Large Scale Urban Agriculture - Page 2

<< suitable for effective agriculture does not consist of large expanses of green rolling hills just over the horizon. It mostly consists of pockets of land enclosed within steep mountain regions, fragmented in urban and industrial areas and remote natural lands best left undisturbed for obvious preservation reasons. Most agricultural land which can be reasonably used with current technologies is already in use.

There are various enterprises being developed to assist in expanding the total food production capacity. They can be divided into two categories:

1. The creation of more agricultural land, via new irrigation methods and new food crops that grow in harsher conditions.
   
   
2. The increase of the output of existing agricultural lands by new food crops (through genetic engineering), alternate irrigation methods and higher capacity fertilizers.
   

The problem with number 2 is that developments in the market and with concern for environmental issues there is increasing resistance to these methods. The pressure on increasingly engineered agricultural products brings with it dangers that are not

insubstantial, and pressure on higher yields for land can lead to further desertification and land exhaustion. Therefore we have attempted to focus on the increase of land, while using the best of developments in increase in yield secondarily.

Rather than growing our food in remote areas of the land and spending large amounts of resources in transportation to distribute these, the growing of food within cities itself may provide an additional source of agricultural capital.

This has as an added advantage that the consumer and the producer are geographically linked, reducing the distance and thus the transportation costs of the food products, and providing certain sociological benefits to society. Food is usually grown in a remote area, where it is harvested and transported to an equally remote

processing plant. From there it is further processed and packaged in perhaps a third plant and is then transported to distribution centers. From there it goes to retail outlets where most people purchase it and and take it home. Growing up in this type of society does not allow new generations to connect with the natural world and its source of nutrition, the cycle of life and energy sources and what the efforts to keep us alive comprise of.

It has been recognized on various levels and in various disciplines that this remove from an understanding of the natural world and our food cycle is detrimental to the development of humanity through the lack of a basic understanding and respect for its fundamentals7. Urban agriculture could play a large role in reintroducing the knowledge and understanding of these fundamentals into the life of the urban dweller, of whom there are ever more compared to rural dwellers each day.

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