HomeMy WebLinkAboutCOM 0212.453 1996-1998 ~~~1
CLOS
ING THE
TAUT
RIENT LOOP
In an urbanizing world, growing some of our food in cities can
make our communities both more sustainable and more secure.
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County Council ~ r°`.cC
by Toni Nelson
very day, an armada of petroleum-fueled the products originate, and a poisoning of the places
trucks, trains, ships, and planes hauls per- where the wastes ultimately concentrate.
haps 20,000 tons of food into New York This massive shifting of nutrients from rural to
City-a mobilization comparable in scale to urban areas has already diminished the vitalirv of
that of a militazv invasion- In the course of the day, many of the planet's most productive croplands,
a large part of that cargo is converted into human grazing lands, and fisheries, and the process could
energy, flesh, sweat, carbon dioxide, and heat. Most accelerate as more and more of the human popula-
of the rest-including some 10,000 tons of organic don concentrates in cities in the coming decades. It
garbage and sewage-is hauled back out of the city is also creating a dilemma: how to Feed the growing
by a second, different, azmada. The organic waste number of people who are far removed from their
does not end up anywhere near the fields, orchards, main sources of food, without unbalancing and col-
, or fisheries that produced the food and is not recy- lapsing the ecosystems-both nearby and distant-
cled back into the land- A lazge amount of it is exiled on which those people ultimately depend. Political
to landfills, permanently sealed off from the eazth's leaders have been slow to recognize and respond co
ongoing life. this dilemma- But in many cities residenu are not
The same pattern prevails in most of the thou- waiting. Both with and without official sanction,
ffi ~ sands of other cities on the planet, except that in millions of people are now producing food right
mam• of them the waste is not hauled or piped away where they live-in empty lots, on rooftops, and in
~ but dumped directly into rivers or bays, where its their own backyards.
~ P unnarural concentration causes such ecological dis- At fast glance, farming may seem among the
N ruptions as algal blooms and fish die-otTs. In very least suitable of urban activities. But, in tact,
~ ~ N few cities is any significant portion of the nutrient throughout much of the world, cities and farming
N How returned to the land from which it came, as an have an ancient relationship. In the classic T{ie
investment in future production. Unlike healthy Economy of Cider, Jane Jacobs argues that agriculture
~ '1'> ecosystems, in which nutrients arc largeh~ recycled, is actually an urban invention, developed in cities
~ ~ W the rapical urban system is a dead end. The cumula- which were first founded as centers of trade. She
obser~~es; for instance,-that the first medieval o)ttem
ties effect is a gradual depletion of the places where
C- 2l2.'f53
i
of crop rotation typically centered azound towns Angeles were to appeaz on the planet every two I
and took decades or longer to reach the most iso- months for the next several decades. Yet, the
lated rural azeas. world's capacity to increase supply is approaching its
Indeed,.the integration of food production and limits. Recent rises in grain prices, combined with
urban fife may once have been universal. Grain cul- declining global stocks, may well be a harbinger of ~
dvation and domesticated animals were present in future food shortages. If ;
the eazliest known city, Canal liuyuk in Anatolia the scazcity that many
(now Turkey), from its inception j
azound 7000 B.C. In pre-Columbian
Mexico, the highly productive system ~ ~
_ of Chinampa agriculrure, consisting of ~ ~ 1~ + ~
raised beds surrounded by canals, pro- • «
vided most of the food, flowers, and ~ ~
fibers consumed in the Aztec capital of ~ •
Tenochtitlan. And in Europe, field j
crops were grown both within and out- ~ + w ,II
side the walls of medieval cities,
In the industrialized world, urban ~
farming largely disappeazed in'this cen- 1~ •r- I
tury. But in the developing world it has j
persisted, and since the 1970s has even ~ ~ ~ ~ i
shown signs of a resurgence. ~
According to the most widely accepted - , ~
estimate, about 200 million urban ~ _ , ~ ~ I
r • ~
dwellers now pazticipaxe in urban farm- _ ~ ~ r ;
ing, providing 800 million people with ~ - ~F
at least some of their food. Farmers in - _ ~ ` ~ • I
• Accra, Ghana, supply the city with an ~ y i
estimated 90 percent of its vegetables, ' _ ~ ~
including radishes, cabbage, and cau- ~ '
liflower. Farmers in Singapore pro- -•'s.+~
• duce 25 percent of the city's vegeta-
bles and 80 percent of its poultry. t. ~
(Much of the grain needed to feed the
poultry, however, is brought in from ~ " ~ _
the countryside.) In Berlin, more ~
than 80,000 gazdeners lease plots ~
on land where buildings were
destroyed by bombs in World Waz Il. foresee becomes a reality (see "Facing Food
Where in-city food production is extensive, it Scazciry," November/December 1995), the impacts
can also play an important role in municipal waste won't be spread evenly. It is in the fast-growing
management. In China, human waste is treated and cities of the developing world where tens of millions
sold to farmers as fertilizer. In India, sewage-fed of impoverished migrants aze concentrating that the
lagoons produce about one-tenth of the fish con- increasing competition for food will be felt most
sumed by Calcutta. In the more industrialized acutely. As those cities expand, the problem of food
countries, concerns about disease have put up bazri- security could balloon into a widespread crisis and a
ens to using human waste in agriculrure-bazriers dominant issue for urban policy. Today, although
which contributed'to the separation of fazming and urban agriculrure plays a relatively small role in total
' urban living in the first place. But the development food production, it provides a crucial safety net for
of techniques for safely reusing urban wastes may many of the people most at risk. With supportive
now make it possible to bring farming back into policies, it is likely that this role could be signifi-
~ close proximity wish people. canny expanded.
Today's problems of hunger and malnutrition
aze less a function of production than of distribu-
Meeting urban food needs Lion, since the world's fazmers still produce enough
• The global demand for food is expected to food to provide all of humanity with an adequate
grow az least.as fast as if ~°~aher Calcutta or Los diet. But the poor_are increasingly squeezed our of ~
' ~LLiRRA?Ox BY C:x iEll R'nrld tCa¢h•~^°~mhcri Daynhcr i°u~
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a ~ ~ C.G ~O
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Though mtWons of people produce food ta;ctnes,mudi remau>s.unlmownnbout how much potential remains.
unfiuSlled for maeasmg the food suPPlyi'1!nProvm6'urban ecotiotnre security, and restoring a form of "wm-
~ ' moo good" to community Gfe. ,The following areas, espeaally, could be fruitful grounds for further reseazch:
f ~ ~.1'orvl {.5......~.. .l3iv:SI.• +C'Ai..vr..aY.3. o-`..r:a....~r. u i...', ux ~ .L
COIorIL PetentlOl: This ardde is not about homegrown tomatoes or lettuce, which have little food energy.
I But to what eztent can people in tides grow the kinds of food one can really live on, such as corn, beans,
UUU i potatoes, or yams? Studies aze needed to detemune which combination of crops would produce the highest
food value on a lot of given size (say 100 square meters), intensively cultivated, in various climates.
Protein PotentiOl:~. Pmtem ts~~cky, because moscofrtwines fmm antmalsor Ssh-not easy to contem-
. plan raising in dries. ;Most Ssh is from the oceans,-=iaost.meat from vast rant grazing lands. Yet, many
:urban dwellers.alFeady produce`theit own-chtdcens,.,eggs, or.'fitli is urban settings, ofrea in the informal
economy for whidt little data ewst Bveti-.more unpgimnt, However, is det~*~++lr,cr,g the ertent to which plant
' proteins can be produced m utliart setting}; from suclaops as soybeans -
- - „_.",W...~......es,~<.,"r~* ..3`.-d`iiSctiai...e soa.s:..r.~ a.>i:. v.. _
' I ~ Land Use POliey: What incentives exist, or mould be created, for cleaning up and using empty tors for
growing food? Similazly, what could impel local governments to encourage niltivadon of the tazgc amount of
i "no-man's land" that is now wasted in public tracts along highways or around airports and industrial districts?
In the Unimd States; existing polities pull developers centrifugally away from the city, to bulldoze farmland
outside the city for new suburbs-and drive farms ever fazther from the places where their products are used.
The question is how to reverse the incentives that now drive people out, so that central cirylots become val-
j ued locations for new residences, workplaces, schools, recreation, and gardens-in short, all the elemenu of a
~ fully functioning community.
j :Potential Protection Agamsf Rlsmg food Pnces 1n an era of inaeastng food scarcities aaa pulariiittg
' incomes;. the rrpabilides of the global market to distribute: fiod'ro the highest biddeis worldwide appeazs
! - "L1cdy ro.drive prices beyond the reach of the urban~poor, even-in the regions where the crops are grown. A
• few studies have: shown the extent to whichlocal food expenditures can be reduced'liy doing urban Eamaing
for consumpnon, bur more ihformation is heeded on what share of the supply mould be provided by this
means in vazious`regions; and to what extent tbatshare would inaease as prices nse.
r
Confliding Demands fOr Water: The water requirements of cities aze already in conflict with those of agri-
' culture in many regions. Growing food in cities imposes new demands for water and, presumably, could
exacerbate already existing problems of supplying adequate water for household and industrial uses. In what
' areas can urban farming succeed with natural rainfall, and in what azeas would i[ need supplementary water?
A critical consideration is the extent to "grey" water, or waste water from showers and sinks, exc., could be
reused in gardens.
~ f
ROO~tOP rerlltl0(Ogy' The gat root's of the world's dries wnstirute what a Pioneer urban farmer of the
1970s called a "vurwasteland" of unused space:: &ztensive research has been done on the possible uses of
~ this space ~ro npmresolar energy and rainwater-~n3,' in fact,'the technologies of rooffop photovoltaics and ~ -
rainvvatercisterns are in fairly wide use. Since solar~energy and water are two of the essential inputs to agri-
culture, anobvious question is whether~synergistic designs can be developed. A laudable challenge ro azdu-
' teas would be ro design roofrops that'combine optimal insulation, passive solar heating, photovoltaic electric
I power, rainwater wBection, and agriniltural.production.
I ;
POIIUt10n: Polluted air or soil could be a setiotu impediment to growing food in some cities. How can city
administrators most effectively make soil-testing and soil-leaning services available (or mandatory?) to people
who want.to rehabilitate empty lots? In areas where leaded gasoline is still used, or where lead, PCBs, and
other contaminants may be present in soil where buildings have been demolished, what affordable means are
available for reconditioning the soil for growing food? It would be especially useful to determine the extent
to which the technologies used for xoxic waste cleanups, such as bioremediadon, could be adapxed to routine
revitalization of urban neighborhoods.
i
~2 Wodd Wazch•Nmembcr/Dc<cmber 1996
i
simply getting rid of it; they fail to recognize the solid waste is not collected. This combination of
waste as an economic asset. Because soil nutrients cazeless waste disposal and unprotected water for
ate continuously exported from the fields where they drinking and bathing has deadly consequences.
grow to the dinner tables ofcity-dwellers, farmers aze Even a small disparity between the amount of
forced to rely on petroleum-based fertilizers to org<tic waste produced by a city and the amount
/ replenish them. However, these manufactured fertil- pruperly disposed of can nun into a disastrous back-
t izers do not contain all the constiruents net?ssary for log. In the city of Surat in western India, the 2.2 mi~-
healthy soil (they lack the organic natter and lion residents generate 1,250 metric tons of waste
microorganisms provided by natural compost, for each day, but only about 1,000 tons of that is col-
j example), and continued reliance on them ultimately lected. Every day, as a result, the amount of uncol-
diminishes the soil's fertility. lected garbage piling up around the city increases by
~ Meanwhile, the prevailing means of "getting rid" another 250 tons. In September, 1994, Surat was
struck by an epidemic of plague.
Authorities found one cause of the our
break to be the numerous heaps of
r i ~ trash, which provided an ideal habitat
for the rats that carry the plague infec-
_ don.
But even when wastes are collect
ed, the likelihood is that they will be
dumped without any sort of treatment,
overwhelming the capacity of local
~ ecosystems to absorb them. In the
_ ~ developing world, some 90 percent of
'1r- ~~r all sewage is discharged-along with
the fecal coliform bacteria that cause
intestinal diseases-directly into rivers,
lakes, and coastal waters. These conta-
~ / minants not only disrupt aquatic
~ ~ ecosystems, but can get into the food
~ chain and evenrually make their way
~ ' A ~ back to the people living in the city.
i , I {vl The nutrient cycle, instead of becoming
an ecologically closed loop, becomes a
short-circuited one. In Hong Kong, for
~ example, raw sewage from the citt•'s 3.1
r"~r'~ million inhabitants flows directly into
Victoria Harbor, causing shellfish cont-
aminadon That led in 1988 to a hepati-
tis epidemic afflicting nearly 1,400 peo-
ple.
It is possible, instead, to restore the
of the wastes tends to concentrate them in ways that organic nutrients in urban wastes to their proper
wreak havoc with local ecosystems. As urban popu- place-the soil-and continue to utilize them to pro-
ladons expand faster than the support systems that duce the food needed for urban consumption. By
make cities work, the unmanaged wastes also consti- reusing wastes for local agticulrural production, cities
rute a growing threat to the residents themselves. An can become more sustainable, retaining their pro-
' estimated 70 to 95 percent of all new residents in the ductive capabilities without causing contamination of
tides of the developing world are illegal squatters, nearby land, air, or water.
the majority living in substandard housing without Reusing urban wastes can take a variery of forms.
access to such basic necessities as water lines, sewage Human sewage, euphemistically called nightsoil,
systems, and trash collection. According to the when treated becomes a rich fertilizer that can be
World Resources Institute, in 1994 at least 220 mil- applied to agricultural fields. Using nightsoil as a fer-
lion urban dwellers lacked a nearby source of potable tifizer is an important component of China's inte-
water, while more than 420 million did not have grated urban agriculture system. For example, in
access to even the simplest latrine. In the cities of the 1991, Shanghai was collecting 90 percent-about
developing world, an estimated 20 to SO percent of 8,000 tons--of the city's human waste each day,
i~a rid lPo¢h•NOVCmb<r/December ~
. treating it, and selling it to farmers in the mettopol- for vegetable produce in this way."
itan area. Industrial countries rea~cle sewage New York has recently launched several efforts
sludge, the solid by-product of wastewater treat- to capture the benefits of composting. The pilot
ment. F god Waste Composting Facility on Bikers Island, a
One particularly promising technology for recy- prison facility with 15,000 inmates and 10,000
cling human wastes produced by cities also provides guards and otxcers, represents the city's first larcc-
an important source of Food. For m~~e than SO scale attempt to compost a concentrated food waste
- years, wastewater-fed aquaculture in Calcutta, India, stream. The facility processes 20 cons of food waste
has produced fish for the city. A natural wetland and corrugated cardboazd per day, and hopes to
east of the city has been modified into a 12,000 eventually use the compost for the island's farm pro-
hectare cluster of ponds that grow fish on sewage; gram. Smaller projects to compost several hundred
' the sewage provides nutrients for the algae the fish pounds each day are underway at a hospital in
eat, and the process in turn dilutes the high concen- Queens and on the City College campus. Robert
[ration of fecal coliform bacteria present in sewage. LaValva, the current Director of Composting, notes
The resulting effluent can then be safely used to irri- that these smaller-scale projects probably make
gate fields. Each day, 22 tons offish-mainly carp- more sense and have a better chance of succeeding
are produced in the course of treating 150 million since composting, unlike most other kinds of recy-
gallons of Calcutta's wastewater. The ponds pro- cling, can be done locally and the end-product can
vide at least 10 percent of the city's daily consume- be utilized locally. As his analysis suggesu, it may be
lion offish, which are the primary source of protein easier co keep the loop closed when both ends of It
for Calcutta's residents. It has been estimated that aze kept in the same locality.
the output could be doubled.
Wastewater-fed aquaculture provides benefits
other than tiood to cities. It also represents acost- A St7rViVa1 Technlglle
effective way to treat the wastes that aze now dis- More than five billion people wrill live in cities
chazged direcdy into the local environment-pollee- by 2025, and if present trends continue, almost hall
ing rivers, esruaries, and seas. A 1990 proposal to of them-as many as the whole population of the
construct fish ponds similar to Calcutta's in other world afrer World War II-wRll live in chaotically
Indian cities estimated that ponds with a capacin~ to growing districts that are increasingly polluted and
treat 30 million liters per day could be built for one- afflicted by poverty and social and economic insta-
fourth the cost of a conventional mechanical treat- bitty. Under such conditions, the problems associ-
• ment plant with a comparable capacity. Not only are ated with feeding those cities and managing their
the aquaculture ponds cheaper, but the produce wastes seem almost insurmountable. Yer in many
can also be sold for a profit, reducing coca! costs fur- ways, living in tides is the most sustainable option
Cher. In Lima, Peru, fish farms fed by partially treat- people have, since high population densities mini-
ed wastewater are expected to recover 100 percent mize transportation needs and energy consumption
of the wastewater treatment costs through fish sales. and reduce each individual's impact on the larger
Duclc~veed ponds can also be used co treat waste- environment.
water: in Kochcice, Poland, a duckweed pond treats While most experts agree that urban farming is
wastewater from 3,000 residents at a cost far lower now both ~Rable and desirable, they are contentious
than that of a treatment plant, and the biomass pro- about its potential contribution to feeding the
duced is hazvested twice a year and Fed to livestock. world's population. Jac Smit, president of The
Solid waste management can also be facilitated Urban Agriculture Network (TUAN) and co-
by diverting organic wastes from landfills or dumps author of Urban Agriculture: Food, Jobt, and
and converting them to compost. Of the 26,000 Sustainable Cities, recently released by TUA.~I and
tons of solid waste thrown out by Ne~v York City the UN Development Programme, claims that
each day, some 20 to 40 percent is organic matter. urban agriculture already produces 15 percent of
Composting such material could reduce disposal the world's food, and that it has the potential "to
' costs and provide rich soil for urban agriculture. In produce one-quarter of the nutritional needs of the
addition, the three principal by-products of the global population where they live." Rachel Nugent,
composting process-heat, carbon dioxide, and the economist who wrote the chapter on urban agri-
water-together with the compost itself, can be culture in the 1996 State of Food and Agrie:~lnere,
used fot intensive greenhouse agriculture. As published by the UN Food and Agriculture
Thomas Outerbridge, the city's former Director of Organization (FAO) in October, takes a more cur
Composting, noted several years ago in Tlie cious view: urban agriculture, while potenciall}'
Ecologist, °According to some estimates, New York viable and productive, takes much more planning
City could eventually meet much of its own demand than exisn in the cities of most developine coun-
I, tries. "It is not a panacea to solve the most severe cent, but its geographic azea increased by four times
' problems of food security in cities," she says, and is that amount Inner cities in the United States aze
"at best...a survival technique for the urban poor." riddled with empty lots, and poor urban planning has
As Nugent observes, the real potential may be lefr tracts of land unused in suburbs, along highways
determined less by technical constraints than by ins_~- and azound industrial districts, ports, or airports. In
/ I rudonal ones. Many governments continue to dis- Detroit alone, over one-third of the city is vacant.
t courage the practice-by prohibit-'n; it, or, in some What took place in the U.S. "Victory Gardens°
cases, by acrually destroying fields in cities. Such during World Waz II demonstrates the extent to
responses lead Daniel Maxwell to caution that "cal- which urban gazdening can contribute to food pro-
culations about production levels that are technically ducdon if it is given the full support of public polin•.
possible just seem In the eazly 1940s, in response to the shortages cre-
unrealistic..." On ated by the waz, U.S. citizens plowed and cultivated
the other hand, as neazly all available urban land, including town com-
the issue gains mons and dry pazks, green strips azound factories,
greater prominence, church and school grounds, backyazds, and vacant
d governments in lots. Gazdeneu at home helped feed their house-
many cities are holds so commercial farmers could feed soldiers and
beginning to recog- the Allies. In 1944, those gazdens yielded 44 percent
nize that local food of the fresh vegetables produced in the U.S.
production may be In a more recent example, Cuba has begun to
an important com- promote urban gazdening as a way to achieve nutri-
ponent of food tional self-sufficiency in the face of economic decline
- security. and the ongoing U.S. embazgo. Food gazdens in
j;'O 11OW What's indis- Havana now supply about 5 percent of the cin•'s
putable is that land food, and officials at the Austzalian Consen•ation
suitable for urban Foundation, which sponsors an urban gazdening pro-
agriculrure is amply ject in Havana, estimate that the figure could be
available. Accord- raised to 20 percent.
ing to a srudy by As detractors wazn, urban gardening which uses
_ the U.N. Centre waste for fertilizer can entail more risks than com•en-
- for Human Settle- tional fazming. Improperly managed waste can breed
~ ments, up to 50 the bacteria that cause intestinal infections, compost
- ~ percent of the total can attract tau, and vegetables can absorb heat~• met-
azea in many cities als from the soil or air. Where urban agrculrure is
in developing countries is vacant public land. close to industry, hazazdous toxins tan, be absorbed
I Estimates from the eazly 1980s identified 200 square by the plane. In 1992, in Santiago, Chile, vegetables
kilometers of available land in Greater Bombay, 338 grown with irrigation water containing raw sewage
square kilometers in Bangkok, and as much as 600 contributed. to an outbreak of cholera. But as Jac
square kilometers in Sao Paulo, Brazil To put that Smit likes to point out, the technologies needed to
in peupective, Pablo Gutman has found that in effectively deal with these problems already exist.
Buenos Awes, a 10-by-10 meter plot, if intensively The aerated-static-piles composting method devel-
cultivated, can provide all the vegetables needed by a oped by the U.S. Depaztment of Agriculrure in the
family of five. Of course, not all of the vacant or 1970s revolutionized municipal recycling of organic
"available" land could realistically be turned over to wastes. And wastewater-fed aquaculrure, if the right
producing food. But lazge portions could. In techniques aze used, reduces the E. coli count of the
greater Bangkok, for example, some 60 percent of water entering the wetlands from about 10 million
the city was officially being used for agriculture in the organisms per milliliter to orily 10 to 100 per milli-
' 1980s. And in Kampala, mapping done by the city's liter.
Department of Planning found that 56 percent of the Meanwhile, momenrum for expanding the prac-
land was being used for agriculture in 1992. rice of urban agrculrure is building. At the national
In the more developed countries, too, the poten- level, the Netherlands and Canada are drawing up
tial is large. Berlin's 80,000 gardens aze cultivated on green plans that include provisions for the support of
4 percent of the land area. In the United States, as urban farmers. This yeaz; the United States passed
cities sprawl fazther and farther from their centers, the Community Food Security Act, which ~~~11 fund
more space is lefr unused or abandoned. Beaveen collaborative grassroou projects thaz produce food
1980 and 1990, the population of the Baltimore/ for low-income and rural communities, allocating .
y:- ~ Washington, D.C., metropolitan region grew 20 per- S16 million over seven years. Argentina and Peru
,6 lVurld \VUCh•~nvanhcr?pcccmhcr te96
have national departments, and Buenos Aires, Ias Parcelas-a demonstration compost project and
Jakarta, and Mexico City have metropolitan agencies environmental pazk containing 16 family vegetable
to promote urban agriculrure. Even at the indi-: id- plots, an orchazd with peach, peaz, and nectarine
ual level, enthusiasm is growittg. A mov'm-:nt trees, flower and herb gazdens, and a patio for cook-
toward community-supported agriculrure (CSA) outs. By building a community azound growing
that started 25 years ago .~i Switzerland now things, says a local schoolteacher, the res~denzs "can
includes 600 such programs azound the world. promise [their children] what no amount of income
' Urban dwellers purchase shares in a farm's produc- and no amount of security systems, guazds, guns,
tion-receiving fresh produce throughout the grow- and locks in suburbs and new towns can buy-the
ing season and sharing the risks of weather and pests hazd-woven Fabric of neighborhood-"
• with the fazmer. Such programs also bring commu- By closing the biological loop, even if only a lit-
nines together and restore a sense of connection tle, such projects enable food security to bolster a
with natural processes-benefits that aze too fre- lazger kind of security. Seeing the connection
quently lost in the asphalt jungle of modern cities. between the judicious use of vital resources and the
productivity of a local gazden can alert urban resi-
denzs to the existence of a lazger connecrion-
Closing the Psyeholo8ical Loop between the stability of the whole region's ecology
As cities industrialize and concrete buildings and that of the increasingly hungry city that depends
with sewer lines replace shantytowns and dirt roads, on it.
the direct connection between humans and narure
becomes increasingly obscured, and it is not unusu-
al for children to grow up thinking that milk comes
from paper cartons or honey from jars. While in
many ways cities are more environmentally friendly Toni Nelson is a staff reseazcher at the World-
than other forms of human habitation, they also sep- watch Instirute.
crate people from nature and give them the false
sense that they exist outside the limits imposed by li,
narure. Urban agrictilrure can bring nature back ~ ~ ~ *~"i
into the cities and help restore this connection.
In the United States, city gazdens are helping „ on
communities reclaim their neighborhoods from
' crime and ollution and ofren the focus is on savin ~ ~ 4 ~ ~ ~ jl
P ~ I i1 'f ~
kids from the street. A local urban gazderilng org S P , ~t
I
nizarion in Washington, D.C., called From the
Y
Ground Up, is growing organic vegetables for shaze- ~ ~ '
' 1.Sh,iA
holders, providing produce for fazmstands that train I a
low-income residents in business skills, and teaching ~ ~ ~ ~ I trc .
inner-city youth about nutritional, environmental, w=2~ ~ '
and food security issues. This yeaz, the group's ~ `E'„
eight-acre farm on the outskirts of the city will pro- - ~ ` -
. ~
duce over 110,000 pounds of fresh vegetables. '
In San Francisco, high school srudenzs are 6T3~ 1~cin ~
employed at the St. Marys Urban Youth Fazm, 6I~ ~ ° s ,
operated by the San Francisco League of Urban ~
Gardeners on an old dumping site for spoil dirt and ~
waste concrete. The four-acre site, adjacent to a _ ;{'r
low-income housing site, now produces collazd and z'`'~'~E,
' i ~ ~ ~ ~il i'~ r.•
mustard greens, potatoes, broccoli, and other ZU ~ I i g~~'~ ~ }y j
• organic vegetables, and has approximately one hun- 20Z9`9~ ~~i I~ I .i,,z ~;j
dyed fruit trees that provide food for neighborhood ~,?Zl
residenzs and public soup kitchens. ~ ` C`
Anew book by Patricia Hynes, A Parch of Edcn: ~ ~F
America's Inner-City Gardeners, documents similar ~r•~ sr~~
projects around the country. In Philadelphia, for ~ _r .
~ t~'..
example, a neighborhood called Norris Square, once `-rt`,;::i'?
-
known as the "Badlands" for its pervasive drug cul- 61' 3; A one r
cure, has been transformed by the introduction of 6I` 3_9416 076~~ ;y +
world RSmh•\u.cmiur. I)ec<ml•cr !`~~~n
Hawaii Tropical Fruit Cooperative
P.O. Box 1390 Kealakekua, HI 96750
(808) 322-0935 fax (808) 322-0728
The Hawaii Tropical Fruit Cooperative wholeheartedly supports
passage, of Hawaii County Ordinance 62. We have pledged to use the
irradiator' facility for 100% of our fruit requiring treatment for fruit
fly disinfestation.
We have five members on the Big Island and one member on
Kauai. We have over 350 acres of fruit trees planted. We buy and
market fruit from another 20 growers. We are all small family
farms. Most of our plantings are relatively new and as such we are
currently harvesting a very small amount of the eventual production
from those plantings. Our fruit crops include lychee, rambutan,
longan, starfruit, atemoya, mango and white pineapple. Our estimate
for production in 1998 is 1.5 million pounds. Our coop members sold
over $250,000 of just rambutan alone this season. Our group
represents the leaders in the development of commercial planting of
these new crops but by no means are the only persons in Hawaii
with plantings or interest in planting these crops.
For over fifty years fruit fly has been the cause of a barrier
between Hawaii and the mainland preventing Hawaii from selling its
fruit to our own country. For fifty years teams of talented
entomolgists and scientists have tried to devise ways to overcome
this problem. No treatment is available for our fruit products that
does not adversly affect fruit quality and marketability, except
irradiation. Our commercial test shipments have demonstrated
irradiation technology is an effective treatment for rambutan, lychee,
papaya, starfruit atemoya, and citrus.
A post harvest fruit fly disinfestation facility located in Hawaii
is vital to any future expansion of our industry. Our members and
many new potential exotic fruit growers are waiting for a-clear signal
that a treatment facility will be built before making any new
plantings. If a facility were to be built our coop members planting
acreage would double within a year of the announcement.
We are in a classic catch 22. No one is willing to plant crops
needing disinfestation treatment until a treatment facility is built
What is being proposed is a small batch processing facility to
be initially operated on a single eight hour shift. This plant would
have the capacity to handle up to 30 million pounds of product by
adding more shifts and or cobalt. Our group does not have the
volume of product now to justify the capital resources required to
build such a facility, although our current planting should produce at
least 3.5 million pounds of fruit at orchard maturity. Papaya from
independent growers is the through put volume needed to make this
work. The industry standard production for one acre of papaya is
28,000 of fruit. Already a group of experienced independent papaya
growers who have leased 200 acres of land for papaya production
have pledged that potential 5.5 million pounds to go through the
irradiator. Additionally, a large land owner in Puna has 170 acres
leased to independent papaya growers and another large land
company on the Hamakua coast has 891 acres leased to papaya
farmers with an additional 550 acres reserved for papaya leases.
Taken together that has the potential to produce over 45 million
pounds of papaya. There are many more acres in papaya production
not accounted for here. Ten million pounds at $.10 per pound would
cover break-even throughput revenue requirements. Our
cooperative has a tradition of self assessment to be applied to
marketing expenses and we would encourage that practice for all
users of the Hilo irradiation facility to generate funds for promotion
expenses.
This Hawaii County Finance Committee has the power to set the
dollar figure in the ordinance and direct how that money should be
spent. This is a unique opportunity in Hawau County for us to take
advantage of a partnership offer with a industry leader in a proven
technology which is a known solution to our fruit fly quarantine
problem. We recommend that this council find a way to work with
this company and the agricultural community to make this
technology available to Hawaii's farmers. We do not have all the
answers as to how to do that, but encourage that you vote for this
ordinance and set aside some money to make this facility a reality.
Two sound options which will provide the maximum benefits to the
broadest community interests while also meeting the partnership
needs of the current proposed contractor are 1.)an independent
consultant to insure only the safest facility built to the highest
standards be constructed and 2.) purchasing research time at the
facility which will attract University and ARS scientists to study
irradiation applications for other agricultural commodities.
and no one will put in a treatment facility until the plantings are
sufficient to justify building the facility.
It is governments role to provide an environment where
private enterprise can thrive. It is also common place for the
government to develop the infrastructure so that commerce is
facilitated, like roads, ports and airports. In Hawaii the government
has assisted in agricultural infrastructure like water systems and the
vacuum facility for Waiamea farmers. We believe government has a
critical role in attracting the infrastructure needed to permit access
to the markets in our own country.
We are currently using irradiation technology for fruit fly
disinfestation treatment in Chicago. The process works extremely
well for our fruit. We have shipped 34 test shipments to date, each
involving 1 to 3 LD3 airfrieght containers. After treatment, the fruit
has been transported and sold in New York, Illinois, Indiana, Ohio,
California, Washington, Texas and Florida. The treatment and
transportation costs can run as high as $1.85 per pound. In addition
to cost, transportation is a key bottleneck. Fruit must be flown on
direct flights to Chicago which has limited capacity and subsequent
flights often are delayed resulting in deterioration of fruit quality.
These are two of the main reasons we need an irradiator located here
in Hawaii.
Our experience is that, given the chance to make a purchase
decision, consumers want our products. This is evidenced by reorders
from every store and wholesaler carrying our products. The fact that
they are treated with irradiation is not an issue to them. What is
important is that the produce looks and tastes fresh. Using
irradiation as a process allows us to deliver just that, tree ripened
high quality produce. The only marketing problems we have
experienced is from organized targeted opposition initiated from
Food and Water, Inc. Their tactics included jamming wholesaler or
retailers phone lines with threatening calls as well as pickets. They
have gotten individual chains and distributors to cave in because the
small volume we represent at present isn't perceived as worth the
negative publicity. However, United Fruit and Vegetable Association,
who represents most of the nations produce wholesalers, has already
come to the defense of its members and is willing to participate in an
organized national response to the terrorist tactics of Food and
Water, Inc.
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