Sustaining communities through agriculture: SDC e-bulletin
New approaches to urbansim and local agriculture create the starting point for sustainable food systems.
SDC Commission, Richard Wakeford, leads our policy advice to government on food and farming.
New approaches to market towns and local agriculture can help create sustainable communities - places and spaces where people want to live, work and enjoy life in ways that will allow future generations to do the same.
In 1988, at Princeton University, I learned about Seaside, Florida and the new urbanist movement from Elizabeth Plater-Zyberk, one of its leaders. I was struck by the concept of forcing development to the front of building plots and requiring porches – US style. But would people choose to sit on those porches?
They were at that time in Cranbury, New Jersey, on a by-passed village main street on the old historic route from New York to Philadelphia. And you could eat the corn and potatoes from the fields around – some protected as farmland by zoning devices. But today there are fewer real stores, despite more people living there. Those who care about food are driving to the specialty mall at Princeton Junction and not the farm shop.
"They like the view but they do not always choose to buy into it through their own action."
At home in the Cotswolds, I look out at sheep grazing within old stone walls and hedgerows. The view is part of an Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty. But even in my small rural town, many people don’t appreciate the link between that famous landscape and a decent living for the farmer who manages it. They like the view but they do not always choose to buy into it through their own action.
That was the root of the Countryside Agency’s “Eat the View” project (www.eat-the-view.org.uk). Through public awareness campaigns and local initiatives, we helped people to see how buying the food can bring a better return for the local farmer and secure the countryside settings for our country towns.
New partnerships between local towns and farmers are also to be found in North America’s 1000 or more Community Supported Agriculture farms (www.umass.edu/umext/csa/about.html). Supporters commit to purchase a share of the harvest, helping to pay for seeds, fertiliser, water and so on. In return, the farmer provides a healthy supply of seasonal fresh produce throughout the growing season – typically an organic food box once a week. The food miles involved are rather less than the US average of 1,300 miles per average product.
You find a similar link between town dwellers and farmers around Yangpyung in Korea - a small town about 40 miles from Seoul. All the farms around it are organic. Local associations from Seoul’s neighbourhoods come and collect weekly orders to take back to the city. Yangpyung had, I thought, tremendous potential as a market town to capitalise on the yearning in urban Korea for something of the former rural way of life. It could become a modest tourist destination themed around food, with restaurants and perhaps even hotels, all making the most of having nothing but organic farms around.
"A real breakthrough would see farmers’ markets every week; a lot more local food eaten to maintain the view; and every town thriving in the way Ludlow does with its market, restaurants and hotels."
Such schemes could work better if they were implemented by business improvement districts, which are common in the US (www.downtowndevelopment.com/bid.php). This is a way of getting all the property owners together who have a stake in a downtown. They agree to pay a tax and can then raise private funds to pay for activities or infrastructure that can benefit them all. It creates a great sense of shared ownership as people choose to buy into the future of a place. We are piloting the idea in Keswick in the Lake District.
Through an internet based learning network, we now have hundreds of market towns around the country exchanging notes about how to make places work better.
Farmers’ markets are to be found now in many market towns (www.farmersmarkets.net). Controls on maximum sourcing distances for what’s sold there are important, because diversity of place is important in our countryside. Rules about local produce not only keep food miles down but also make each market different. It’s why the State of New Jersey certifies farmers’ roadside stands as “Jersey Fresh”.
There’s lots going on in linking place and farmed space, but it isn’t mainstream yet. A real breakthrough would see farmers’ markets every week; a lot more local food eaten to maintain the view; and every town thriving in the way Ludlow does with its market, restaurants and hotels. These would be elements of sustainable market towns.
"Can we take the model from market towns such as Winchcombe, Keswick and Ludlow and apply it to cities of 10 and even 20 million people?"
But we can’t ignore the bigger places, where the countryside links are harder to make. Can we take the model from market towns such as Winchcombe, Keswick and Ludlow and apply it to cities of 10 and even 20 million people?
In Seoul I was encouraged to see community gardens, rich with vegetables, around the rather bleak tower blocks. Underused landscapes surround many of our great cities; green belts may hold back development, but they do not bring out the best of the land for all the ways it can serve the people of the city (www.countryside.gov.uk/countrysidefortowns).
Could an increased interest in local food see the urban fringe used for more local food production – a sort of new urbanist farming zone? Could New Jersey become the Garden State again? Or the Lea Valley in East London, until recently renowned for its derelict greenhouses?
"Well over 70% of food retailed in this country reaches the consumer through a handful of large chain stores".
Just as many people say they want porches and main streets, but don’t use them, many people say they want safer food from more sustainable sources, but don’t turn their desire into actual purchases. Well over 70% of food retailed in this country reaches the consumer through a handful of large chain stores. It’s hard to find out how the food they sell was produced, let alone where it’s been in their giant distribution systems. Most consumers’ food choices are heavily influenced by the manufacturers and retailers, and they say that price is more important to consumers than anything else.
So, can we take the market town and local food production relationship and make it work for cities too? We need to encourage people to transfer what they say they believe into actual purchases. Supermarket chains should be in the lead themselves to encourage demand for healthier local food, and to ensure that they can then meet that demand from local sources. This is the way to a more sustainable food consumption chain, and possibly to greater profits for them too.
The challenge of creating sustainable communities goes beyond urban design and food. The wider goal is places and spaces that are thriving and inclusive; safe and well-run; cleaner and greener; attractive, long-life and energy efficient; well connected with the wider world and well served by the local providers of all services, including food. But eating the view is a good start, for our countryside and for us as increasingly picky consumers.
This article was written as part of a speech given by Richard Wakeford, SDC Commissioner and Chief Executive of the Countryside Agency. The speech was written for the visit of the Seaside Pienza Institute, Highgrove.
