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I, tries. "It is not a panacea to solve the most severe cent, but its geographic azea increased by four times
<br /> ' problems of food security in cities," she says, and is that amount Inner cities in the United States aze
<br /> "at best...a survival technique for the urban poor." riddled with empty lots, and poor urban planning has
<br /> As Nugent observes, the real potential may be lefr tracts of land unused in suburbs, along highways
<br /> determined less by technical constraints than by ins_~- and azound industrial districts, ports, or airports. In
<br /> / I rudonal ones. Many governments continue to dis- Detroit alone, over one-third of the city is vacant.
<br /> t courage the practice-by prohibit-'n; it, or, in some What took place in the U.S. "Victory Gardens°
<br /> cases, by acrually destroying fields in cities. Such during World Waz II demonstrates the extent to
<br /> responses lead Daniel Maxwell to caution that "cal- which urban gazdening can contribute to food pro-
<br /> culations about production levels that are technically ducdon if it is given the full support of public polin•.
<br /> possible just seem In the eazly 1940s, in response to the shortages cre-
<br /> unrealistic..." On ated by the waz, U.S. citizens plowed and cultivated
<br /> the other hand, as neazly all available urban land, including town com-
<br /> the issue gains mons and dry pazks, green strips azound factories,
<br /> greater prominence, church and school grounds, backyazds, and vacant
<br /> d governments in lots. Gazdeneu at home helped feed their house-
<br /> many cities are holds so commercial farmers could feed soldiers and
<br /> beginning to recog- the Allies. In 1944, those gazdens yielded 44 percent
<br /> nize that local food of the fresh vegetables produced in the U.S.
<br /> production may be In a more recent example, Cuba has begun to
<br /> an important com- promote urban gazdening as a way to achieve nutri-
<br /> ponent of food tional self-sufficiency in the face of economic decline
<br /> - security. and the ongoing U.S. embazgo. Food gazdens in
<br /> j;'O 11OW What's indis- Havana now supply about 5 percent of the cin•'s
<br /> putable is that land food, and officials at the Austzalian Consen•ation
<br /> suitable for urban Foundation, which sponsors an urban gazdening pro-
<br /> agriculrure is amply ject in Havana, estimate that the figure could be
<br /> available. Accord- raised to 20 percent.
<br /> ing to a srudy by As detractors wazn, urban gardening which uses
<br /> _ the U.N. Centre waste for fertilizer can entail more risks than com•en-
<br /> - for Human Settle- tional fazming. Improperly managed waste can breed
<br /> ~ ments, up to 50 the bacteria that cause intestinal infections, compost
<br /> - ~ percent of the total can attract tau, and vegetables can absorb heat~• met-
<br /> azea in many cities als from the soil or air. Where urban agrculrure is
<br /> in developing countries is vacant public land. close to industry, hazazdous toxins tan, be absorbed
<br /> I Estimates from the eazly 1980s identified 200 square by the plane. In 1992, in Santiago, Chile, vegetables
<br /> kilometers of available land in Greater Bombay, 338 grown with irrigation water containing raw sewage
<br /> square kilometers in Bangkok, and as much as 600 contributed. to an outbreak of cholera. But as Jac
<br /> square kilometers in Sao Paulo, Brazil To put that Smit likes to point out, the technologies needed to
<br /> in peupective, Pablo Gutman has found that in effectively deal with these problems already exist.
<br /> Buenos Awes, a 10-by-10 meter plot, if intensively The aerated-static-piles composting method devel-
<br /> cultivated, can provide all the vegetables needed by a oped by the U.S. Depaztment of Agriculrure in the
<br /> family of five. Of course, not all of the vacant or 1970s revolutionized municipal recycling of organic
<br /> "available" land could realistically be turned over to wastes. And wastewater-fed aquaculrure, if the right
<br /> producing food. But lazge portions could. In techniques aze used, reduces the E. coli count of the
<br /> greater Bangkok, for example, some 60 percent of water entering the wetlands from about 10 million
<br /> the city was officially being used for agriculture in the organisms per milliliter to orily 10 to 100 per milli-
<br /> ' 1980s. And in Kampala, mapping done by the city's liter.
<br /> Department of Planning found that 56 percent of the Meanwhile, momenrum for expanding the prac-
<br /> land was being used for agriculture in 1992. rice of urban agrculrure is building. At the national
<br /> In the more developed countries, too, the poten- level, the Netherlands and Canada are drawing up
<br /> tial is large. Berlin's 80,000 gardens aze cultivated on green plans that include provisions for the support of
<br /> 4 percent of the land area. In the United States, as urban farmers. This yeaz; the United States passed
<br /> cities sprawl fazther and farther from their centers, the Community Food Security Act, which ~~~11 fund
<br /> more space is lefr unused or abandoned. Beaveen collaborative grassroou projects thaz produce food
<br /> 1980 and 1990, the population of the Baltimore/ for low-income and rural communities, allocating .
<br />
<br /> y:- ~ Washington, D.C., metropolitan region grew 20 per- S16 million over seven years. Argentina and Peru
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