Urban Farming in the UK: A Review

URBAN FARMING BY HANNAH CORSINI

WHATISURBANFARMING?

Urban farming is really what it says on the tin: the production of food in urban areas.

Proposed as a method of combatting the greenhouse gas emissions of the agricultural industry and helping provide food security, the movement has become increasingly

It can take various forms, including but not limited to: urban apiculture (using bees) mycoculture (mushrooms) and aquaculture (fish).

"Peri urban" agriculture is that which takes place on the fringes of urban areas - strips of land just outside a city, for example.

chemical pollution greenhouse gas emissions

water shortages

CURRENTPROBLEMS WITHINTHE AGRICULTURAL INDUSTRY

FOODINSECURITY

Over half of all crops grown worldwide are consumed in urban areas. Currently, cities rely almost exclusively on imports to meet their needs.

FOOD SECURITY - defined by the FAO as existing when

"all people, at all times, have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe and nutritious food which meets their dietary needs and 7 food preferences for an active and healthy life style."

UKFOODSECURITY?

My undergraduate research project looked specifically at urban farming in a UK context. Here in the UK, food security has been in increasing jeopardy since the implementation of austerity in 2010. At the time of writing, 2022, there are over 2.5 million people in the UK using food banks. In 2009, before austerity, this figure was at around 60,000. The figure had hit 2.5 million even before the cost-ofliving crisis sparked by Russia's invasion of Ukraine. With inflation soaring to a 40-year record high, things only stand to get worse. The average price of food ingredients is expected to have risen by 10% since 2021 by the end of this year.

Food insecurity is intertwined with social issues. Alkon and Mares (2012) speak of "the multiple ways in which racial and economic inequalities are embedded into the production, distribution and consumption of food." You may have heard of the concept of "food deserts" urban areas where access to fresh food is scarce. Sara Shostak criticises the apoliticality of this term, choosing instead to describe "food apartheid" - a socially and historically constructed system of oppression.

PERSPECTIVES

From interviewing traditional farmers in the UK, I gained the idea that there is a growing sense of concern about profit.

Currently, 60% of farm business income in the UK comes from direct governmental subsidies. However, these are set to be tapered off between 2021 and 2027, and replaced with a new 'Sustainable Farming Initiative' under the newly-introduced Environmental Land Management Scheme, which pays farmers for providing environmental services such as tree-planting or flood mitigation.

However, the National Farmers' Union has expressed concerns that reducing payments will put farmers under strain exacerbated by current supply chain and labour shortage issues.

Farmland is also being increasingly bought up by monopolies with uncertainty around the future of farming, existing farmers struggle to borrow the money to purchase arable land.

All of this amounts to large farms staying afloat - and small farms in jeopardy.

THEGLOBALISATIONOFTHE FOODINDUSTRY

Liberalisation of trade of agricultural commodities has led to the growth of a "corporate food regime" a growth in monopolies, insecurity for formerly protected peasant farmers in the Global South and an increasing reliance on food imports.

This liberalisation was spurred on by the Uruguay Round of General Agreement of Trade and Tariffs taking place from 1986 - 1994, when the US pushed hard for trade and investment liberalisation to be on the agenda. Consequently, Bull, Plahe and Gregory (2019) describe a shift in power from small, local producers to transnational corporations.

Here in the UK, reliance on imports is heavy, and people are increasingly disconnected from both the production of their food and the natural environment. Karl Marx identified one of the key facets of modernity as the ability of humans to physically (and psychologically) distance themselves from the ecological consequences of their actions.

Disruptions such as climate change events and future global pandemics will continue to massively affect the UK as a result of our dependence on imports. The globalisation of the food industry has disastrous consequences for the environment and poor people around the world.

CLIMATECHANGEAND BIODIVERSITYLOSS

Globally, the agricultural industry is estimated to be responsible for about 23% of greenhouse gas emissions.

A lot of this is a consequence of LAND USE CHANGEe.g when deforestation occurs to make way for farmland.

Farmers desperate for higher yields will often resort to the use of chemicals such as pesticides and fertilisers.

In the UK, the pesticide thiamethoxam - banned under EU law - was recently approved, despite overwhelming evidence that it drastically harms bees and marine life. This is not uncommon - in order to make a profit, farmers will often turn to unsustainable practices which contribute to biodiversity loss.

Kleijn et al. (2022) blame these practices on lack of incentive for farmers to adopt biodiversity based practices, lack of communication between scientists and farmers and lack of evidence that biodiversity increases farmer profit.

ROOFTOPFARMS: ABREAKDOWN

rooftop farms are particularly impacted by weather conditions - such as high wind speed, heavy rain and high temperatures

ROOFTOPFARMS: SUBCATEGORIES EXTENSIVE ROOFTOP FARM

Have a very shallow depth of growing medium (less than 15cm) and are typically used for their environmental benefits rather than producing a lot of food

INTENSIVE ROOFTOP FARM

Have a far deeper growing medium. This allows for a variety in vegetation type and size. They are more expensive than extensive farms.

A more structurally sound building is required in order to support their weight and intense maintenance is also required.

STORMWATER

In urban areas, there are a lot of impervious surfaces - unable to absorb water. When it lands in urban areas, it has the ability to accumulate contaminants like petroleum products, heavy metals, chlorides and organic compounds from industrial activity.

Any areas of soil which do exist in the urban areas are gradually eroded by the contaminated water flowing onto them.

Because of the lack of drainage, urban areas are particularly prone to flooding.

As climate change increases in severity, floods are likely to get more intense and more frequent.

Sea level rise puts coastal cities in a particularly difficult situation. A lot of this comes down to URBAN PLANNING. Venice, famous for its canals, was designed around flood management. Most urban areas in the world were not and have insufficient provisions against floods.

STORMWATER MANAGEMENT

Rooftop farms can capture stormwater, acting as a pollutant sink. Runoff from green roofs has been shown to have a lower concentration of contaminants when compared to bare roofs.

Different soil types absorb different amounts of stormwater. Soil and fertiliser absorbs the least, whilst manure and barley compost absorbs the most.

SOIL

Hankard, Reif, Schaefer and Vang (2016)

One of the issues with community / market urban farming is that urban soil tends to be scarce and often contains legacy pollution from activities like coal combustion and waste incineration.

Rooftop farming often avoids this by using engineered soil types, which enable heavy metal filtration. There are also other techniques for improving soil health, such as adding earthworms.

FARMING IN PARIS

Scientists in Paris studied rooftop farms over a period of two years in order to determine the benefits of using urban waste as a base for rooftop plants.

The scientists used only organic waste, of four different types.

Green organic waste Crushed wood Coffee grounds from urban mushroom farms Traditional soil (as a control)

Their results showed that a "lasagne" technique (layers of green waste stacked with layers of brown waste); the coffee grounds from the mushroom farms; and also earthworm inoculation all had a positive effect on both productivity and also decreased the rates of trace metals such as lead in the soil.

This is relevant as the pesticides and fertilisers used on rooftop farms could wash away and contribute to urban chemical pollution. This case study shows that methods which are both organic and productive are possible.

"URBANHEATISLANDS"

Urbanisation typically involves replacing pervious surfaces with impervious ones, as well as increasing building height and density and decreasing the ventilatory aspects of an area.

This is all associated with rising temperatures in urban areas compared to rural ones, with cities consistently being attacked by heatwaves. This phenomenon creates what is known as "urban heat islands."

In 2020, it was reported that more than 2500 people in England died due to extreme heat.

In summer 2022, another heat wave struck England, with temperatures reaching up to 40 degrees Celsius in some areas.

Uncle Gianni, may he rest in peace

My Great-Uncle Gianni Galelli was one of the people who passed away in this heat wave. Gianni was a kind and lovely man and a wonderful cook, having run an Italian restaurant in London in the 80s.

I'm sure that many other people have personal stories relating to the extreme weather events we ' re seeing as a consequence of climate change. We need climate proofing strategies, and to reimagine our society in ways that benefit both humans and nature.

URBANHEATISLANDSAND

ROOFTOPFARMING

In New York, there is an average difference in temperature of 2 degrees Celsius between the most vegetated areas and the least vegetated areas.

ROOFTOPFARMING

Often incredibly heavy - requiring a roof with a large load-bearing capacity. This often means that the roof needs work done to reinforce its structure.

Further work is also typically needed to enhance its drainage infrastructure. This work costs a lot of money and time.

Using pesticides and fertilisers on a rooftop farm can ultimately be more harmful to human health than using them on a rural farm as they can contribute to urban chemical pollution and end up in already polluted water bodies. It also decreases their stormwater retention potential, decreasing the effect of this environmental benefit of theirs.

HYDROPONICS EXPLAINED

closed, liquid system

Plants are grown in a solution of water and nutrients. The system can be OPEN or CLOSED - an open system delivers the nutrients solution to the plants, and this solution is not reused, whilst in a closed system the solution is recovered, replenished and recycled.

The system can also be LIQUID or AGGREGATE. Liquid systems have no support for the plant roots other than the solution, whilst aggregate systems have a solid base often sand or rock, but never soil.

AQUAPONICS

Aquaponics is a type of hydroponics in which the system has been integrated with a fish tank. The idea is that the fish will excrete nitrogen and phosphate as waste products, and then when the water is recirculated, the plants will take up these nutrients. The plants will "clean" the water allowing fresher water to flow back into the fish tank.

AEROPONICS

Aeroponics is a type of hydroponics in which vapour is used to grow crops. Plants are placed in the air and then repeatedly sprayed with nutrient solution in order to meet their water, oxygen and fertiliser needs. The surplus of oxygen surrounding the roots means that nutrient absorption is higher, and volume of nutrient solution required is lower. Just as you can recirculate nutrients in other types of hydroponics, you can do so with aeroponics. The major disadvantage of aeroponics is that its initial investment cost is very high.

ROOFTOPFARMING

Can grow food all year round. However, difficult to grow root vegetables and tubers with soil-less techniques.

Use 10 times as much water and produce a lower yield, however it is easier to grow root vegetables and tubers due to having soil.

Seasonal impacts can be mitigated by growing season-specific crops.

INTEGRATINGHYDROPONICS INTO ROOFTOPFARMING

Using hydroponics on a rooftop farm helps to increase the efficiency of each farmable square metre. The controlled environment also means that the rooftop farm is protected from pests - and so eliminates the need for pesticides, decreasing the potential issue with rooftop runoff which we discussed earlier.

Caplow (2009) argues that although the environment is controlled (potentially deterring birds and insects as opposed to non-hydroponic rooftop farming) hydroponic rooftop farms could ultimately benefit the environment if they replace rural farming every 1 hectare of hydroponic rooftop farm could replace 10 hectares of rural farmland, which could be rewilded.

THEENERGYDEBATE

Vertical farms have to create a type of "indoor sun "requiring a vast amount of artificial light. As well as this, they need energy for heating and ventilation.

If you are using energy from fossil fuels to do this, it negates the environmental benefits that you might have. Some of the vertical farmers who I spoke to used renewable energy instead to navigate this problem. One farm I spoke to used 100% renewable energy, obtained from the UK green energy grid.

The energy debate spans wider than vertical farms, and is not an issue with their conception but more with the state of renewable energy infrastructurewe need a green energy transition now.

Whether using renewable energy or not, LEDs are a popular choice for vertical farms to increase their energy efficiency.

SOCIAL AGRICULTURE

Multiple studies have reflected on the psychological benefits of nature.

As well as this, community farms provide a social atmosphere which is particularly important in light of the isolation felt during the COVID 19 pandemic.

Urban areas tend to be particularly diverse in terms of race and class, so community farms can provide an opportunity to create links across these barriers. In the US, many urban agriculture movements grew out of a need to address environmental racism - the disproportionate nature in which environmental pollution targets people of colour, and the racialised lack of access to a healthy and biodiverse environment.

Black urban agricultural movements in the US historically drew upon the survival programs of the Black Panther Party, which aimed to address the needs of the black urban communities which had been neglected by the state.

FARM CONFLICTS UNDER CAPITALISM

Often, both market and community farms have the aims of providing opportunities and work to lower-income residents and residents of colour in their area. But to pay fair wages, they need to make money - which, in the absence of significant grants or donations, requires selling produce at a price which is often too high to be affordable to the same lower income residents.

food access

URBANAGRICULTURE ANDGREENHOUSEGAS EMISSIONS

In this zine, I've talked a lot about various ecosystem services provided by urban farms - stormwater retention, the mitigation of the urban heat island effect and the potential to rewild farmland, to name a few. But how does urban agriculture fare when it comes to greenhouse gas emissions?

A lot of the media information surrounding how food production relates to climate change focuses on the concept of FOOD MILES that is, how far your food has to travel from farm to plate. The assumption would be that the further travelled, the more emissions. But scientists think that this is oversimplified...

STRAWBERRIESINLONDON

Scientists looked at strawberries grown for London consumers. One set was grown in a polytunnel in a community farm in London, and another set was grown in a greenhouse in Spain and flown over to the UK. Which do you think had the lowest greenhouse gas emissions?

Surprisingly enough, the strawberries grown in Spain contributed the lowest greenhouse gas emissions, even when you accounted for transport. This is because the extra energy needed to produce strawberries in London out of season outweighed the energy from fuel consumption.

Instead of just examining the transport aspect of food production, scientists look at the whole picture the entire history of the food you eat in order to assess its greenhouse gas emissions. This is what's known as a Life Cycle Assessment.

WHAT DO LIFE CYCLE ASSESSMENTS TELL US?

The same scientists who found that the Spanish strawberries had a lower global warming potential than the polytunnel strawberries found the reverse for the other crops they studied - overall, greenhouse gas emissions were a lot lower.

A lot of studies concur that urban agriculture is a lot less carbon-intensive than traditional agriculture. One important factor that could contribute to this is land use - a lot of the deforestation which occurs on this planet is for agricultural reasons as we run out of suitable farming land. Deforestation is massively carbon intensive, and using brownfield building sites to produce food instead could allow this land to be rewilded, which would ultimately remove carbon from the atmosphere.

CASE STUDY THREE: URBAN FARMS IN AUSTRALIA

Scientists looked at 13 urban community gardens in Australia using emergy analysis to assess them. Emergy analysis involves looking at energy inputs and outputs to understand the efficiency and sustainability of a system.

They found that although yield was twice as high in urban farms compared to rural farms, the farms were running at a loss. As well as this, emergy analysis estimates put the farms at about the same sustainability levels as conventional farming.

However, when they modelled the usage of renewable inputs on the urban farms, the sustainability drastically increased. Using renewable energy and compost instead of fertilisers had a massive impact on the farms, and meant that they were far more sustainable than rural farms doing the same.

A lot of the urban farmers had no horticultural or scientific background - improving their knowledge could significantly help their farms' sustainability.

URBANAGRICULTURE ANDFOODINSECURITY

In Cuba, urban agriculture was used as a nationwide initiative to combat food insecurity following the collapse of the Soviet bloc in 1989 and the US imposed trade embargoes which left Cubans vulnerable to starvation. The government funded urban agriculture initiatives across the country. It was the largest, and quickest, shift to organic agriculture the world has ever seen - because of the sanctions on imports, Cubans had to rely on traditional methods of farming rather than using heavy machinery or pesticides and fertilisers.

Academics across the world still use Cuba as a model of increasing national food security.

Autoconsumos - one of the practices implemented in Cuba, where every school and workplace had a farm attached to it. The produce farmed would go into the cafeteria.

FARMINGINTHEBRONX

Project EATS is an NYC-based arts initiative which transforms rooftops and vacant lots into urban farms "art that feeds." They set up a rooftop farm on top of the St. Barnabas Hospital in The Bronx - an area of NYC where food security has historically been an issue. The farm is 5000 square feet and produces various vegetables, along with honey from its 250000 bees. The hospital centre also provides cooking classes for residents.

The food is sold at a local farm stand. Clinicians can 'prescribe' the food to patients, allowing discounted prices, and food stamps can also be exchanged for food.

ACTUALLYPRODUCE?

One of the common stereotypes about urban farming is that it is incapable of producing as much food as conventional farming methods.

However, Payen et al. (2022)'s meta-analysis of 200 research papers suggests that scientists have largely found that urban agriculture has higher yields than conventional agriculture.

It's possible that this is contingent on the method of urban agriculture vertical farms are the most likely to be able to produce high yields, particularly because the controlled environment leads to minimal risk of disease or pests.

Many of the urban farmers I talked to did not think that urban farming could ever entirely replace conventional farming, but many seemed to think it could potentially become the dominant farming method for vegetables and fruit.

URBANAGRICULTUREAS NEOLIBERALPRACTICE?

"Critical geography" is a study of geography which incorporates liberation and social justice ideology.

Critical geographer Chiara Tornaghi writes that although urban agriculture initiatives seek to subvert the traditions of food production, they can also become tools of neoliberal state apparatuses.

What does this look like in practical terms? Disinvestment in urban health and education services in order to fund urban agriculture projects instead and unequal access to food growing projects based on factors like class and race - e.g community farms which are dominated by white, middle-class volunteers.

it is also important to ask who owns the land you are farming? Why do they own this land? Can it be restored to indigenous communities who once owned it?

WHITE SAVIOURISM

John Burdick, a food educator, writes that "seemingly well-intentioned white activists and educators can enter into communities of colour under the assumption that their ways of thinking and approaches to alternative agriculture are not only the best for themselves but for the community."

Often, an assumption is made that low-income communities especially communities of colour - are simply unaware that the food they are consuming can be insufficient to satisfy their nutritional needs and/or produced in an unsustainable context. However, this ignores the socio economic barriers to affording nutritious, sustainablyproduced food. Simply "educating" people on where their food comes from and how to set up urban farms isn't enough - we need to address what Dr. Marc Lamont Hill calls the "systems, structures and institutions" which deprive people of access to healthy food.

GREEN GENTRIFICATION

Gentrification is a process in which financially privileged people move to specific urban areas - for a variety of reasons and in doing so, drive up prices and displace low-income inhabitants of that area. This typically manifests in a racialised way e.g. areas of London like Hackney becoming whiter as they become more and more middle-class and unaffordable. Urban agriculture could add value to an area, resulting in rent hikes and price increases as the area becomes a more desirable place to live. This just worsens inequality - the thing you were trying to fix in the first place.

Food should not be seen as a singular issue but a symptom of a broken system. Tackling the issues with the globalised food industry goes hand in hand with tackling other social issues such as the housing crisis, lack of public transport, economic inequality etc.

URBANAGRICULTUREAS

NEOLIBERALPRACTICE:UK CASESTUDY1

There has been an uptick in political interest in urban agriculture in the UK. Funding for urban agriculture projects typically goes to community gardens which fall under the branch of 'social prescribing' schemesthe idea that human health is both social as well as physical, and activities such as gardening help to improve both mental and physical health.

What's the issue with this?

Well, the message is admirable - but fails to address the sociopolitical issues driving mental and physical health crises amongst the UK population. It outsources provisioning work to local communities and away from the state. Allowing space for urban agriculture is fundamentally useless in its social benefits if the NHS continues to be chronically underfunded and privatised, and if the majority of people are opting to go without food so they can afford to pay their bills.

GREENWASHING:UKCASE STUDY2

This is Rebecca Pow.

Rebecca Pow is the Conservative MP for Taunton Deane, and served as an Environment Minister from 2019 - 2022.

Rebecca Pow was one of the key proponents of the social prescribing funding schemes, stating that she wanted to introduce green social prescribing schemes in order to "improve the nation's mental health and reduce demand on our health system," along with increasing our connection to nature.

Rebecca Pow has consistently voted against increasing welfare and disability benefits, and has almost always voted against measures to prevent climate change (20 votes against, 5 votes for).

Do you think she cares about our environment? Do you think she cares about our health?

RADICALECOLOGY

Food and radical ecological movements have been closely intertwined for centuries!

In 1649, an English group of farmers known as the Diggers emerged. Their principles were founded around economic equality and ecology, stating that they wanted to "lay the Foundation of making the Earth a Common Treasury for All, both Rich and Poor."

Their name was the inspiration for the San Francisco Diggers a radical collective in the late 1960s who would distribute free food. Environmentalist movements in the US were burgeoning, and the Diggers put food at the heart of their ecological consciousness. In 1970, when the organisation Friends of the Earth released their environmental handbook, they stated the desire for a decentralised food supply, cooperative groceries, city gardens and organic farms.

CLIMATEINJUSTICE

People of colour and poor people are disproportionately victimised by extreme climate events. In urban areas, landlords often rent out "cheap" flats with raised windows and a door as the single point of entry. This makes it harder to escape in the case of fires and floods. Low ceilings also mean that the water is likely to rise quickly.

As well as this, a study by the National Trust in 2020 found that Black and Asian people in the UK are able to visit green space 60% less often than their white counterparts.

The food movement has its roots in social activism focused on combatting racism, economic inequality and ecological devastation. Shostak (2022) compels us to not let the food movement fall into replications of capitalism and neoliberalism. For the food movement to be successful in its aims, it must centre a transformative, anti-racist, ecosocialist framework!

FOODSYSTEMS

Erika Allen was a manager for Growing Power, a US based NGO which worked to establish COMMUNITY FOOD SYSTEMS.

According to Erika, speaking to the Post Carbon Institute about her work, what distinguishes community food systems from other forms of urban agriculture is that disenfranchised people - such as the young, people of colour and poor people - are not just "beneficiaries" of local food systems, but central to their planning, development and execution.

They are also given autonomy over the local infrastructure which interlinks with food systems such as energy, housing, public transport and economic development.

Although Growing Power dissolved in 2018 due to revenue not matching its expenses, it is considered a "social success " by Sogner, Sowerwine and Acey (2018) for the impact it had on communities across the US.