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Is urban agriculture new?

No. Urbanag is trying to get a re-engagement with urban agriculture on a larger scale than is currently happening. In the past, urban agriculture has played a much more important role in feeding urban populations than it does in the UK at present.

Examples include times of conflict when the ability of a city to feed itself while under siege more often determined the outcome of the conflict than the military might of either defender or attacker. Walled cities therefore included areas under cultivation which can be seen in maps of cities right up to the 18th century.

The development of the allotment system, also around the 18th century, came about through the recognised need of labouring classes to feed themselves at a time when few or no other benefits were available.

Historically, the use of the horse in cities gave a ready supply of manure for market gardens up to the time steam and internal combustion engines replaced them. Even today stables on the edges of cities and towns will sell manure to gardeners and allotment keepers.

Today, however, with the loss of most of our urban agricultural heritage and the current price of land favouring higher returns on investment in building, few people are aware of a once more prolific cultivation of urban spaces.

Even where little production went on, there were generally closer economic ties with farmers on the edges of towns and cities than is the case today. This is not to suggest everything has to be local. Your chance of regular fresh milk without both the current technology on the farm and the transportation links between farm and city would make this rapidly perishable food unavailable to most of us.

There is an economic need driving urban agriculture and, when one looks for examples across the world, this remains largely true. Cuba is perhaps the most often quoted example where the economic blockade by the United States led to a massive increase in urban food production. In Asian and African cities cultivation of small urban plots was (and remains in a large number of cases) a necessary addition to earnt wages. So is that necessity still there and if so how do we address it?