Sorry, But This Isn't What I Had in Mind

I just got this article below via email and wanted to share it with you, to close out the week of "imagining." A surge in urban food production is happening all over the world right now. Very, very little is happening in Dunwoody on this issue (see the above photo of the "fresh" organic produce available at the Dunwoody Target--sorry, but this isn't what I had in mind!). When I mentioned "food production" as a land use consideration at the comprehensive plan meeting the other night, I got a reaction that made me feel like I was out in left field. Anyone want to join me in that field? Read on for a glimpse of what is possible in small spaces:

Intensive and Intelligent: Urban Agriculture in Ogawa-Machi, Japan

By Katherine Kelly

I just returned from a trip to Japan with nine other farmers, food activists and academics as part of a Japan-Kansas exchange looking at organic agriculture and food movements. The goal of the exchange is to share strategies for building a local organic food movement here and there.

We spent a week in the Saitama prefecture, northwest of Tokyo, visiting organic and urban farms and food businesses; in June, a group of ten Japanese visitors will come to Kansas, touring Lawrence area farms and coming into Kansas City for the Urban Farms & Gardens Tour.

During the planning phase of the trip, I wondered if there would be enough urban agriculture for my interests, since the descriptions of the farms on our itinerary seemed mostly “rural.” On the first day though, as we left the Tokyo airport by train, I realized that it was likely that all of the agriculture we were going to see fit my definition of “urban.” (If you can see homes and businesses while standing in your field, you are probably an urban farmer.)

Looking out the train window, I saw that every bit of land that wasn’t a mountain and that wasn’t developed was planted to vegetable and grain crops. Rice paddies, wheat fields, and vegetable gardens and farms lined the railroad tracks and could be seen interwoven with houses, apartment buildings, and businesses. The fields were tiny--perhaps a quarter to half an acre, sometimes there were multiple fields abutting each other, vegetables next to rice paddies next to wheat fields next to the mountains.

The majority of our time was spent in Ogawa-Machi, a town of 30,000 which felt more like an extension of Tokyo than the small rural town I had expected. As we walked around the streets, I took picture after picture of “urban” agriculture until I realized that what I had seen along the train tracks held true here, too. At houses with no lawn (most of the city was composed of what we would call townhomes) there would be pots of flowers or vegetables or herbs. It wasn’t unusual to see the tiniest bit of ground bordering a parking lot planted to potatoes, or the little triangles of land formed by streets joining at an angle covered in bunching onions. Land between apartment buildings had several hundred square feet of potatoes and multiple long rows of onions and cabbages and garlic chives as well as other vegetables. At the edges of town, butting up against the mountains, you could see small trucks parked alongside fields, tractors working in the rice paddies and individuals and families out working in their plots. It was hard to tell what were commercial plots and what were home gardens; everything was managed so intensively and so intelligently.

For part of the trip, we had home-stays at organic farms. I was privileged to stay at the Frostpia Farm, an organic vegetable, rice, soybean, and wheat farm. It was described as the grandparent of organic agriculture in that area; for over 38 years, they have trained hundreds of apprentices and helped give birth to some 30 other farms. Their vegetable production was at the scale of KCCUA’s Community Farm, with perhaps 2 plus acres under cultivation. In addition, they kept another three to four acres in rice, wheat, and soybeans. Mountains enclosed the farm on two sides, the other two sides butted up against small homes and city streets. Deliveries of vegetables to buyers were quick, taking as little as ten minutes from farm to grocery store and restaurant.

In the kitchens as well as on the streets, healthy vegetables were everywhere. Many small stores and restaurants carried produce; in one highly developed Tokyo neighborhood, we saw a "green grocer" driving around a neighborhood selling fresh fruits and vegetables to people directly from the truck. Each meal was dominated by vegetables; we guessed that most people eat their “five-a-day” before breakfast is even over. Even the prepared foods so widely available were composed primarily of vegetables.

Japan has one of the healthiest populations in the world, and you could see it in the bodies and faces of children, adults, and seniors alike. Women in Japan have the longest life expectancy in the world; girls born today are expected to live to 86 years of age; boys to 79 years. The obesity rate there is around 3% (here it is around 30%). The causes behind such good national health are complex, attributable in no small part to the fact that this is a nation of walkers and bikers; but healthy, plant-based eating and the powerful daily connection to vegetable production are clearly central to their healthier lifestyles.

The cities I saw offered me a vision of what food-productive urban spaces might look like. The streets seemed friendlier and safer because of the presence of so much green space; the modest and patient work of planting and maintaining gardens somehow grounded the intense pace of living we saw. It occurred to me that if natural or man-made disaster should strike, their cities would be much better able to feed themselves; they have the know-how, and the basic infrastructure. In the face of intense development and population pressure in their cities, the Japanese have generally maintained a commitment to small scale agriculture and food production as a social and an economic good. The Ministry of Agriculture recently re-affirmed its commitment to greater food self-sufficiency, and is backing that commitment up with substantial financial and human resources.