UK: Why local authorities need to re-think the role of urban farming in their planning
Like grey houses with the odd green lawn and pot plant. That’s how the large majority of towns and cities in the UK today could be characterised.
By Dr Dan Evans
75th Anniversary Research Fellow, Cranfield Soil and Agrifood Institute, Cranfield University.
LocGov
07 April 2022
Excerpt:
Local authorities and land planners need to think creatively about how to weave food growing into the fabric of urban life. They have to pay more attention to available land within their districts and what the potential is for food production, with more monitoring and measurement. With one in eight UK households having no access to a garden, local authorities may need to consider the potential of other types of private and public space. Some innovative examples of food-growing — on rooftops, walls, and even underground — already exist.
For example, micro-sites are being used for farming by Edible Bristol and Growing Communities project in London; Manchester has a network of local growers, Veg People; the Growing Underground project is being run at Clapham tube station. There’s an important role here for local government in acting as a spur and focal point for assembling these kinds of local communities of practice, involving landowners, architects, and volunteers to design and develop efficient and maintainable food growing schemes.
Ways of life are changing and that means more opportunities for exploiting changes in land use. The upsurge of flexible working, park-and-ride offers, pedestrianisation schemes, e-commerce, and online retail, the demand on certain types of urban space such as multi-storey car parks and office blocks has fallen. Up and down the country, an opportunity is emerging: an opportunity to redesign and reconfigure under-utilised and vacant urban spaces for urban agriculture, and by so doing, pave the way for a healthier society and a healthier ecosystem.
