Metropolitan agriculture

Metropolitan agriculture is a concept of how to successfully grow food in an urban environment. It studies the linkage between areas such as sustainability, urbanization, urban agriculture, urban land use policies and agricultural change.[1][2]

Description

Metropolitan agriculture provides a conceptual framework for analysis of all the systems and processes through which agriculture manifests itself in urban areas. This goes beyond primary production to include distribution, processing, marketing and consumption.[3] It can be seen as drawing on urban systems theory to understand the complex ways that agriculture contributes to, shapes, and is shaped by the process of urban development. This requires a spatial lens wider than the immediate urban environment, and the term 'metropolitan' attempts to convey a wider spatial boundary as well as wider conceptual focus.

TransForum

TransForum is a Dutch foundation that works on sustainable agriculture.[4] It has developed several pilot projects centered on re-connecting agriculture and cities while attempting to develop more sustainable agricultural systems and ventures.[5] Out of this work emerged certain underlying characteristics and design principles as well as a larger conceptual framework for understanding the different ways that agriculture plays a part in urban development.

On a project level, TransForum used 'metropolitan agriculture' to convey an emphasis on systems integration in production processes, lowering external inputs by striving towards closed-loop systems, and multi-functionality in agricultural enterprises.

See also

References
  1. "Archived copy" (PDF). Archived from the original (PDF) on 2010-03-04. Retrieved 2010-02-26.{{cite web}}: CS1 maint: archived copy as title (link)
  2. Heimlich, Ralph (1989) "Metropolitan Agriculture: Farming in the City's Shadow" Journal of the American Planning Association, Vol 55 no 4: 457-466.
  3. Wascher, Dirk M., et al: Innovation Characteristics for Sustainable Metropolitan Agriculture, SUSMETRO Phase 1 Final Report, Wageningen University and TransForum, 2007
  4. Can the Way We Eat Change Metropolitan Agriculture? The Portland Example Works, M. and Harvey, T., Terrain.org
  5. "Metropolitan Agriculture as a sustainable perspective". Archived from the original on 2010-03-31. Retrieved 2010-02-24.
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