Agroecological Urbanism – Future Heritage
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The urban food policy of the City of Ghent ‘Gent en Garde’ has been the subject of international attention, including several prestigious prizes. At the same time, the systematic sale of public farmland in the peri-urban fringe has placed the city in conflict with traditional and new farmers who are looking for land, but are being outbidded. The city has placed a temporary stop on the sale of public farmland and is working towards a vision on farming in the region. This Summer School, part of the Intensive Programme of the Erasmus+ project AESOP4Food, will explore how public farmland may contribute to the agroecological transition of farming in the peri-urban fringe. Within the context of De Stadsacademie, civil society actors, farmers, urban civil servants, students, and researchers have been engaged in the development of alternative policies regarding publicly owned farmland, and agricultural heritage more in general.
Within the Intensive Programme, the participants will construct alternative positions that not only question the current sale of farmland, but also reserve a role for public land management in the construction of an agroecological urbanism. This is a way of urbanizing that actively supports the care for soils and the growing of food in an equitable and ecologically sustainable way. The participants will try to imagine new forms of urban infrastructure and future heritage that contribute to the local support of agroecological farmers and re-inscribe the farming activities within a new urban geography of farming. Four positions will be explored in groups through speculative case studies and linked to the potential public policy action around publicly owned farmland. The Ghent exploration will be crossed with examples and practices from elsewhere, trying to inform a process of translocal learning for an agroecological urbanism.
The publicly owned land currently being sold by the city is the fruit of historical investment in urban agricultural heritage that has been handed down over several generations and is an integral part of the permanent improvements that made farming possible: infrastructure, public space, heritage landscapes, drainage systems… Contemporary urban constituencies care little for the future of this heritage. The selective treatment of the urban food question in the recent history of cities in Europe has led to a commonly held position that it is convenient (and cheaper) to produce food ‘elsewhere’ and that there is little reason to hold on to this historical land. There is a need for the development of alternative policies regarding publicly owned farmland, and agricultural heritage more in general.
During the Intensive Programme we will be exploring 4 positions in particular:
1. The Shared Use of Farmland for the Harvesting of Drinking Water and the Production of Food
Environmental requirements, such as nature objectives, restrictions on nitrogen emissions, water quality levels..., have far reaching consequences which often infringe upon the way in which farmers may cultivate the soil. Can we imagine ways in which these requirements would help to accelerate the transition to agroecological forms of farming? Could public farmland be used to both simultaneously serve the harvesting of drinking water and the livelihoods of agroecological farmers?
2. Healthy Food for the Elderly – Care for the Soil
The bulk of the publicly owned farmland used to belong to monasteries and hospitals engaged in care for the sick and the elderly. These lands are now in the hands of the municipal care service. Today, farmland is sold to serve the budgetary crisis of these services, playing social objectives against ecological ones. Can we imagine public land management strategies that would directly support the food services of these municipal care facilities?
3. Shared Farmers Operating Infrastructure for Nutrient Cycling at Landscape Level
Agroecological farmers in the peri-urban area are ‘dependent’ famers who face great difficulties to realize the goals of closing loops and regenerative soil care on the level of the farm. This leaves opportunities to facilitate some of these processes ‘at a landscape level’ and to rebalance the relation between what happens on and off farm. The development of such relations at a landscape level could start with the resourcing of farmers through nutrients harvested in the management of nature conservation areas, as well as the management of trees and hedgerows.
4. The Landed Community Kitchen – Decommodified Food from Decommodified Land
Many initiatives trying to supply food support (food poverty) rely on surplus food from supermarkets. Some initiatives have also tried to source food waste. This leads to the contradictory situation that efforts to correct the failures of the food system are sourced through the failures of the food system. It is challenging to make durable connections between food initiatives serving social objectives, with ecological objectives and access to locally sourced, fair, ecologically based, and healthy food supply. The imaginary of the landed community kitchen seeks to link neighbourhood-based initiatives with agroecological farmers, building solidarity across the urban rural divide.
About
This Summer School is part of the Erasmus+ project AESOP4Food, where De Stadsacademie and UGent are one of the partners. The Erasmus+ Intensive Programma is a short-term mobility program that combines virtual learning with a physical component. Students and teachers from the international AESOP4Food community come together during summer to foster collaboration, innovation and intercultural exchange.