[Scpg] The Agricultural Urbanism Book /NEW BOOK

[Wesley Roe and Santa Barbara Permaculture Network]

The Agricultural Urbanism Book
has been launched!
http://agriculturalurbanism.com/

Our awareness of the significant challenge our food supply faces in the 
21st century is growing rapidly. However, few people offer more than a 
suggestion that we all grow our own food in our backyard or balcony, 
attend a farmers' market, and lobby for global change. This book, rooted 
in a sustainable food system approach and written by leaders in planning 
and design, outlines a powerful strategy for understanding and taking 
action on the full scope of sustainable food system opportunities in 
cities and how we build them.

This book takes sustainable food systems far beyond the community garden 
and the buying of local food and into strategies for supporting local 
food processing, wholesale and marketing, education and training 
programs, and celebration and culture around food, ensuring access to 
healthy food for all. Agricultural Urbanism has been declared as the 
next big movement for New Urbanism in the 21st century as we grapple 
with how to make our cities not only more sustainable but also great 
places to live. This book outlines key strategies to create magnetic and 
unique agriculture and food precincts and community places where food is 
celebrated all year round. Authored by the most innovative and leading 
thinkers and practitioners in the Southhwest of Canada, this book offers 
a new and exciting concept of agricultural urbanism that unifies urban 
and rural in a previously unconceived way

AU Basics

Why AU?
The next century will require a new approach to food in North American 
cities. The continued growth of cities combined with the significant 
need to increase the sustainability of the food systems in cities and in 
their surrounding regions creates converging forces. These forces are 
colliding everywhere and agriculture and the food system is losing. This 
is not sustainable and as such, we need to find a way to integrate urban 
development and the food system in a healthy way.

Sustainable community planning is a high priority for many cities 
however, planning for sustainable food systems is generally not 
addressed. Creating sustainable cities demands an aggressive and 
integrated approach to merging urbanism and sustainable food systems. 
Agricultural urbanism draws together a philosophy, principles, 
practices, design ideas and management strategies into a coordinated 
approach to sustainable cities and sustainable food systems.

There is a clear need for a new approach in city building that considers 
and re-invites food and agriculture back into our metropolitan areas. 
Whereas:
Increasing population growth is forcing low-density development to occur 
on the edges of cities, which continues to erode farmland and increase 
infrastructure costs for local government.
Most cities in North America do not have legislative controls to protect 
agricultural land around cities.
While infill and intensification are CRITICAL strategies to undertake to 
absorb growth, it is unlikely that they will be able to keep-up to 
growth pressures being felt in many cities.
We need to re-build a, energy efficient- healthy food system, stimulate 
local food economies, and train a new generation of farmers.
There is significant potential to use and regulate the development 
investment in building new communities to endow the food and agriculture 
industry.
This points to the need for a new relationship between agriculture and 
development planning not only for the areas where city meets 
agricultural lands but for the full spectrum of places from urban to rural.

Key goals of AU
There are four key goals of AU. These are to:
Integrate a significant food system productivity and value into all 
aspects of urban planning and design on a project, in a neighbourhood or 
in a city.
Harness development investment through its program, financing and other 
elements to aid the local food system’s sustainability performance (eg: 
endowments; trust ownership; etc…)
Design and program the project to provide many educational elements 
related to a sustainable urban and regional food system - both formal 
and informal as well as increase the partnerships and social capital / 
relationships around food.
Promote developments that increase the overall sustainability 
performance of the larger community.

Sustainable Urban+Regional Food Systems

What is a Sustainable Food System?
A sustainable food system:
Is energy and fuel efficient.
Is a powerful economic generator for farmers, whole communities and regions
Celebrates cultural diversity in food.
Uses efficient infrastructure for water, energy, and waste.
Balances food imports with local capacity.
Adopts climactically appropriate agricultural practices and crop choices.
Works towards organic farming and preserves biodiversity in agro-ecosystems.
Recycles nutrients recycles of organic waste into fertile soil.
Maximizes urban agriculture and protects peri-urban and rural farmland.
Ensures that local food processing facilities are available to 
independent farmers and processors.
Sees food as an experience where people are connected to each other and 
the land from which their food was grown.
Has a strong educational focus to create awareness of food issues and to 
build skill around food growing, processing, and preparation.
Maximizes the economic, social and environmental performance and value 
of the food sector at the regional scale
Creation of sustainable regional food systems requires participation of 
multiple levels of government, community organizations, planners, 
developers, landscape architects, food-oriented business, and academics. 
Property development can play an important role in contributing to 
sustainable regional food systems, by helping to integrate food into the 
community fabric and creating more vibrant, livable spaces.
Sustainable Urban+Regional Food Systems
What is a Sustainable Food System?
Sustainable Food System Framework
Challenges to our FS
Artisan agriculture
Sustainable Food Cities
Articles
Charrette book illustrating the first AU project in Canada
Tool for organizing multiple users on one farm
White paper on AU and Municipally Supported Agriculture

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