Urban agriculture rocks

Hej,

Lately I have been counting how articles in my newspaper were about urban agriculture. During the past few weeks, more and more attention has been given to this so called new phenomenon. It is cool that people are more aware of a sustainable way of developing! Our own Roosevelt Academy Science Professor Inez Flameling wrote about urban agriculture only last week in Trouw (Dutch Newspaper). Also RA staff and students are into urban agriculture. Keep on the good spirit!
Lots of green love,
The Urban Agriculture Team

Rotterdam goes wild!

Hi guys,

As you might know Rotterdam is really into urban agriculture. It is therefore not suprizing that the first 'kitchen garden' (or moestuin in Dutch) on a roof in the Netherlands will be developed there. For more information on this project follow these two links:

http://www.architectenweb.nl/aweb/redactie/redactie_detail.asp?iNID=28736&utm_source=dlvr.it&utm_medium=twitter

http://www.rotterdamistop.nl/schieblock/highlight/daktuin

The project is really cool and will be part of a creative neighborhood in Rotterdam. The food production of this roof garden will be used in a restaurant located in this neighborhood :)
I hope you like it!
Besides, Rotterdam has the aspirations to become Europe's Green Capital City in 2014. This might be a reason why urban agriculture is supported and realized that much in Rotterdam?!

Regards,
The Urban Agriculture Group

Look how cool!

Look how awesome Biodroom has become! 

After the publicity on the local city magazine and the newspaper, Biodroom had a very successful opening and it is becoming more popular everyday! The idea and work invested in this project is so incredible, it makes us very happy to see that its slowly developing and we hope for a successful future! 

Anyone notice how the bags are placed in circles like the Biodroom logo? cool hey!

Check out the website!! http://www.dna.be/biodroom

Regards, 

The Urban Agriculture Group

Interviews

Hey guys!

One more thing we wanted to share with you are the summaries we made of two very interesting interviews we conducted with Jan van der Schans and Barbara van Dyck. They both gave us very interesting insights on the topic:

Interview Jan van der Schans – directeur Havensteder (housing corporation) – Wednesday 4 of April 2012, 11.15 by telephone

Healthy city, together with ‘GGD (youth health organization)’, Aldra College (both primary as secondary education), Aafje zorg organisatie (health organization), DURA (building company) aims Havensteder (housing corporation) to create a healthy city.

Volunteers help out in Lombardijen at the Dantetuin. Children of surrounding primary schools are involved in this project, these children are mostly members of ethnic minorities. They live in deprived neighborhoods and do not get healthy food every day. By involving mothers and children in this agriculture project they can grow their own vegetables. When the vegetables are ready for harvest, they are cooked and eaten together with everyone who has been involved in the project. In this way, people in deprived neighborhoods can get a cheap and healthy meal by means of their own vegetables. This project started two years ago and has to become a business. Havensteder is funding the project right now, but they will stop this in time as it is not their main goal to supply food for the neighborhood. There are already people interested in this. The place where the Dantetuin as well as the Meandertuin, both in Lombardijen, are located, has resulted out of the demolition of old houses. It was Havensteder´s intention to build new houses there, but due to the economic crisis, the building of new houses was not an option. This ´waste land´ could therefore be used as an urban agriculture site. This however, will change when the economic times are changing. According to van der Schans, this urban agriculture is also more favorable now due to the economic circumstances. People tend to be more careful with spending and growing your own vegetables contributes to this.

Within the city there are many closed housing blocks that have some open space within it. Sometimes there were companies located at these sites, but they were mainly demolished. Next to that at other places, these sites were just empty. Havensteder together with the people living it the houses created a kitchen garden. These people also work and eat together from the field, this is what is called by van der Schans ´positively living together´. Now the sites within the closed blocks look nice, according to van der Schans people are stimulated to keep it that way due to the fact that otherwise it will turn into dirty waste land and that does not contribute to a positive living sphere.

A third project which is a City farmer company, called Uit je Eigen Stad, near the fruit port (Marconiplein) and consists of three experienced farmers. Havensteder contributes financially to this project and the farmers in turn pay rent to Havensteder. This enormous urban agriculture project that opens in May 2012 will be a way to upgrade the neighborhood. Children from schools nearby will be invited to see and maybe even take part in the agriculture process. After urban agriculture has upgraded the neighborhood, Havensteder will start building houses in this part of the city. Havensteder aims to upgrade this part of the city first by implementing urban agriculture, after this has happened it will continue by constructing houses here. The urban agriculture project is not sure of its further existence then, it might only be used to create a positive image.

The government supports these green projects of Havensteder very much. The local alderman Alexandra van Heuvelen wants Rotterdam to become European Green Capital City in 2014. She therefore helps Havensteder and other corporation out when there are problems with civilians or companies that do not want urban agriculture to be implemented.

Urban agriculture also contributes positively to the housing corporation itself. It is not idealism that drives Havensteder to do this, it is also a way to create a positive atmosphere within neighborhoods. People will not leave when they live happily and the presence of urban green and agriculture contributes to this atmosphere. It is therefore a business tactic that Havensteder uses to keep its residents where they are.

A funny fact is that Jan van der Schans grew up in a village. His mother supported him and his brothers and sisters to grow their own vegetables in their own part of the garden. Van der Schans actually did this and he really liked it. This experience could be a reason for him to put urban agriculture in a positive light and to use it in his nowadays work.

Interview Barbara van Dyck – Tuesday 3 of April 2012, 19.30 by Skype

Urban agriculture is a very bottom-up process by which civil initiatives grow out to projects that are supported by the government. The aspect of sustainability, to use it as a market strategy is an important reason for Belgian government to support urban agriculture. In Antwerp a civil society organization called Velt strongly supports urban gardeners. Then there is this organization called Stadsspotters they are into urban agriculture but are in no way related to the government.

According to van Dyck urban agriculture in Antwerp is not really coordinated as it is only a hot topic since the last five years. She advised us to contact Stadsspotters and ask to their role in urban agriculture and the way that the Antwerp local authorities (do not) support it. I have emailed them so we will see what happens. 

Sincerely, 

The urban agriculture team

and... Rotterdam's Urban Agriculture

Well... since we posted about Antwerp, it was only fair we showed you what we found in Rotterdam!

Just like in Antwerp we found some urban agriculture sites in the neighborhoods of Rotterdam. We had a great time, learned so much and met lots of very interesting people... and most importantly it was a beautiful hot spring day! We visited two very interesting urban agriculture sites. The first one is called Proefpark de Punt. We were welcomed by three very kind people who work there, and they explained to us what the situation of this project was. Basically it is only a temporary project which can be shut down any day. Because of the economic crisis the land owners can't build on it and therefore was temporally lent for better use. The plan was for only 2 years... about 7 years have passed! We talked to some people who were relaxing there and they were really enthusiastic about it! People in the neighborhood love it; children can play, vegetables can be grown and delicious barbecue parties can be organized! 

If you live by Rotterdam and feel like relaxing in a beautiful green area, this is definitively a place to visit! 

Here is the website for more information: http://www.proefparkdepunt.nl/

                                                                                   Entrance of the park

              The actual agriculture boxes                                                           The beautiful green park

The second urban agriculture site we visited is called the Dantetuin, which we discovered it is not so close to the actual street called Dantestraat... However, we managed to find it and we thought it was interesting to see how different it was from the first site. Unfortunaly there was no one we could talk to and it seemed like they haven't really started growing yet. Also it was much smaller and fenced, which is a clear difference from the first site. Nevertheless, we did some research and it is another very well organized urban agriculture project which is very involved with schools (especially the one right in front of it) and it is very focused on the educational aspect of urban agriculture!

Dantetuin (next to a playground) 

Antwerp's Urban Agriculture

Hey Guys!

So as you know, a few weeks ago we went to Antwerp for field research. We ended up in a very spacious brownfield transformed into a urban agriculture site. This project is called Biodroom, it has just started up and it's absolutely awesome! We met with one of the main project managers, Fleur Leroy and she gave us some great insights on the future of this project. Basically the main idea is not only to grow your own vegetables but also to gain knowledge on how to take care of your plants and even more important on bringing the neighborhoods together and meeting new people!

I strongly recommend everyone to have a look at their website ( http://www.dna.be/biodroom ) and if you are ever around the area I definitively advise to drop by and see what they are up to!

Here are some photos taken during our visit to the site. 

 

The hand made dome. Such an interesting structure, which came in very handy to protect us from the rain!

Inside the greenhouse

The Biodroom card, for a certain amount of hours working at the site you can get points which you can then use to grow more plants

The plastic bag where you can grow your plants!

Urban agriculture as a tool for independence

Hi guys,

Urban Agriculture is in the minds of people today more than it has been before. As our research focuses on Rotterdam and Antwerp, there are other places where urban agriculture is implemented. For example, Nairobi or Kumasi. By using urban agriculture the people living in over crowded cities try to become less dependent on the harvest from the country side as well as development aid. If you are interested in this side of Urban Agriculture, I recommend you to read this article:

Zezza, A., & Tasciotti, L. (2010). Urban agriculture, poverty, and food security: Empirical evidence from a sample of developing countries. Food Policy, 35, 265-273. http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.foodpol.2010.04.007

At the same time Urban Agriculture is not charity, it is a real business. The economics of Urban Agriculture are explained in this document:
'The Economics of Urban Agriculture' published in the Urban Agriculture Magazine in August 2002. You can find it on this website: www.ruaf.org

I hope you like it!
Yvette