as well as its creation as part of development. It recognises its many benefits with an emerging appreciation of the role and benefits of urban agriculture in the forms most suited to the Singapore situation eg rooftop, school plots, high tech, and agritourism. I first met Dr Yuen at the inaugural World Planners Congress in Vancouver in June of this year. Listed are relevent publications:

B Yuen (ed) Planning Singapore: from plan to implementation, 1998, Singapore institute of Planners (there is a chapter on park connectors in Singapore by Oi K H),

P Motha and B Yuen (1999) Singapore Real Property Guide, Singapore University Press, Chp 6: The planning regime

C Briffett, B Yuen and C Barlow-Marrs (2000) multi-use green corridors in the city: guidelines for implementation, Environmental Planning and management series vol 1(1), The Nature Society Singapore,

B Yuen and N H Wong (2005) resident perceptions and expectations of rooftop gardens in Singapore, Landscape and Urban Planning 73(4):263-276.

MONDAY 16th October: I met with Professor Lee Sing Kong and his colleague Associate Professor Dr He Jie of the National Institute of Education, Nanyang Technological University. Professor Lee has played a dominant role in the development of aeroponics. Aeroponics is a technological advancement on hydroponics – both being a soilless technology. Professor Lee wrote his generic paper ‘Potential of Aeroponics in urban Agriculture which was published in 1993 in the Commonwealth Agriculture Digest. The technology has been licensed to Aero Green Technology Pty Ltd and is used by it subsidiary Tropical Aeroponics Pte Ltd (see below). Since then Professor Lee’s research and that of Dr He has essentially been the plant physiology associated with aeroponic production. Refer to www.nsse.nie.edu.sg/faculty/jhe.htm for papers related to this work.

The technology is based on creating the right conditions in the suspended root zone within a growth chamber to gain the optimal rate of growth in the shoot zone of the plant from the least amount of energy taken up in getting things right in the root zone. The roots of the plants are saturated with a fine mist of oxygen enriched nutrient solution.

Droplet size of the nutrient solution is critical (50 -200 microns) and with temperate crops such as lettuce being grown in the tropics the temperature of the root zone is also critical, the requirements of which can be met by lowering the temperature of the solution. There is a correlation between, droplet size, the root zone temperature and the quality of the plant. Quality diminishes as the temperature and droplet size increases. However the cost of production increases to achieve both. Root zone temperature is not as important with tropical crops. This technology at this point in time has application for producing high value crops.

Professor Lee has also developed what he terms as the ‘Skyfarm’ concept which is based on constructing aerobridges between buildings.

TUESDAY 17th October: I met with Mr Gregory Chow, lecturer in the School of Life Sciences & Chemical Technology, Ngee Ann Polytechnic. Mr Chow has taken a somewhat pragmatic approach to the technology he is developing based on the market conditions that prevail today. He has termed his technology Air Dynaponics. His is an adaption of aeroponics where he is experimenting with trading off the quality of the product to a not unacceptable level by increasing the size of the droplets with less emphasis on the need to cool the root zone – both factors reducing the cost of production. The nutrient solution is dispersed into the root zone by air pressure. Mr Chow’s publication ‘A New Frontier’ can be accessed at www.growingedge.com/magazine/back_issues/view_article.php3?AID=160172. He has also produced a short video.

COMMNENT: I concluded that both Prof Lee and Mr Chow are motivated by the same desire – to provide production systems that will compensate (the level ultimately to be determined politically and by the market place) for the loss of traditional agricultural land and associated agricultural production in Singapore. My sense is that as time goes on the economic, social and environmental conditions will see their systems become more widely accepted production streams to meet the food security needs of the Singapore community. And in that context what matters most is resources are being channeled into developing technologies that will be available if and when the social, economic and environmental conditions determine they are required.

What stood out for me was that they and their colleagues and students are seeking to provide innovative food source options in the context of loss of traditional local agriculture and associated lands; and the social, economic and environmental changes occurring world wide. They are trail blazers and such people contribute to the well being of a society and in many cases take those societies forward. Nothing is more fundamental to the well-being of a society than a secure source of food.

WEDNESDAY 18th October midday: Dr Chua Sin-Bin, CEO Agri-food & Veterinary Authority of Singapore (AVA) hosted a lunch for me. In attendance were Mr Goh Shih Yong, Assistant Director, Corporate Communications; and Mr Chin Yew Neng, Assistant Director, Food Supply & Agritech Infrastructure Division of the AVA. AVA is the national authority responsible for (amongst other things) the development and management of the six Agrotechnology Parks on the perimeter of the urban area of Singapore. AVA aims to promote Singapore as a regional agrotechnology hub by pursing leading edge technologies and strengthening its agribusiness capabilities. Intensive farming systems are used to optimise land use and increase productivity.

Within the parks, parcels of land, ranging from 2 to 42 hectares are allocated on 20 year leases to farming families/companies and agri-business organisations to produce agricultural produce such as vegetables, orchids, ornamental plants and fish, eggs and food fish. The Government owns the land and provides infrastructure including roads, water, electricity, drainage, and telecommunication services. With a complementary mix of agricultural activities, the parks have been designed to blend into Singapore’s urban environment. One of the parks has the Agri-Bio Park of 10 hectares, established to support agri-biotechnology development in Singapore.

The 233 farms using 701 hectares located within the six parks and a further 41 farms on 59 hectares outside the parks generated S$221.8 million worth of produce in 2005.

WEDNESDAY 18th PM and THURSDAY 19th October AM: Mr Goh and Mr Chin took me to visit a number of the farms:

Tropical Aeroponics Pte Ltd – I met with Mrs Margaret Tan, Customer Services Officer. This is a subsidiary of Aero-Green Technology Pte Ltd where Professor Lee’s aeroponic technology is used to produce 1.3 tonnes of lettuce daily along with other crops and value added products. This amounts to S$12 million worth of crops per annum grown on 5.7 hectares.

Koh Fah Technology Farm – I met with Mr Wong Koh Far, Director. This 8 hectare farm produces 5 tonnes of vegetables per day grown as a traditional market garden (in the soil). It supplies directly to one of Singapore’s supermarket chains. It employs 40 people full time.

KhaiSeng Trading & Fish Farm Pte Ltd – I met with Mr Teo Khai Seng, Managing Director. This is a 4 hectare aquaculture farm that produces 80 tonnes of fish per annum.

Oh Chin Huat Hydroponic Farms Pte Ltd – I met with Mr Joe Oh Chee Gee, Sales and Marketing Executive and his extended family. This is a 2.4 hectare farm producing 500 kg of leafy vegetable per day. It employs 50 people full time.

Orchidville Pte Ltd – I met with Mr Joseph Phua, Managing Director. This is a 42 hectare farm that grows and value-adds to orchids. Employing 80 people full time it has the potential to double that.

FRIDAY 20th October: I met with Mrs Ivy Singh-Lim and her husband Mr Lim Ho Seng. They lived in Australia for a time before returning to Singapore. Both were retiring from their business life and decided they wanted to have a change of lifestyle. They leased land on the Lim Chu Kang Agrotechnology Park where they have established two integrated businesses. One is Bollywood Veggie Farm and the other is the Poison Ivy Restaurant and through these enterprises they provide the opportunity for fellow Singaporians and visitors to have a rural experience on the edge of the city of Singapore. Theirs is an organic enterprise.

Mrs Ivy Singh-Lim

Bollywood Veggie Farm and Poison Ivy Restaurant

The restaurant uses the herbs and produce that are grown on the farm. The businesses employ 1 horticulturalist and 5 workers. All grass cutting is contracted out. The chef in the restaurant and most of the other helpers in the restaurant are employed on a part time basis. On Sundays, their daughter comes to run the kitchen. And both Mrs Singh-Lim and Mr Ho are available at all time. They are totally passionate about this venture. Others employed on the farm are a personal assistant, a driver and an accountant part-time.

The 4.5 hectare farm specialises in organic banana and papaya as well as fruit vegetables such as lady fingers, eggplant, chillies and beans (Wilson 2005).

Mrs Singh-Lim and Mr Ho have banded with other nine other farm families in the Park to form the Kranji Countryside Association. I caught the Kranji Express (a service provided by the Association)
from Kranji MTR (railway station) driven by Larry who gave me an enthusiastic explanation of the farms as we drove past. The bus departs on the hour every hour from Kranji MRT.

Mrs Singh-Lim’s vision has great similarities to that of Hawkesbury Harvest: http://www.hawkesburyharvest.com.au/. If anyone can implement the concept or something similar as a permanent part of Singaporian culture it will be her. I thorougly recommend a visit to the farms associated with the Kranji Countryside Association as a must see and do when visiting Singapore.

ITINERARY

2006-10-07T20:51:00.000-07:00

SINGAPORE: Saturday 14th October – Friday 20th October
Investigating the development and integration of food technologies with urban design and building design; developments in agro-technology parks; rooftop hydroponics including aeroponics; bio-security, and local food production and distribution systems.

THE NETHERLANDS: Saturday 21st October – Friday 27th October
Investigating the integration of the different forms of urban agriculture with eco-systems, natural resource management, water and organic resource recycling, natural and built environments/landscapes, human health dimensions and other complementary industries such as tourism.

ENGLAND: Saturday 28th October – Friday 4th November
Investigating the increasing community based approach to developing a sustainable food system built on relationships between those engaged in all stages of the food cycle including the Slow Food movement; investigating associated city living infrastructure developments.

USA – North East: Saturday 5th November – Saturday 18th November
Investigating Farmers Markets, urban agriculture and agricultural land preservation in New York City, Maryland, Pennsylvania and Delaware including attendance at the American Farmland Trust’s National Conference in Newark, Delaware with 500 delegates.

CANADA - Toronto: Sunday 19th November - Saturday 25th November
Investigating the protection of agricultural lands through legislation, policy and strategy; food security programs; agribusiness research parks and local/regional food systems including alternative marketing systems and the Slow Food movement.

USA - Ohio and California: Sunday 26th November – Wednesday 6th December
Investigating multi-stakeholder cooperative production, processing and distributions systems for food and flora produce and products including technologies. I have factored in some space to look at important aspects of urban agriculture that will emerge from the American Farmland Trust Conference in Newark.

CANADA – Vancouver: Thursday 7th December - Monday 11th December
In June 2006 when I attended the inaugural World Planners Congress in Vancouver I was part of a post-conference forum that included approximately 60 people from every Province of Canada associated with agriculture in urban and urbanising environments. An outcome of that Forum was the formation of a network. I will meet with some of those people to brief them on what I have seen and experienced in my travels and look at ways we can further develop cooperative programs to advocate for and promote the benefits urban agriculture can provide to urban communities across the world.

AUSTRALIAN ECOCITY FARMS

2006-08-20T13:28:00.000-07:00

Northern Rivers Echo newspaper (Lismore)
Issue 44, Volume 12, Thursday, 2 November 2006

An Australian Urban Agriculture Innovation

Quarter-acre city gardens teeming with fresh fruit and vegetables dotted every few miles throughout urban areas across the globe. Nearby residents walk from their home to the farm and purchase what food they need for their families. No transport costs, no refrigeration or storage costs, and no extra labour costs on top of what the farmers are paid to grow and tend the food.

This is the ultimate vision of Nimbin's Andrew Bodlovich and Goolmangar's Hogan Gleeson, who last night (1st November 2006) won the ABC TV's The New Inventors program for their 'Ecocity Farm' concept.

Andrew and Hogan were also named Northern Rivers Inventor of the Year at the INR Technology & Innovations Awards in Lismore last week, giving them both renewed enthusiasm that their dream for the future can indeed come true.

"The grand vision is to see an Ecocity Farm in every city and every neighbourhood all over the world," said Andrew. "It would bring food production back to local areas – and it would mean we're not transporting food 2000 miles or more to feed people. "Only around 10 per cent of energy embodied in our food is actually used for growing – around 90 per cent is in transportation, storage and packaging. The Ecocity Farms would cut out most of that 90 per cent."

Andrew and Hogan, who together run Urban Ecological Systems, will gain plenty of media exposure thanks to their The New Inventors win. They will also get a financial boost from the INR Technology & Innovations Awards, receiving $5000 from award sponsors (the NSW Department of State and Regional Development and AusIndustry) to further their design. They also get $5000 worth of business planning advice from WHK Rutherfords.

Andrew and Hogan's revolutionary idea, inspired by the principles of permaculture, would create enough food from a quarter-acre block to fulfill a significant part of the daily diet of 300 families. The market-garden style farms would use aquaponics, where the nutrients from water inhabited by fish is used to feed plants. This in turn means people's protein needs can be met by eating the fish. The concept can be adapted to different climates and would work in all but the coldest of conditions.

A small prototype has been established at Rivendell Village near Nimbin, a new settlement based on the latest and greenest technologies. The next step is to build a commercial-scale system, iron out any bugs and begin rolling out the concept across the nation, and then the world.

Andrew and Hogan are keenly aware that to make the idea a reality, it has to be profitable. "We realised a few things had to happen... to produce an incredible amount of food in a very small space; to do it without using toxic chemicals because people don't want that in an urban area; and to ensure there was minimal wastage as councils wouldn't want a lot of waste or sludge dumped into their drainage systems," said Andrew.

"This all came together piece by piece – and at times painfully. It has been a hard slog, but these awards have given us a new injection of energy. The public and governments are becoming aware that we have to take action to reduce our impact on the environment and our ecosystems. People are sitting up and paying attention, which is good news."

Andrew Bodlovich with a prototype of the Ecocity Farm, which is designed to feed urban populations.

For further details visit: www.rivendellorganics.com

HOW YOU CAN PARTICIPATE

2006-08-16T00:42:00.000-07:00

The 'blogspot' system enables you, me and others to communicate with one another. Because this is a once in a lifetime opportunity, I want to ensure that as much benefit as is reasonably possible comes out of it for as many as possible. Urban agriculture requires broad community support. Without it, its potential contribution to urban sustainability will be severely limited which, in the context of the world we live in today and tomorrow, would limit any aspirations to develop sustainable communities and cities.

There is a view in Australia as well as in many other countries that a community that cannot make a reasonable contribution to its food security/access - with the increasing natural, social, economic, political, environmental and human health threats with which we are faced - is not a sustainable community.

Your involvement is part of the awareness process not only for you, but also for me. Your comments will provide me with a sense of what you and others think is important. If you have any statistics or facts that you would like to share send them to me in as succinct a form as possible. I may not be able to respond to all comments if there are too many or my work load is heavy. However, I will advise you when I have organised my findings in a presentable form following my return.

The privacy of all persons with whom I interact will be respected in all circumstances. No name, comment or photograph will be published without mutual agreement.

WHAT IS URBAN AGRICULTURE?

2006-08-14T23:38:00.000-07:00

My view of urban agriculture is that it is any form of food and flora production that occurs anywhere in cities, towns and villages including what occurs on their perimeter. A recent study by the South Australian Department of Primary Industries suggests that this agriculture represents up to 25% of Australia's total farm production, being $7 billion of $28 billion. The United States of America Department of Agriculture estimates the agriculture associated with metropolitan areas in that country as being greater than 40% of its total production.

The range of types of urban agriculture includes backyard and community gardens, rooftop, school agricultural plots, historical (eg.the Macarthur Estate at Camden NSW), lifestyle/hobby, boutique/cottage/niche, farm gate, agritourism, equine (recreation and sport), flood plain and flood free (market gardens, dairy, turf, orchards, agroforestry, and fodder crops), and hi-tech. Each type has its own distinctive benefits, values and planning requirements.

Urban agriculture is more complex than monoculture and/or broad acre agriculture as illustrated by: (When image loads, left-click to enlarge and read clockwise starting from 'Sustainability Requirements')

ARTICLE

In 2005 I presented a paper I co-wrote titled 'Urban Agriculture - The New Frontier' at the State of Australian Cities Conference at Griffith University in Brisbane. You can view it here. (Right-click and select 'Save Target As' to download')

MY AGRICULTURAL EXPERIENCE AND QUALIFICATIONS

2006-08-14T09:20:00.000-07:00

EXPERIENCE

Leader - Urban Agriculture, Sydney Region, NSW Department of Primary Industries (NSW DPI). I commenced working in the Sydney Region in 1993 as Resource Management Liaison Officer ;
Foundation chair (2000-2003), Hawkesbury Harvest; www.hawkesburyharvest.com.au
Deputy Director, Plant Advisory Services, Orange, Central West NSW;
Manager, Fisheries Research Institute, Cronulla, Southern Sydney NSW;
Project manager, multi disciplined land development and settlement project, Monaragala District, South East Sri Lanka - settled 600 families on their own 6 acre farms including social and economic infrastructure;
Manager, Yanco Agricultural Research Centre and Education Institute, South West NSW;
Manager , Trangie Agricultural Research Centre, Western NSW;
Manager, Orange Agricultural Research Centre, Central West NSW;
Rural Youth Officer, Dubbo, Western NSW;
Farm assistant and overseer on two privately owned farms, Holbrook, South East NSW;
Jackaroo on a 25,900 hectare (64,000 acre) farm, Wee Waa, North West NSW.

QUALIFICATIONS

Master of Applied Science (Social Ecology) 1992, University of Western Sydney-Hawkesbury Campus;
Diploma of Agriculture 1970, Wagga Agricultural College, NSW;
Certificate of Adult Education 1992, Australian Institute of Management.

CURRENT COMMUNITY FOCUSED PROJECTS

I am involved in two community focused projects:

As a board member of Hawkesbury Harvest www.hawkesburyharvest.com.au
As the original convenor and current member of the six person Sri Lanka-Hawkesbury Village Committee. This organisation has raised funds which have been used in Hambantota, Sri Lanka to build a preschool, restock the science laboratory and library of the local high school, provide for on-going after school English lessons for high school students, and co-contribute to the building of a community centre for the 300+ children who were orphaned in the 2004 Tsunami.