Learning from Cuba

Learning from Cuba

How can cities be designed for less dependence on importation of food?

Isabelle Castro 2015 Central Saint Martins - University of the Arts London

Abstract This dissertation is focused towards exploring the opportunities within the urban fabric for the development of urban farming. It also aims to open a discussion about whether this development of urban farming could make the prospect of completely self sufficient cities a reality or whether it is just another idyllic utopian dream. Through analysing the example of Havana, I will work to uncover the components that make up the success of Urban Farms and whether these same components could work in a city such as London.

I will first look at the events that led up to Havana’s main point of development of urban agriculture, to understand the conditions in which it arose . This will then move on to an analysis of three case study farms, all that manifested in different areas of Havana’s urban fabric, under different conditions . The similarities will then be identified.

I will then go on to review the current state of urban agriculture in London, after first defining the relevance the activity has to developed cities . To do this I will look at three existing farms, analysing the differences and similarities in their spacial occupation and functioning capacity.

To conclude I will compare the two cities and identify the areas where the farms in London are in need of developing in order for the urban agriculture to become regarded as a serious concept for development of the urban fabric.

It is the purpose of this dissertation to interrogate the eternal optimism that surrounds urban farming, and understand to what extent this is a viable option for the future development of our cities.

LEARNING FROM CUBA How can cities be designed for less dependance on importation of food?

“By the year 2025, 83 per cent of the expected global population will be living in developing countries. . . . Agriculture has to meet this challenge. . . . Major adjustments are needed in agriculture, environmental and macroeconomic policy, at both national and inter- national levels, in developed as well as developing countries, to create conditions for sustainable agriculture and development. “ Agenda 21 (United Nations Conference on Environment and Development, 1992)

Table of Contents Abstract Introduction Cuba

Page 1 8-9 11-25

- Socio Economic conditions that led to the development of Urban Agriculture in Cuba - Spatial – Urban Agriculture in the City of Havana - Case Study: Habana Vieja -Huerto Intensivo - Case Study: Central Havana – Huerto Communitario - Case Study: Havana Outskirts – Alamar – Organoponico

London - The need for Urban Agriculture in London - Spatial – Urban Agriculture currently in London - Case Study: Ackroyd Drive Allotments – The Allotment site - Case Study: Cultivate London – The Community Garden/ Neo-community Garden - Case Study: Grow Up London – the neo-community garden

Conclusion Bibliography Glossary of Illustrations and Photographs Appendix : Interviews with London Farms - Adrienne: Cultivate London - Oscar: Grow Up Farms

12-15 16-25 18-19 20-21 22-23 27-41 28-31 32-41 34-35 36-37 38-39 42-43 44-45 46-47 48-56 48-51 52-56

Integrating Urban Agriculture into existing Infrastructiure Fig. 1.1

Urban agriculture is:

gardens for fruit and vegetable growing. facades, fences and boundaries. production).

(Viljoen, A (2005) pg. xviii)

Self – suf – fi - cient adjective adjective: self-sufficient needing no outside help in satisfying one’s basic needs, especially with regard to the production of food.

(Google (2015)

Fantasy Urban Farm in Southwark Fig. 1.2

Introduction The topic of self sufficiency is one that in recent years has been intrinsically linked to the work towards abolition of global poverty. Divided into two main categories -Food and Energy – it is the belief that if self sufficiency is achieved in both areas, globally, the poverty divide will decrease (Helen Bennetts, 2002).

Currently, 54% of the world’s population lives within an urban area, and this is set to increase to 66% by 2050.(Burgess, Rod 1997) Over 90% of this urban growth is in developing countries areas of the world where poverty is rife and food security is at its lowest point.

Urban farming has gained publicity as it is being developed in response to the need to cater for the masses as easily and economically as possible. Not only is it seen as a way to empower those who have to fight for food daily, but also as a method to reestablish the connection between the producer and the consumer in first world countries in a bid to cut wastage levels.

However, the fabric of the city is fundamentally designed in a way that keeps natural growth at bay, confined only to small controlled areas, a factor which contradicts the need for huge amounts of space needed in order to cater for the urban population.

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Urban agriculture (UA) is not a new Idea. For centuries civilisations have combined the population of their settlement with the means to sustain it, with the Aztecs and their chinampas (floating farms) in Tenochtitlan to allotments in the UK. There is a general acceptance that urban farms are good things to have but do we really know why? Could it be that the importance of their implementation has been severely underrated in the development of communities? Is UA a viable tool for self-sufficiency of communities and could therefore aiding their overall development?

self-sufficient city that uses urban agriculture extensively. I will aim to determine the importance of UA as a tool for resilience of communities to external changes as well as seeing whether its implementation could be exploited as a tool for development. Through understanding the constraints UA naturally has and how these constraints are overcome, I will extract the potentials and determine whether UA could in fact be used in the development of independence of citizens in the importation of food.

Although extensive and full of data, the focus seems to have been on how the activity can help in a specific area of the world, ie developing countries, but not much has been written in terms of its use and benefits throughout the world including in places like London. The subject of urban farming is written in very different ways depending on the area it is focused on. When discussing urban farming without the focus on using it in developing countries, it seems to be considered more of a design option or a trend rather than a serious tool that could be implemented in the infrastructure of our cities as a method to aid development.

Why Cuba?

There are a number of magazine articles on scarcity, as well as academic papers and books focusing on the subject of Urban farming as a tool to help improve self sufficiency as well as the components that make up successful urban farms around the world. In many of them, Cuba is used as a topic of discussion, and is seen as an exemplary system in which urban farming has become a success.

It is my aim that through researching and analysing the case study of Cuba, which was considered a developed economy at the time of the political upheaval (American Experience (2015) resulting in conditions where it was necessary for urban farming to be implemented, I will be able to identify components that can not only be implemented in developing countries as a tool for change but throughout communities as tools for resilience to change.

The main constraints on this investigation have been due to the difficulty of finding data. Many of the farms in Cuba are personal, and part of the day to day lives of the residents, therefore are not publicised. Although there are many reports on Cuba and the socio-economic benefits of the practice of UA, it has been difficult to find information on how these farms are implemented so effectively. Through analysis of maps, photos and videos taken by residents and tourists, I have compiled an analysis of the potentials the fabric of the city has offered to the residents and they, in turn, have exploited to develop it into a landscape fit for urban farming.

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Fig. 2.1

HAV ANA

Fidel Castro with a cattle farmer Fig. 2.2

Tabacco farming in rural Cuba Fig. 2.3

Rural Poverty during Batista’s reigime Fig. 2.4

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Socio Economic conditions that led to the development of Urban Agriculture in Cuba Havana, Cuba is self sufficient due to necessity. The revolution of 1952, headed by Fidel Castro as a response to the dictatorial tyranny imposed by the regime of Fulgenico Batista which attempted, with massive support and funding from the US, to convert the communist nation of Cuba to a more anti-communist agenda. When the coup finally had success in overthrowing Batista, Castro started his social reformation of Cuba which resulted in an overall improvement introduced by Castro, the ideas implemented gained popularity in other parts of Latin America, which caused concern for the US government as it potentially meant that they would become independent from the trade and importations of American businesses. This, along with the strengthening of ties between the Soviet Union and Cuba, lead to US sanctions being implemented in 1961, cutting off Cuba from American imports and exports (Carmen Diana Deere (1991).

At the time of the revolution many of the largest and most successful plots of land were owned by foreign businesses, this was also changed with the nationalisation of all large plots of land in 1960. Many of the rebel party’s policies revolved around distributing the focus on economic growth throughout both urban and rural areas, especially in terms of economy produced through agriculture. (Coyula, M, (2003) The revolution aimed to carry out four main objectives, the majority of which centred around (Perez y Padron (2001)pg 68-78). Ultimately, not only this was carried out, ensuring a more balanced population throughout rural and urban Cuba but also within the neighbourhoods of Havana. As the social reform of the revolution ensured the nationalisation of healthcare and education, as well as free or very cheap housing, every person same motivation to help their situations.

Although being a significant change for the nation, Cuba was not affected enough to spark a development in UA until the collapse of the Soviet Union in 1991, up until this point, Cuba had just changed the location of its dependency on imports and exports from America to the Soviet Union. With the collapse there came huge problems in terms of energy production, pesticides cultivated to a mass scale as there was no longer the infrastructure and tools needed to support it. (Perez, L.A (2005) The economy of Cuba, after 1991, was declared to be in a state of crisis. Although numerous attempts were made to create alliances with other foreign companies to alleviate the situation, the hostile relationship between Cuba and the US made it very difficult. In order to address the crisis, dollars were legalised, creating a dual currency within the country, at an exchange 13

Fig. 2.5

Fig. 2.6 Examples of supermarket shelves using different currencies

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rate of one to one, which then peaked in 1994 at 150 pesos to the dollar (Coyula, M (2003) . Markets accepted both dollars and pesos, and as time went on, there was a divide of markets trading solely in either currency, with those trading in dollars having higher prices, but being unaffected by shortages of goods as they were run by the government. At times these shortages caused Cubans to resort to buying in the government markets to supplement their diet, despite their prices being out of reach for the majority, resulting in huge impacts on their markets for food became the norm (Premat, A , 2010).

As the crisis continued, the unemployment rates previously lowered by Fidel Castro’s policies peaked, and the levels of self employment (made legal in the 1970s) rose in response (Coyula, M, (2003). With this an entrepreneurial spirit diffused into the residents of Cuba. This marked the beginning of the development of it’s UA to become the model of independence that it is today as the practice of UA meant that dependence on the government for a varied diet was reduced considerably, as produce could now be obtained from farmers markets. This gave the Cuban people some control over the pricing of the goods.

Despite this, the Cuban government saw this increase in popularity of UA as an asset to the country, employing a sense of independence that was needed by Cuba as a whole, being a nation cut off from the globalised economy of the world. It also meant that their aims regarding a decrease in the differences between the rural and the urban were fulfilled. This led them to start their campaign of support for the practice and development of UA in 1997 (Viljoen, A, (2005).

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Parcelas and Huerto intensivos are larger and may be farmed by a family or group of individuals.

Huerto Communitarios are up by the community it materialises within.

Organiponicos (popular and de alto rendimiento) are Cuba. intensive organic farming methods.

(Viljoen, A, (2005) pg.xx)

Fig. 2.81

Spatial - How does Urban Agriculture manifest in the City of Havana In Cuba, the decrease in importation and exportation from the US and Soviet Union created huge deficits in the variety of food available to the inhabitants as well as other commodities. Rather than face a crisis of dire malnutrition and starvation, inhabitants, driven through the basic need for food, started to create farms in otherwise disused plots of land.

From its creation in 1519 Havana was seen as a one of the more important cities in Latin America, mainly due to its positioning. It was the first and last stop off point for the spanish colonials, and therefore a meeting point of trade and discussion (Premat, A , 2010). This, along with the heat associated with the climate of its location within the tropics, influenced the building of the city, with all new additions being left in place instead of being destroyed, resulting in a expanding patchwork of historical urban fabric, dotted with large mansions left by the wealthy colonial and merchant families as well as US nationals that left Havana due to the US sanctions associated with the revolution (Prof. R, Diener et.al (2007). This provided the framework in which 20% of Cubas population lived up until the revolution of 1959 (Coyula, M, (2003) pg 3).

With 75% of its population residing in the cities of Cuba, demands on the agriculture of rural Cuba for nutritional needs were unrealistic. It was realised that UA, working in conjunction with the rural farms, was needed in order to meet these needs, especially in terms of fresh produce (Premat, A , (2010.). order to grow, a food plant needs seeds, water and nutrients. In order to gain enough food to make up significant part of a person’s diet, we must also add the constraint of space (Goodbun, J , (2012).

In order to do this, we have to analyse taking into account the living conditions of the majority of citizens of Havana. As the city is such a patchwork of different architectural periods, urban farms have been developed differently in each context and therefore provide a wide range of adaptations for analysis. In Cuba, the smallest organoponicos are usually 500m2 (Viljoen, A, (2005) pg153)– which is relative to the maximum size one person can farm, yet in the areas that are more densely packed, residents have had to adapt the fabric of the city in order to meet their food production needs. Many of the private balconies have a small amount of food producing plants and herbs, but the prominence of flat roofs and courtyards have been the components most exploited buy the public.

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N

Fig. 2.82

Fig. 2.83

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CASE STUDY: Habana Vieja – Huerto Intensivo (Viljoen, A, (2005)

Habana Vieja (Havana old town) is the part of Havana that was built by the colonial sailors, the oldest part of Havana. This is the part whos architecture is most influenced by the climate of the island and is built using old methods seen in Europe used as microclimate control. It is made up narrow streets and great focus on courtyards, as these were the point of ventilation for the majority of houses that shared party walls within small tightly packed blocks (Coyula, M (2003) pg 6). Most of the roofs of the buildings in this area are flat, and many have external balconies shaded naturally by the width of the streets.

The majority of food production in Habana Vieja takes place in the courtyards and rooftops.

With the residents of the building working together to cultivate the plants. As there is not much open space, they usually take the form of parcelas and huertos intensivos, so therefore are used mostly for personal consumption of the residents of the building it is located within. An example of one of these, is Huerto Intensivo Habana, Mercad y Paula.

With an area of 300m2 it is a little larger than the size of a typical huerto intensivo of Habana Vieja. It is run and supported by the local school, and has more of a focus of education of pupils rather than personal consumption and holds many of the characteristics that are typical for urban farms in the area.

It is arranged as a linear micro garden, growing a few basic crops of tomatoes, cabbage, bananas and onions (Viljoen, A, (2005) pg. 163) and is overlooked on all sides by windows and roof terraces. As one of the buildings surrounding is only one storey tall, sunlight enters into the space easily and the banana trees are arranged on the opposite side so they do not obscure this feature. The one exception to this rule is around the meeting space at one end of the farm which is marked by the shade of one tree, purposely defining it from the rest of the space. The farm is made up of precast concrete beams with interlocking tiles with timber, stone and earth making up the raised crop beds.

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N

Fig. 2.84

Roof terrace

Trees planted to one side, on obscuring light to lower crops

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Fig. 2.85

CASE STUDY: Central Havana – Huerto Communitario Central Havana, although built after Habana Vieja, is even more densely packed. Roads are as winding and narrow as those in Habana Vieja, and pedestrians use the whole space for walking as pavements are built with a width that allows only one person to pass in order to leave enough space for cars. This is with the exception of a few main roads which are clearly defined as main passages for road traffic with a use of tarmac and lack of trees lining the sides. Buildings are between two and for stories with many also accommodating self-made, informal dwellings on the flat roofs. Almost all have central courtyards with apartments surrounding and with a clear view of what is below. Each of these buildings are the majority of, less than 10m wide.

An example of the kind of farm seen in this type of urban fabric is the Huerto Comunitario up by a group of female residents of the area and is used for personal consumption as well as a residential garden, with and area to sit positioned in one corner, with a path to it leading through the growing area from the entrance. The person within the space is therefore surrounded by the crops throughout their whole experience of the space. The space itself is enclosed, surrounded by residential buildings on all sides reaching four stories, creating a cool space which, although is viewed on by the residents, is cut off from the surrounding city, and receives only a little sun throughout the day.

The format of the farm is non linear and is one of a few farms in Havana which implements permaculture practices1. It works intensively, producing avocados, pears beans, pumpkins, bananas, aloe, peas, fennel and herbs (Viljoen, A, (2005) pg. 161). All of this is built into the existing space with use of stone with earth and gravel held within car tyres on top, to protect the soil from contamination from the urban soil, and constrained by a tiled path running through it. The banana, avocado and pear trees are positioned close to the walls of the courtyard that encloses the farm, as well as being in separate areas from the lower crops, in order to no obscure the light.

1

per-ma-cul-ture : noun the development of agricultural ecosystems intended to be sustainable and self-sufficient. (Google (2015)

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Fig. 2.86

Surrounded by high density residential buildings Covers 110000m2

N

Fig. 2.87

Fig. 2.88

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Fig. 2.89

CASE STUDY: Havana Outskirts – Alamar - Organoponico As we get further away from the centre of Havana, streets start to widen and buildings become more dispersed. Around Alamar, a neighbourhood to the north-east of Havana, many people live in houses with their own gardens which they can cultivate for food produce.

If not, they are residents of very tall blocks of flats, built in the same style as those seen in the Soviet Union. These are without balconies and interior courtyards but do, however, have land surrounding which could potentially be exploited for food production (Alamar en bicicleta, Habana del Este (2011)). Vivero Alamar is a farm where the residents of the area have done this.

Vivero Alamar is located in Alamar, a neighbourhood found in the north eastern part of Havana, Cuba. It was started by four of the local residents in these blocks of flats and developed to its present day size with a local workforce of over 62 educated professionals, and relationships with 15 agricultural institutions. 90% of its produce is for community consumption, and it has two markets in which residents of the surrounding area can buy it from. It is used not only as a farm, but also as a community base. Haircuts, motorbike repair and gardening are all additional services provided by the farm and carried out by the employees. There are youth outreach programmes set up with local schools which provide the opportunity for children and young adults to learn how to grow vegetables as well as get a basic understanding of farming processes and a healthy diet. This focus on young adults and children not only influences the families they live in, but also ensures that the organic method and philosophy of healthy eating employed by the farm is passed on food to further economic and political changes that effect the country.

The make up of this farm is sophisticated, with many organic farming practices being developed and implemented. The main cause of this development when compared to those in the more densely populated areas of Havana seems to be due to its size, as with it, it gains recognition and forms bonds with the institutions where new practices are being developed. Another factor which works in conjunction with this is it’s proximity to high density housing, with a lack of space available in dwellings to cultivate their own produce.

This lack of space in the buildings provides the incentive to buy what they need from the Vivero Alamar farmers markets. Due to its size, a huge variety of crops can be produced, as well as medicinal plants and livestock. As the farm is on the outskirts of Havana, the naturally occurring soil does not have the problem of toxicity that the farms in more densely populated areas has, and crops can be produced within this soil in rows, divided into different sections according to crops, facilitating crop rotation and all year round production. (Students of Elon University Interactive Media Masters Programme. (2013)

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SIMILARITIES OF THE THREE EXAMPLES. Although the three case studies are of different scales they are all a central hub of social interaction, whether it be in the entrance to their homes or the place where they go to buy their food everyday. All the examples seem to use similar methods of organic farming, such as crop rotation, and make use of the plants they grow in a variety of ways, as we can see in their use of trees to create microclimates. They also all focus on fresh fruit and vegetables, rather than grains.

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Fig. 3.1

LON DON

Fig. 3.2 Garden City Plan

Fig. 3.3 Allotments in the Tower of London during World War one

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The Need for Urban Agriculture in a developed city Agriculture is one of the most basic activities used to create an economy. Not only does it provide food for the population of the country it is carried out in, but also provides an opportunity for trade with the goods produced. This is, however sometimes forgotten in countries such as the United Kingdom, where tertiary activities such as commerce and marketing have been given the main focus for development and as a tool for growth in the economy. The produce these activities revolve around is more likely to be imported rather than created nationally, which ultimately means that our economies are based on things that we are dependent on other countries for. If these paths of importation were to be cut off the UK would be left with no real means to carry on without some assistance for other countries. With a self sufficiency ratio of 68% (House of commons, (2014) pg.3) this dependence on other countries is close to that of Cuba before the US sanctions were introduced, and, if this same thing were to happen to the UK,

Success of Implementation in London as response to scarcity The same influx according to deficit of UA of Cuba can be seen in London during the world wars.

Before 1917 ideas of combining the city and food production was only approached by architects as a response to the industrial revolution, before which the relationship between food and the city was naturally close due to lack of methods to transport and store food effectively. The Victorian industrial revolution meant that there was a huge increase in the urban population of London, with many factories being built as well as housing for those who worked in them (Fishman, R, (1982). As conditions became more and more cramped and unhealthy, with air that was filled with soot and fumes, it became apparent that a change was needed. Ebeneezer Howard was the first to recognise these needs, coming up with concepts which formed the basis of creation of the GarThe idea was to create fully sustainable communities with five-sixths of the area was devoted to food production that were cheap enough for the workers of the factories to inhabit them without the existence of toxic fumes in the area of inhabitation (Fishman, R, (1982).

However, these ideas did not come into proper realisation due to the fact the countries they were proposed in were in a time of abundance. Even though in Garden Cities, green open space did prevail, the idea to make them productive was forgotton and they now exist as parks and gardens, expanding the city and making it difficult to reach other zones without a car. This all changed in 1917. Even though world war one actually started in 1914, due to an attempt to keep up British morale, rationing was not introduced into society until 1917, as was serious government campaigning for civilian food production (Viljoen, A,( 2005). However, the increasing

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Fig. 3.4 Food in a time of scarcity

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Development of Economy The potential in UA which is severely underestimated, is its ability to anticipate scarcity as well as resolve it. We have seen in the examples of London and Cuba that implementation of UA is hugely effective in resolving problems of food scarcity, mainly due to the fact that people are more inclined to devote time to UA initiatives when they can see how the change in their way of obtaining food (i.e. growing it as opposed to going to the shop and buying it) benefits them straight away as can be seen in the example of London during the world wars. In 1913, the number of allotments went from 450 000 to 1 500 000 at the end of 1917, less than one year after government rationing and campaigning for personal food production started (Viljoen, A, (2005.) pg101). However, if national food production is already well established, it reduces the impact sudden scarcity, inflicted by things such as war, will have on the country. Cuba’s huge reliance on trade conducted with the Soviet Union and the US meant that when these two channels were disrupted in the 1990s, food availability was hugely reduced. Development of their now successful UA infrastructure was initiated by this, and because of it’s implementation, ated from such development (Students of Elon University Interactive Media Masters Programme.

(2013) meaning that if the situation were to change, as it may do in the coming years due to changing policies of the US government in relation to Cuba, it is unlikely that this infrastructure would change accordingly. Due to this shift to self reliance, if this same situation was to happen again, they would not be affected so much.

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Allotments are ed to individuals by local authorities. about 20 plots and a very large site containing several hundred plots. them.

Community gardens are hoods for recreation and education. in grounds of public buildings, e.g. public housing, hospitals, retirement homes.

(Viljoen, A, (2005) pg.xix - xx) Neo - Community gardens are or neighbourhoods for recreation and education. in grounds of public buildings, e.g. public housing, hospitals, retirement homes. profit in order to continue and expand.

(An ammendment made by myself on researching farms in London to the Community Garden definition seen in Viljoen, A, (2005) pg. xx)

Fig. 3.51

Spatial – How does Urban Agriculture currently manifest in London In order to understand the ways that London has responded to the idea of Urban farming I conducted interviews and tours with two different Urban farm enterprises which have taken different approaches, Cultivate London and Grow Up London, both of which are in the process of expansion, as well as analysing the current state of a typical allotment in London, the UK’s typical response to the idea of urban farming.

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Fig. 3.52

Fig. 3.53 Bushes obscuring main access and allotment sites

Ma

in

Ac

ce

ss

Train track

Bushes overshadow allotments on south-east as well as providing sound barrier from trains for housing

N

Surrounded by high density residential buildings

Fig. 3.54

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Fig. 3.55

Fig. 3.56

CASE STUDY: Ackroyd Drive Allotments, Tower Hamlets – The Allotment Site (Analysis made on visiting the site, and the ariel photographs included)

When discussing the concept of growing your own food with most Londoners, their first thought in regards to space, are the allotment sites dotted around the city. Allotments are obtained by the urban dweller through the means of an application to the local council, who will then allocate a plot, or add your name to a waiting list. Some of these waiting lists are extensive, with more than forty people in line, and some are closed due to too many applicants (GOV.UK (2015).The allocation of the allotment also doesn’t have a defined location, with many allotment holders having to travel long distances to reach their plot. Although allotments aren’t specifically for food production, and instead are spaces which are left to residents to cultivate as they please, these were the government’s solution to the food deficit in London of the 1917, so are a good starting point regarding the existence of urban farms in the city. Ackroyd Drive Allotments is one of the first in the list of allotments available to residents of the E2 area (where I am located) and has January. In the Borough of Tower Hamlets, that E2 falls into, all allotments are operated by non governmental initiatives and community groups, unlike in most other ares of London where the council organise the rates and space allocated (Barclay, C (2012). This, in a way makes the allotments more flexible but does, however leave them subject to changes which aren’t consistent with other boroughs.

The allotment site is located in Ackroyd drive, a twenty minute walk south of Mile End tube station, it’s nearest access point to the underground network of London. As the space is divided into many plots for private cultivation I will consider the site as a whole rather than a specific farm within the allotment area. The space, measuring about 1,400m2, is divided into plots of land of 70m2. These plots are allocated to one individual but in many cases, they are shared between a few, allowing for constant maintenance and lower rent prices, but through this compromising on space.

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Government

Skille

d Lab

Seeds and

Network Surrounding Cultivate London

Cultivate London A use for disused land

Youth Programme

and ation Educ rience expe

Grants

Supplier

our

Produce

Land and Star t-up costs

Farmers Market

Plan

ts

Local Gardens Landowner

Polytunnels providing protection from adverse weather conditions

Fig. 3.57 Raised timber crop beds covered in Tarpaulin

Polytunnels house 7186 salad heads Site measures 840m2 and set up takes two months

in

Ma

Fig. 3.58

ss

e Acc

Polytunnels invisible from road as they are set away from the entrance which is obscured by bushes

Area of cultivation not overshadowed by buildings

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Set in the south of the site to take advantage of exposure to daylight

N

Fig. 3.59

CASE STUDY: Cultivate London, Isleworth – The Community garden/Neo-community garden (Adrienne to Isabelle (2015) Appendix 1)

Cultivate London is a youth training enterprise which focuses on urban farming (Cultivate London (2015) . Although the urban farm is their main use of space, the main focus of Cultivate London is not the food production itself, but more the social gains that come from running a farm. This example bridges the gap between the community farm and the neo community farm, although set up and run by an external initiative, the main focus of the farm is the community they work and engage with through their youth training programme and their connection with local farmers’ markets. They provide the opportunity for unemployed youth to take part in apprenticeship and work experience programmes, spanning from one month to two years, in which they learn and execute the skills needed in management of businesses, in an attempt to gain the experience needed for a position in the crowded workplace of London. They also hold one off days for schools and cooperate groups and there are plans to open an additional landscaping business, associated with the farm.

Currently two of their sites are established in Brentford and Isleworth, both in the outskirts of London, and they are setting up a third in South Acton, all of which set out to generate training opportunities for local youth in practical horticulture. At the same time, they aim to focus on developing derelict and unused sites to increase the amount of locally organic produce Londoners consume. (Cultivate London (2015) All of the space Cultivate London takes up is meanwhile space1 usually in areas of warehouses and industrial parks. As the concept has gained popularity, they have managed to secure spaces in more residential areas, such as the site in South Acton Estate, leased to them by Ealing Council.

They sell their produce in farmers markets local to the area they are situated in.

Cultivate London’s farm in London Road, Isleworth, is the most established and primary growing area of the company. The main activities of the farm take place within the tunnels, which are constructed away from the road and obscured from view, meaning that this too is also not easily viewed from the passing public. This invisibility seems to inhibit the exposure of the farm to the general public, meaning that those who do come have already heard about Cultivate London and made the conscious decision to find it, instead of being influenced to try something new which seems to go against their wish to increase the amount of urban farming in London.

1

Meanwhile space : vacant buildings or land that are used for a socially beneficial purpose until such a time that they can be brought back into commercial use again. (Avon, C (2015)

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on

Educati

Seeds and

Supplier

Local Restaurants

Grow Up Farms Produce

General Public

A use for disused land

Network Surrounding Grow Up Farms

Located north-west so not oveshadowed by surrounding buildings

Land and Infrastructure

Landowner Fig. 3.61

Positioned on 8th floor carpark so out of line of site of the public

Integrated into a rooftop cinema and bar operating in the summer

Main

Site measures 15m2 and set up takes three weeks

s

Acces

N

Fig. 3.62

Greenhouse made of perspex provides continuous daylight and protection from adverse weather.

Vertical cultivation yielding 600 salad heads

connected to mains

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Prefabricated offsite

Fig. 3.63

CASE STUDY: Grow Up London, Stratford – The Neo-community garden (Oscar to Isabelle (2015) Appendix 2)

Grow Up London is a crowd funded1 initiative aimed at educating the general public about alternative solutions for urban farming. They function primarily as a high density intensive production farm that supplies local restaurants with salads. As well as this, they are a host farming2. They currently consist of one farm which has relocated from London Bridge to Stratford, but have plans to create multiple farms of larger sizes, using the one they have as a demonLondoners with food production and create positive associations with the economic benefits of alternative methods of farming.

The Grow Up demonstration farm relocated from London Bridge to Stratford in May 2014. AlCurrently the farm is located on the roof of The Stratford Centre, Stratford, along with a rooftop cinema and urban roof park which is open to the public from April to September. Their produce is only sold to local restaurants in the area, and they do not engage in farmers markets. system circulating from tanks where fish are kept, to growing tubes and seedling beds where the plants are grown. Water is fertilised by the fish with their excretion of ammonia being converted to nitrates by naturally occuring bacteria. The nitrates are then consumed by the plants, effecis proximity to mains water and electrical supply in order for the system to function, this makes the system perfect for use in an urban setting. The locations the demonstration farm has been in, have had more proximity to commercial buildings rather than residential, which reflects in it’s relationship with restaurants rather than markets.

1 2

crowd-fund-ing : noun The practice of funding a project or venture by raising many small amounts of money from a large number of people, typically via the Internet. (Oxford Dictionary (US) (2015) a-qua-pon-ics : noun plants) system that mutually benefits both environments (SoCal Fish Farm (2015)

39

40

SIMILARITIES OF THE THREE EXAMPLES. In all three examples, we can see that the spaces for UA materialise in derelict, less desireable plots of land which are obscured from the natural line of sight of the general public. This is very different from the Cuban examples which seem to be in the midst of everyday social interaction. It seems, in a way to counteract this invisiblity, the London sites combine their focus on agriculture with other activities which have more of a social purpose, such as education, as well as other activities such as gardening and supplying produce to restaurants.

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Conclusion On analysing both countries and comparing the two I feel that it is a realistic possibility that London could be developed into a city of less dependence on food importation.

Although at first having the impression that it was more a utopian dream, I have come to realise that through some key rethinking in designs of urban farms, they could be suitable for food production and the practice of UA could become a normal activity in the city.

One of the most fundamental differences between the manifestation practices of each country in terms of urban agriculture is the visibility of the farms. In Cuba each of the farms is central in the life of the community, stretching from being a community instigator in Vivero Alamar, to the simple act of positioning the farm in the entrance to the houses in the huertos of central and old Habana. In London, all of the farms analysed are taken out of the everyday line of sight of the general public. Even though they all manifested on land that wasn’t very desirable, when this land was close to residential areas it was still obscured from sight. In order for the practice of urban farming to grow to a scale where it affects the importation patterns of food it has to become an accepted part of everyday life, as has happened in Cuba. Although in Cuba the speed of this acceptance was accelerated by a need to source their own food, the development of the community to accept and encourage the career paths surrounding farming has come from the fact that the practice is very visible and knowledge of methods is passed around. This is different to the farms in London, as we can see from Grow Up and Cultivate London, both have taken completely different functional paths to produce food, their only similarity in composition of the farm is the meanwhile space they develop in. The farms in London, as in Cuba have a focus on education which increases their visibility, however, as they are taken away from the public eye, the the practice diverting immediately to allotments, which seem to be more of a response to lack of personal green space of city dwellers, rather than food production. This in itself is telling of the visibility the allotments got during the world wars as places of food production, as on inspection of allotment sites in modern day London, it is very difficult to find their location without already knowing they are there.

It seems that government involvement in the promotion of urban farming currently affects the existence of it to a large degree. Governments are more inclined to do so when the scarcity of food affects they themselves. In Cuba we can now see a resilience of the general public to external change which is relevant for all countries, globally. In Havana, the amount of urban farms in existence only rose dramatically when the government started to support their development wholeheartedly in 1997, this same correlation can be seen in London during the world wars.

The only way, it seems, to get this government involvement in promotion (which would also affect visibility of the farms) is to convince them of their worth. With enterprises such as Cultivate London, this has been achieved through the inclusion of social gains, resulting in more grants and funding. Vivero Alamar’s method of ensuring the ongoing success of their practices is through education of the children of the community, which in turn disperses into the families and the older generations. Grow Up, being a crowd funded enterprise, has, up until now, avoided 42

dependence on government aid, instead focusing on maintaining income through sales to local businesses as well as education of the public, so is in the process of expansion. It’s expansion shows the possibility of other farms developing as separate entities from government support, therefore being less affected by changes in policies and elected parties.

What all these examples have in common is that they rely on combining different activites in order to maintain their success, it is this development of parallel programmes which I think is most important for architects when thinking about designing cities suitable for food production.

In Cuba, UA is seen as a part of every day life, yet in London it is seen as something separate which needs specific space. In the examples of both Grow Up and Cultivate London we can see that part of their success is through integrating other programmes such as education, among other things. In cities such as London, land is in demand, and therefore very expensive. The visibility of these farms is partly due to their location, as they all have manifested in land which in some way is less desirable and therefore cheaper. This balance of visibility and land prices is one of the more difficult issues that affects their success yet it is overcome through integration of other programmes. This could be translated into spacial design. Buildings have many small pieces of overlooked land, such as rooftops, smoking areas and stairways which, spaces, This means that an office block has the potential to house food production, with minimal effect on the processes that are needed in order for it to be a successful office block. As systems does, in fact prove itself to be an ideal environment for development of urban agriculture, even though at first glance there are a whole host of challenges it may come up against. It is through rethinking the creation of built space that affects this adjustment.

Initially, I saw the inclusion of UA in any architectural design as something that was interesting but utimately a fantastical integration of something that was desireable as a useful insersion of personal green space but not necessary in the urban landscape. I have explored in all of my design projects UA as a strong sociability instigator, connecting individuals in communities, however it was not until I embarked on this period of in depth research and analysis that I realised the feasibility and ease of it’s implementation into the urban fabric.

The technology that is available to us allows us to design agriculture in ways that it no longer has to be separate from the city and does not have to inhibit other activities within it, therefore the integration of agriculture into every design is possible, regardless of the primary use of the space.

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Fig 4.1 & Fig. 4.2 Exploring integration into the existing infrastructure of London’s canals

Fig 4.3 Creating parallel programmes: Bringing UA into an environment of a videogame acadamy.

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Oxford dictionary(US) (2015) crowdfunding: definition of crowdfunding in Oxford dictionary (American English) (US). [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.oxforddictionaries.com/us/definition/american_english/crowdfunding. [Accessed 17 March 2015].

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Carmen Diana Deere (July–August 1991). Cuba’s struggle for self-sufficiency aftermath of the collapse of Cuba’s special economic relations with Eastern Europe. Monthly Review.

House of Commons, Environment, Food and Rural Affairs Committee- Food Security – 24 June 2014 Barclay, C, (2012) Allotments. House Of Commons Library, [Online]. sN/SC/887, [Accessed 08 February 2015].

American Experience| PBS. (2015) [ONLINE] Available at: http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/amex/castro/ peopleevents/e_precastro.html. [Accessed 16 March 2015].

Online Videos Joop Siroop. (2011). Alamar en bicicleta, Habana del Este - Havana, Cuba. [Online Video]. 17 May. Available from: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Vi8M_xGT7h0.

[Accessed: 12 January 2015].

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Glossary of Illustrations and Photographs Those which are not included are the authors own.

Fig. 1.1 : Available from Viljoen, A, 2005. CPULs - Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes.

1st ed. Oxford: Architectural Press. Plate 6 Fig. 1.2 : Available from Viljoen, A, 2005. CPULs - Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes.

1st ed. Oxford: Architectural Press. Plate 12 Fig. 2.2 : Available from < http-//i.dailymail.co.uk/i/pix/2013/02/28/article2285852-1858B6A2000005DC-976_634x478.jpg.jpg> Accessed 08/01/2015 Fig. 2.3 : Available from < http-//www.everyculture.com/images/ctc_01_img0295.jpg.jpg > Accessed 08/01/2015 Fig. 2.4 : Available from < http-//1.bp.blogspot.com/-CyaQVhBw_2U/VJP0cTy4V9I/ AAAAAAAAk0Y/PrV8Mjcz4dA/s1600/Cubanpoverty.jpg.png > Accessed 08/01/2015 Fig. 2.5 : Available from < http-//upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/b1/Havana_-_ Cuba_-_0030.jpg.jpg > Accessed 08/01/2015 Fig. 2.6 : Available from < http-//upr.org/sites/shared/npr/styles/x_large/nprshared/201412/371715146.jpg.jpg > Accessed 08/01/2015 Fig. 2.81 : Available from < http-//www.spatialagency.net/2010/08/05/urbanfarming_2960x714.jpg.jpg > Accessed 08/01/2015 Fig. 2.82 : Available from Viljoen, A, 2005. CPULs - Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes.

1st ed. Oxford: Architectural Press. Pg. 162 Fig. 2.83 : Available from Viljoen, A, 2005. CPULs - Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes.

1st ed. Oxford: Architectural Press. Pg. 163 Fig. 2.84 : Available from Viljoen, A, 2005. CPULs - Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes.

1st ed. Oxford: Architectural Press. Pg. 160 Fig. 2.85 : Available from Viljoen, A, 2005. CPULs - Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes.

1st ed. Oxford: Architectural Press. Pg. 161 Fig. 2.86 : Available from < http-//static.panoramio.com/photos/large/111161736.jpg.jpg > Accessed 08/01/2015 Fig. 2.87 : Available from < https://www.google.com/maps/place/ Alamar,+Cuba/@23.1572243,-82.2829175,654m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x88cd7f3c32 becb01:0xc1243cada5e0cde2 > Accessed 08/01/2015 Fig. 2.88 : Available from < http-//static.panoramio.com/photos/large/21590005.jpg.jpg > Accessed 08/01/2015 46

Fig. 2.89 : Available from < http-//static.panoramio.com/photos/large/46948864.jpg.jpg > Accessed 08/01/2015 Fig. 3.2 : Available from < http://www.outlooktower.org/gardencities.jpg > Accessed 08/01/2015 Fig. 3.3 : Available from < http-//www.cityfarmer.org/towerbig.jpg.jpg > Accessed 08/01/2015 Fig. 3.51 : Available from < http-//www.e-architect.co.uk/images/jpgs/london/allotment_ andy_spain_a050810.jpg.jpg > Accessed 08/01/2015 Fig. 3.52 : Available from < https://www.google.com/maps/@51.520805,Accessed 08/01/2015 Fig. 3.53 : Available from < https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ackroyd+Dr,+London+E3 +4JY,+UK/@51.5193,-0.028857,3a,89.8y,241.48h,80.09t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sjtyexeTsw Q8BcW_p9beGJw!2e0!4m7!1m4!3m3!1s0x48761d34110e2333:0x1f5d921d6fb4a824!2sAckr oyd+Dr,+London+E3+4JY,+UK!3b1!3m1!1s0x48761d34110e2333:0x1f5d921d6fb4a824 > Accessed 08/01/2015 Fig. 3.54 : Available from < https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ackroyd+Dr,+London+E3 +4JY,+UK/@51.5191876,-0.02867,442m/data=!3m2!1e3!4b1!4m2!3m1!1s0x48761d34110 e2333:0x1f5d921d6fb4a824 > Accessed 08/01/2015 Fig. 3.55 : Available from < https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ackroyd+Dr,+London+E3 +4JY,+UK/@51.518761,-0.029255,3a,75y,81.88h,84.4t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sQrVwEF15c OYV4F9BXXzIaA!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x48761d34110e2333:0x1f5d921d6fb4a824 > Accessed 08/01/2015 Fig. 3.56 : Available from < https://www.google.com/maps/place/Ackroyd+Dr,+London+E3 +4JY,+UK/@51.518761,-0.029255,3a,75y,81.88h,84.4t/data=!3m4!1e1!3m2!1sQrVwEF15c OYV4F9BXXzIaA!2e0!4m2!3m1!1s0x48761d34110e2333:0x1f5d921d6fb4a824 > Accessed 08/01/2015 Fig. 3.58 : Available from < http-//cultivatelondon.org/london-road/#jp-carousel-1365.jpg > Accessed 08/01/2015 Fig. 3.59 : Available from < https://www.google.com/maps/place/London+Rd,+Isleworth,+G reater+London,+UK/@51.4718418,-0.3480544,111m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x48760 cf99dee6c25:0xc9d2780dbbcbb933 > Accessed 08/01/2015 Fig. 3.62 : Available from < https://www.google.com/maps/place/ Stratford+Centre/@51.5415568,-0.0012668,442m/data=!3m1!1e3!4m2!3m1!1s0x47d8a789 8eb433cf:0x65440afadeba9605 > Accessed 08/01/2015

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Appendix - Interviews with London Farms Phone Conversation between Isabelle Castro and Adrienne Attorp – representative of Cultivate London Thursday 29th January 2015 – 16:30 So Cultivate London has been running for a while now, 2010?

Yes well we started as a company in 2010 but that wasn’t until the end of 2010 so we we didnt really get started until 2011.

Have you been there for the whole time?

No I joined in the August of 2012 You obviously think that urban farming is important but why do you think its important for cities like London?

I think there is a two-fold reason for that. First and foremost I see urban farms as the way, one of the main ways to re-engage city dwellers with food growing, with the environment and reconnecting them to their food system. We as a population are very disconnected from our food. If we could even go part of the way to re-engaging people with that, thats a hugely important education centre if you will. Also I think food security is part of it, I think that, well, its a big part of it. We.. our main focus isnt necessarily food production for consumption, we grow salads as one of our main crops, we’re developing a market garden where we will grow a range of vegetables and fruit and herbs for sale but a lot of our income comes from our plant nursery where we grow potted herbs, veg and flowers. So we are just trying to get people to engage in food growing. But I think theres so much scope for food production to be moved back into cities and I think it is pretty critical for people to have some control over where our food comes from, as it is so globalised we dont have any control over what we eat and where it comes from so urban farming is a small way to start reclaiming that.

How do you think this reconnection of food would change peoples lives?

Well Im particuarly passionate about engaging children in growing. We are a youth trianing programme, lets just be clear about that. Cultivate London was set up to rid us of youth unemployment. We are first and foremost a youth training charity but we do work as well with young children in our business and for urban farms in general I think its really important to get young children involved in food growing and learn an apprection for food of where it comes from so when they become consumers they will start making hopefully more informed choices about the produce they are purchasing and have a greater appreciation for farmers, for the food system as a whole, and you can transfer that into health and wellbeing and you know an outdoor activity where you are moving and being physically active. If you can get people doing that as a recreational activity for a couple of hours a week instead of sitting on their butt doing nothing thats a big thing and its proven that people are more likely to eat fruit and vegetables if theyve grown them themselves, so its also the health side of things.

Ok so mainly to do with health and making better choices, do you think its something to do with waste as well?

I dont think there would be less waste. Maybe, I think one thing that would be wonderful if we could do more through more urban farms is that its a way to use waste. I mean there are a lot of food collection services that its composted down I know in waste parks an places, if that matter could be returned to farms, um there youre kind of closing the waste loop. And/or you could recycle food in the farm setting through the

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council, maybe if there is a community urban farm, I mean in the allotments, people bring their food scraps there to a composting site for your, kind of, closing that chain. What we do now is, sort of, you take food off the land and it goes, its not put back into the land. We have to put those nutrients back artificially, whereas if we could try and close that loop a bit we can try returning that food waste back to the soil, returning thos nutrients.

How do you feel that urban farming is different in somewhere like London as opposed to in developing countries? Because I know theres a lot of success with urban farming, its really caught on in developing countries but I assume its for a different reason to London. How do you feel?

Yes definitely. Here people dont... you can go down to...food is everywhere, food is everywhere here. Its is a corner shop, there is somewhere within a ten minute walk where you can buy cheap food. In many developing nations thats not the case and you are responsible for your own food production and its, err, I think its just necessity a lot of the time.

Do you think that in London and places like London it would be more about making a decision to do it, rather than, would there be a way where it would actually become normal rather than through deciding to get your food through urban farming?

Well I think it should the food and poverty is a big issue, not that poverty is not a big issue here but it should become normal, we shouldnâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;t be relying on to such a degree on large scale commercial production although having said that, we cant focus on urban production while forgetting our rural farmers. They are always going to be the bread and butter of our food production system and we have to support sustainable, financially and ecologically sustainable farmers outside of cities as well. I just think we should bear a much more, a much bigger responsibility for food production within cities as well.

Theres so much land thats not really...its so easy to set up a temporary food growing space and, well we do a fairly complex way, we have poly tunnels and a lot of other construction but you know just to grow some food in a small space. Theres cities all over the world where a tonne of food is produced in that, in a small space, and it all just brings people together and it, I dont know, its such an empowering and... its a community driven activity that, uh you know, food production for a means to an end is good but it should be part of a community fabric again.

So have you noticed an increase in community spirit in the places you have set up?

Well its hard to say to be honest as all of our previous sites have been set up in not close to residential areas. I would say that you see a good community spirit in farmers markets which we attend locally, so thats really important but, theres a new move, we are just setting up a site that will be in an estate, and we are surrounded by residential parties and the results here are yet to be seen as we are not completely functional but I am hoping that we can really engage with schools and residents here, to a big degree.

How do you choose your sites then?

Whatever is available, um well primarily whats available but we do get lots of offers now that we have been in operation for a few years and its really logistically, whats easy for us to get to, close to our customers, easy for our trainees to get to, that sort of thing.

Is it primarily run by you guys and then youth groups come in every so often and help out, or do you get a lot of support from people around. I know you arent in a residential area, but people that have heard you are coming nearby?

Well what we do is run a training and apprenticeship programme. So what we actually do is take on

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groups of youths at a time, core programmes as part of our traineeship so we take on groups of ten at a time, three times a year, for three months programmes nad they will spend three times a week learning how to grow and build sites and just sow and that sort of thing. And then our, we have four apprentices and they work full time for two years, and we also take on short term work experience students, about thirty a year. We of our traineeship so we take on groups of ten at a time, three times a year, for three months programmes nad they will spend three times a week learning how to grow and build sites and just sow and that sort of thing. And then our, we have four apprentices and they work full time for two years, and we also take on short term work experience students, about thirty a year. We have a regular volunteering day where adults come down and then we have one off groups of different schools and other sort of youth organisations come and do a day at a time, but thats not really our help, theyre not really helping us, although they do work and help us, its mostly them getting the experience â&#x20AC;&#x201C; us providing a service. Oh we also work with coorporates as well coorporate groups, businesses, will come down and do team days. We have had some help, like bigger scale help from them actually, some construction companies have really helped us with the set up here.

So this one that you are doing in the residential area, is that going to be more... if a resident wanted to go in there on just a random day, to come and help, would they be able to do that?

Well, we try to have set volunteer days. We are a business, we work hard to make as much income as we can as that can be fed back into our training programme. Its not like we are just here, puttering away and having a nice time and anyone can come and help out. We have to structure it in some kind of shape or form as weve got a lot of work to do just like any other farm. Poeple can come and visit, they can come and have a look and we do have days, one or two regular days a week where people can volunteer, but it isnt an open bill poicy where people can have a chat at any time.

The feeling that I got from my research of peoples perception of an urban farm is that its like a really friendly place, everyone just comes and goes as they please, it doesnt really seem to focus on making money?

Yeah because they are community farms, we are not a community farm, we are an Urban Farm Social Enterprise, so the idea behind that is that the training programme that we are delivering s in the context of a business, therefore its hands on busness training, its business work experience, and yeah we are making a cellular income from sales and thats including covering the cost of our training programme, the core salaries, and its pretty significant, as far as urban farming goes I think weve got one of the higher incomes of the urban farms in london as we are very focused on business. But again all of that moves back into our training programme. The more income we can make, the less we have to rely on external sources.

Do you think your organisation would be the realistic future of urban farming in places like London?

I think very much so, its hard..well as I said our main focus is youth training so we will always be reliant on external grants, but we are a very replicable model as we take over temporarily derelict land with use of moveable poly tunnels and thats a huge learning process in itself, therefore you can reach different den, Stratford and all over London, just saying, look we have some derelict land, can you do something with it. So I think that the demand is there, there has to be some aknowledgement that there is income within cities as well. Theres so much land thats not really...its so easy to set up a temporary food growing space and, well we do a fairly complex way, we have poly tunnels and a lot of other construction but you know just to grow some food in a small space. Theres cities all over the world where a tonne of food 50

is produced in that, in a small space, and it all just brings people together and it, I dont know, its such an empowering and...its a community driven activity that, uh you know, food production for a means to an end is good but it should be part of a community fabric again.

So have you noticed an increase in community spirit in the places you have set up?

Well its hard to say to be honest as all of our previous sites have been set up in not close to residential areas. I would say that you see a good community spirit in farmers markets which we attend locally, so thats really important but, theres a new move, we are just setting up a site that will be in an estate, and we are surrounded by residential parties and the results here are yet to be seen as we are not completely functional but I am hoping that we can really engage with schools and residents here, to a big degree.

Your structure sounds like its kind of integrating Urban Agriculture into the lifestyle that we already have, like through landscaping and stuff like that, its just like, youre not trying to impose anything on anyone but like slowly slowly influnecing them.

Yeah well we are moving with demand and with the demand we get asked all the time to do peopleâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;s gardens and we grow plants that people want to buy. Theres an interest in growing your own, there are a lot of allotments holders that dont have tha capacity to start a lot of plants and seeds. We move things on a lot earlier and are obvioulsy meeting a need. We are also meeting a need for youth training where there are lots of youth trying to get into the job market or maybe just trying to gain life skills and a lot of programmes dont necessarily work for them as they are office based or school based and they might not do well at school anyway so we do all our education in and outdoor, hands on setting and we meet that need too, but if you want to look just strictly at food production, our overhead costs would be halved if we didnt have our youth training programme, so, in which case, actually if we just focussed solely on food growing we could probably just A- produce a lot more and sell a lot more and our overheads would be lower. But then again, we would have as many social outcomes, it would just be food production so we would have less access to grants, we would probably have fewer people willing to give us land â&#x20AC;&#x201C; that kind of thing. We have this social USP of youth training, we have a lot more access to external funding, council support, that sort of thing. As far as food production I think its a model that can be replicated and I think theres a lot of organisations like organic growing that are trying to make it work like that.

Well it sounds like what you do has actually more longer term benefits, as well as the short term of food production because you are educating younger people to go on and do it themselves.

Yeah well thats the whole idea. I mean Growing Communities and Organic Growing run a trainee apprenticeship programme, they have a fantastic growing internship available to young people who are interested in their own food growing so there is a lot of effort to get food growing mixed up with training and training of young people and engaging that food growing knowledge so- making a long term impact, Iâ&#x20AC;&#x2122;d like to think that, and this is our fifth, well fourth year of, yeah our fith growing season, we operate all year round.

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Interview conducted by Isabelle Castro with interviewee Oscar – Representative of Grow Up farms Stratford Centre Rooftop - 6th February 2015 any one time.

Oh really so you have fish in there as well?

Yeah the fish are what produces the nutrients for the plants, we feed the fish, the fish excrete ammonia through their gills and in their waste and we filter the fish waste through mechanical filtration and biological filtration. Bacteria effectively converts the ammonia into nitrates, and then that nutrient rich solution is then pumped up into the greenhouse and then thats what fertilises the plants. So theres no other additives in terms of fertiliser. Its all completely natural and recirculating. It goes through the hydroponic growing area, plants take out the nutrients, filter it ant then that goes back into the fish tank.

And because its regenerating is that why you use that kind of system for this urban farm? using existing waste streams from buildings, to heat water and that sort of thing. Its a very low impact way of farming so we don’t have any additives that go into our systems, so no fertilisers, we aren’t running big machinery which runs off diesel or petrol. We use up to 90% less water than traditional agriculture methods. We’re constantly reusing the water as opposed to spraying it over fields where it just evaporated back into the atmosphere. We can farm at much higher densities – in that small growing area theres about 14m2 we can have anywhere between 400 and 500 plants at one time.

So you get quite good yields?

Yeah! So in terms of space its really efficient, which in cities is obviously important when land is expening up we can grow 40 heads of salad.

And so its says on the box, a sustainable food for a sustainable market, do you sell the produce?

Yes so we sell this food to local restaurants. This isn’t the be all and end all, the Grow Up Box is developed as a basically, a demonstration project. Demonstrating the technology and a way that we can start growing food, and getting that into restaurants and get feedback off the produce. Because, you know, we cant feed the city off a shipping container. So we are looking at how we can take this model and build it up to a commercial scale and really start producing much larger volumes.

If there were to be urban farming in London, do you think this is the best way to implement it?

Its the most productive way of doing it yeah. You can have it in a number of different environments, you can have it indoors, you can have it outdoors.. so you’re maximising space in the city so I think its a very viable option.

And could it be like, a source of fish?

Yeah. Exactly. Its a protein source, a very sustainable source of protein, as the global population increases, more and more people aspire to live a western kind of lifestyle including with what they eat a

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lot more people are going to want to eat protein, and protein is one of the most valuable things in terms of energy, resource intensive things that we can grow. So the fish that we are producing and farming are a more sustainable source of protein which has easier access by city folk. Because we are growing here in the city, we are reducing transport costs. We are not growing them in south America, we are growing in London, for London people and it is distributed within a few miles.

So you have one here, but are you going to do more?

Yeah the plan is to establish this one and then increase.

Why Stratford?

Its just where they’d have us. We found a good lease. We were based in London Bridge last year but this is a great space for us a s a meanwhile use space before the council decides what to do with this building. So its a three to five year lease I believe, and we are working with site managers, USM that do a lot of work with shipping containers so we thought well why not? Bring our shipping container farm here.

Is this other stuff on the roof set up by you guys as well (pointing at the rooftop cinema, cafe and crazy golf in the surrounding space)?

No these are things which are open in the summer and are set up by a different business.

So will you be here in the summer as well? How long have you been in Stratford?

Yeah, we’ve been here since May of last year And is it you two that set it up?

No we’ve been with them for five/six months now. They started up the business a couple of years back, I did some of the design for it, and now we are managing the farm. We now have a financial director and we are..

Ah right so they are expanding? teers that help out, theres open days, so its definitely growing.

So with the Volunteers.. who are they? Are they people from the local area?

So we have some local, some from further afield, literally anyone that wants to get involved.

And can anyone come whenever? Like can they come and see it or...?

Basically we have an open day, during the winter thats just once a month. In the spring and the summer and the autumn, we are open every weekend, from 10am – 4pm on Saturday and Sunday and people are free to come up. As you can see at the moment, the roof its closed and locked so right now we are running a much tighter ship.

If you were to get this on a bigger scale do you think you would have more open days or make it more accessible or would you always keep it just open a few days?

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So theres plans to have a visitor centre at the next farm so there will be an engagement area so that the public can come in and have tours round the large scale farms as well. And one of the great things about growing food in cities is that you can start to engage the population about where their food comes from. Lots of people don’t know where their food comes from, either they just don’t know about it, or mation out. Its all about reconnecting people with how their food is made, where it comes from and just, you know, closing that loop. Instead of people just taking it off their shelf, and it just goes in their fridge and thats it. Yeah so they can see what goes into food production.

Closing that loop, what do you think it will affect, wastage? this sort of way. I think people would see the process of food and more about what goes into its production and be more aware of surrounding issue such as waste and transportation, which has a large environmental impact.

We have rural farms now, do you think this would work in conjunction with them or..?

Yeah I mean, by any means this is not the be all and end all for future farming needs. I think its a mixed solution for the future where we are going to have to use innovative, new ways of growing food in conjunction with more traditional ways. Like, arable crops need lots of big fields with lots of space, fine for growing in the countryside. Small crops like salads and herbs work well here where they are nearer the consumer and are productive in a vertical system.

So how come you got into Urban Farming?

It was by chance really, I met Tom Webster, who is the co-founder of my previous job, I was a sustainability consultant, I was an environments consultant, this was a project he was working on and yeah I started volunteering. But I mean growing food has always been something I enjoyed. You know as a child I was growing food with my mum on her allotment and that sort of thing. I also really enjoy food and in terms of the impact I was having on environmental sustainability issues as an environments consultant working in the built environment, this was for me a lot more in the forefront of sustainability issues in terms of actually making an impact instead of making excuses for big rich corporate firms.

Do you have a lot of businesses that come and visit, or is it just more small scale individuals?

We do yes, we do walking tours, we have a lot of architects who come to see what we are doing, so we have a lot of those kind of tours. But a lot of the conversations we have are conversations with larger scale firms. And you know that is one of the challenges we have to take on if we are thinking about having farms on a larger scale.

Do you think you will ever be given the land, or do you think you’ll always have to pay for it?

Um well theres a lack of freely available land in London as everything has a price on it but you know hopefully in the future when there are more projects up and running there will be more of a government initiative to release land. On the flip side there are large firms such as Tesco’s and Sainsbury’s that own 54

on these firms by the government to be more responsible with this land. So thats another side of it.

And if you had, if you were working on that kind of land, it would work with the supermarkets.

Yeah well we’d love to be building farms directly on top of the supermarket, bringing the food even closer to where its going to be sold, that would be fantastic, yeah.

Yeah so this is quite transportable, so this could be like a, this could move around continuously? Or do you have some kind of Infrastructure that attaches to the building?

This needs to be attached for the water supply, power supply, for all our electrics, and the sort of, mains supply. But yeah, one of the great things about the shipping container is that it can be disassembled really easily. Its very modular, the build time is only really a couple of weeks to put something like this together and to really get it up and running. It is very moveable, but for us its really great to have a space where we can be for a number of years and really build up a network of partners.

And this is pre-fabricated, do you have to build it onsite?

Um well the shipping container is prefabricated and then its very much a case of fitting the greenhouse Its quite a good location no?

Yeah well at the moment we are kind of blocked off by the rooftop cinema so you cant really see us from Westfield shopping centre, so we don’t get much visibility but in the sumer that becomes better.

Do you think Urban Farming is underrated in London? Is it more viewed as a fad rather than an actual important piece of infrastructure?

Yeah I mean they always market it as, sort of, lets put trees on everything, approach to design which I transportation of food. But I think certainly from a design perspective, there seems to be jus bolt on, tack on solutions that don’t really ground it. Yeah I think its also that people living in London have all the food they could wish for and aren’t really sure about where it comes from and what goes on behind it. The also don’t understand the preciousness of having that choice, the environmental impact of that, sustainability issues surrounding that. In third world, developing nations, where food isn’t so easy to come by for whatever reason, because they don’t have the right climate to grow or like somewhere like Cuba where they have a political embargo from the US so they cant import certain foods, that sort of thing. Um you know theres a much greater appreciation for food and how precious it is, and how lucky we are to have it. But you know here theres every sort of restaurant you can imagine, every sort of supermarket you can imagine, you can get anything you want really. You know, they say if, in London, if we were to run out of our supply we would have food for maybe three/ four days, that would be it. We import so much of our food that if we were to have a catastrophe where all our supply was cut off, we would have no means of supporting ourselves.

Do you think, to change that, there would have to be a subtle introduction, so like what 55

you’re doing is growing your lettuce here and distributing it in restaurants but the people themselves that are eating it don’t necessarily know that it is coming from here.

Do you think that thats the way to do it like to make London less dependent on imports?

Yeah I think having food security is really important and I think the more we can grow the better really and educate people as to where it comes from. A number of restaurants we work with do give us acknowledgement, a couple of menus in the Shard, even though we weren’t supplying food at the time. I You said that when you were younger you were introduced to growing food. Do you think this was one of your main reasons for going into food production?

Definitely, I think its 100% about positive interactions, positive associations, is what fosters the feeling of people to care for things in the future. I studied environmental science Ive always loved the natural environment so thats why Im interested in environmental sustainability issues. Its because I have that associative memory of when I was a child, you know, going to the woods playing in the sea digging potatoes with my granny, you know, just running around in the wild, and I loved that but yeah thats certainly why I’m interested in it and I believe, you know, I did my thesis about how we need more green spaces in cities so that young generations can foster an interest and an appreciation for the environment otherwise, why are they going to care about it in the future? Its the same with..if people don’t know where their food comes from, how its made, how are they supposed to form a justified opinion on sustainability issues? When it comes to the point that we say, sorry guys you cant have this food or that food because we cant make it anymore, if they don’t know the process of what goes into that, its just going to be like, well why not, why cant I have that? So I think, you know, education is important but also, you know those meaningful interactions at that age stay with you.

Do you get a lot of school groups coming?

We’ve had a fair few school groups, I think in the first summer we had about 500 school kids up here. We havent had many this year but we have had groups up, its been great. Different ages as well.

Who engages more, the older ones or the younger ones?

Its all very similar, you’d be surprised about how engaged the younger ones are and for them its less of a radical idea, they just kind of accept it because they haven’t formed judgements of how food should be produced. And they are very excited about the fish.

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