The Sustainability Contributions of Community Gardens:

“Every little bit helps”

—but helps what, and how much?

George Martin

CES, September 26, 2013

A GLOBAL CONTEXT

• A rising & more urban population (UN 2011)

→ Need for 60-120% more food

• Growing farmland loss to urban expansion (Seto et al. 2011)

• Farm yield loss of uncertain magnitude from climate change (USDA 2013)

URBAN FOOD POTENTIAL

In Cleveland, Ohio (Grewal & Grewal 2012); Oakland, California (McClintock et al. 2013); London (Garnett 2001); Oxford (LCO 2012); and Detroit (Colasanti et al. 2010):

• Potential to grow by magnitudes from a low base

• Maximum potential: 1/2 of local fruit & veg = 1/6 of Livewell plate (Harland et al. 2012; Macdiarmid et al. 2011)

CONDITIONS OF THE POTENTIAL

• Arable land with un-contaminated or de-contaminated soil

• Food storage and transfer facilities

• Extended growing season (“poly-tunnels”)

• Sustainable plates

URBAN FOOD PRODUCTION’S LIMITS

Land: Urban settlement covers only 1% of earth’s

land mass (FAO 2011) + it is expensive property subject to intense economic & political competition

Sustainability: Conversion of urban green space (parks, greenbelts, etc.) that already provides carbon sequestration and biological diversity to food production? Labor & capital . . .

FOOD PRODUCTION NICHES

• Low-income immigrants from agricultural backgrounds provided with large plots of free arable land—5.7 hectares in Los Angeles, 1.6 in Seattle (Mares & Pena 2010)

• Low-income persons with high rates of obesity and diabetes and limited sources of fresh produce, who have access to land (McMillan 2008)

ECOLOGICAL SUSTAINABILITY

All urban green space:

~ Provides natural habitat

~ Reduces soil erosion

~ Retards flooding

~ Mitigates city heat island effect

Food-growing urban space:

~ Protects biological diversity thru variety of flora

– e.g., sustain threatened bee populations

THE GREAT ORNAMENTAL DEBATE

“FOOD-ISTS”: Eat first! (fruit & veg)

“AESTHETI-CISTS”: More to life than food! (beauty)

“REAL-ISTS”: Flowers attract people! ($)

“ECOLO-GISTS”: Flowers bio-sustaining! (diversity)

ECOLOGICAL SOCIAL SUSTAINABILITY SYNERGIES

• Environmental justice: “sweat equity”

• Public health: mental and physical

• Community development: “social capital”

• Environmental education

(Brown & Jameton 2000; Cattell et al. 2008; Comstock et al. 2010; Ferris et al. 2001; Relf 1992; SDC 2008)

VERTICAL FARMS (Z-FARMING)?

• High-rise: Unsustainable

Cost of building, maintaining tall buildings

Energy to replace sunlight

• Low-rise: Sustainable?

• Roof-tops & walls: Sustainable?

(Specht et al. 2013)

URBAN PLANNING

Managing the coming urban growth to:

~ Protect existing food-growing (farm) land

~ Integrate food-growing spaces into

New build and

Re-build

ZONES OF URBAN FOOD PRODUCTION

Projected optimal zonal targets for UK sustainable food production (Growing Communities 2012):

Locale Current Target

Urban 4% 8%

Peri-urban -- 18

Hinterland (100 mi) 54 35

Rest of UK 3 20

Rest of Europe 32 15

Rest of world 8 5

URBAN FOOD PRODUCING ORGANIZATIONS

Social Enterprise:

¶ Sutton Community Farm, London: 2.9 hectares (Kulak et al. 2013)

¶ Urbivore, Stoke: 8 hectares (Williams 2013)

Enterprise:

¶ Farmscape, Los Angeles: Fee for service (Collins 2013)

“HELPS WHAT, AND HOW MUCH?”

• Food: Limited ceiling but meaningful up-scaling potential—between “nibbles” (present reality) and “oodles” (present claim)

• Ecology: Biological diversity + synergies with:

• Society: Environmental Justice, Public Health, Community Development, and especially Environmental Education

“WHERE AND WHAT?”

¶ URBAN: Fruit & veg (only?)

Center: Community gardens

Suburbs: Allotments, domestic gardens

Exurbs: Community farms

¶ URBAN REGION (small farms): Fish, poultry & egg, meat & dairy

¶ RURAL (large farms): Cereal grains +

¶ IMPORT (exotic to UK ): Citrus, coffee & tea, etc.

PRODUCING MORE FOOD (EVERYWHERE!)

Reduce waste: Throughout food chain accounts for up to 1/3 of production (Kummo et al. 2012)

Crop shift: Animal feeds, biofuels to humans--global calories increase by up to 70% (Cassidy et al. 2013)

Sustainable Intensification: Raise productivity + reduce environmental impact + use NO more land

(Garnett & Godfray 2012)

Consumption: Shift to sustainable (Livewell) plates (Harland et al. 2012)

“THE GARDEN IS THE SMALLEST PARCEL OF THE WORLD AND THEN IT IS THE TOTALITY OF

THE WORLD.”