Urban farming, a green trend with hidden risks

Story by: Jorge Rodriguez Photography by: Jorge Rodríguez Translated by: Alejandra Palencia vie 2, Oct 2020
  • Urban farming became an ideal activity to mitigate the effects of confinement due to the current pandemic.
  • Present in many extraordinary events of humanity in the last two centuries, urban farming presents some risks that should not be overlooked.

With the actual pandemic that started last march, it seems that urban farming just got popular. But it was during Second World War, in cities such as Germany, USA, United Kingdom, when the governments decreed that it was necessary to have more areas to grow food, so they assigned football fields, parks and gardens for food production. They were known as ‘Victory gardens’ or ‘war gardens’, and they managed to grow up to 40% of the total consumption of the countries at the time.

Further back in history, at the beginning of industrial age, in the late 19th. and beginning of the 20th. Century, religious and non-profit groups, promoted the creation of urban gardens, with the function of creating “subsistence, health, morality and social stability”, in U.S. cities. These gardens were known as “gardens for the poor”.

Since the 1960’s, when urban gardens were only grown by anti-system groups, the urban farming model decreased to the point of being consider only as an activity for retired people or as a part of social reinsertion programs. However, in Cuba in the 1990´s, the government implemented a program to resupply the population, as a consequence of economic blockades due to the fall of the Soviet Union. With these measures, the government also allowed the the cultural identity linked to the production of native food.

Old publicity poster calling for urban gardening during WW2 in the US. Photo: Farmers almanac

In late 2019, Ricardo Molina and Calmecac´s team, a Guatemalan NGO that works to “promote sustainable development based on the use of natural resources, in order to promote human dignity,” received the support of the Government of the Netherlands, for the creation of an urban garden within the Ciudad Nueva’s Ecological Park, located in downtown of Guatemala City. “This is an effort promoted by HIVOS. They added the house (the greenhouse), we added the land. They added the wood and we gave the labor force. The idea is to always trying to balance the effort,” he said.

In charge of managing the parks that this organization has under their care, Molina dedicates his days with his team to support the changes in our society, by taking little steps of new consumption habits. “We want to inspire people to make their own urban farming. They keep asking us how they can make it by themselves, so we help them to get it starter,” he said.

Family garden, as a development strategy

The recovery of native plants helps to reinforce the identity of the peoples. Photo: Jorge Rodríguez / FAO Guatemala

The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations (FAO) promotes in the Ixil region, located in western Guatemala, family garden projects to strengthen eating habit of rural communities in this area, inhabited mostly by indigenous people.

One of those projects, an organic egg farm run by a group of women, arose after they acquired new organization knowledge, which empowered them to undertake something bigger and more ambitious, with the sole objective of creating a benefit for their families and their community. “Before the project we only dedicated ourselves to housework. Then we learned how to grow vegetables (chard, radish, coriander). We had a community garden, and what we harvested we sold it in the market. Now we stopped selling vegetables and instead we use them for our own consumption. This benefits us because we no longer have to buy it, but we have it in our homes,” said Josefina Ixcoy.

Nearby, another group of women organized to plant native herbs from the area at their home gardens, which their ancestors used in their daily diet. Like the Cuban example, this was a great way to reconnect the people with their ancestral heritage, and also a way to supply themselves. “When I was little, I had no idea that these vegetables existed,” said Catarina Torres.

In urban areas, these gardens are seen as an opportunity to green the surroundings, provide spaces for recreation and contact with natural life, as well as tools for environmental education and the recovery of biodiversity, reduced by the lack of wilderness.

Currently, 15% of the world´s food comes from urban crops, this according to the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), an entity that promotes the People’s Garden Initiative, an initiative that seeks to benefit the community, providing spaces and recreation, through collaborative work among community members and the implementation of sustainable practices.

Along the same lines, the garden worked by Molina, in Guatemala City, seeks to involve all those interested in this practice. “We adopt the idea of vertical gardens, so we give people ornamental and agricultural plants, such as onions, chard and spinach,” he said. He also instructs those interested in knowing about basic production cycles, for the correct growing of the garden.

Occupational therapy

Urban gardens also help to improve people’s mental health. Photo: Jorge Rodriguez / Viatori

Food production is not the only reason that many people are exploring this practice. The confinement caused by COVID-19 affects not only economically, but also people´s mental health. Is in these settings that a garden is also useful. “On social media, I have seen how many people share photos and videos of their own plants and gardens,” said Carlos Alonzo, a Guatemalan journalist.

According to Alonzo, these small-scale crops help to give a new value to food, and the processes that lead to its growth. “I feel that, as an exercise to value more the food we eat, and the work of the farmers, it is interesting,” he adds.

Alonzo, who decided to try his luck growing his own garden after making an article about urban gardening, entered a world where dedication is essential to succeed. “You have to be aware every day. A couple of radishes have already died on me, because if you leave the plantations unattended for a couple of days, the plants suffer. I feel that this helps to value those who are dedicated to this, because in the market you pay 50 cents for a lot of radishes, without knowing how difficult it is to keep them alive,” he said.

There are many reasons why an urban garden is a good idea. Easy access to fresh and quality food, better social relations, in the case of community gardens, social integration of the elderly or handicap people and great benefits for mental health, by having contact with natural life are some of the advantages that these practices provide.

They even have benefits to mitigate the effects of climate change, since they help to reduce the effect known as “Heat island”, caused by the heating of asphalt and concrete. In addition, they help strengthen biodiversity, as small ecosystems, suitable for a variety of microorganisms, insects and birds, are created.

However, it is also important to consider other factors, to avoid adding them to the list of human errors, with significant consequences for people´s health.

Challenges of urban farming

There are some challenges for urban agriculture that should not be overlooked. Photo: Jorge Rodriguez / Viatori

Saying that urban farming has negative effects on people’s health, could be a statement that almost nobody on the planet would venture to corroborate. But as incredible as it may seem, there are several challenges that must be considered, both at the governmental and community levels, when embarking on the creation of a garden in any city on the planet.

In the 1980´s in Philadelphia, and urban farm located in an industrial area of the city, made headlines because an urban farmer reported that her twin children had high levels of lead in their blood, due to the consumption of the vegetables they grew themselves. Urban soils are exposed to high levels of toxic metal and other chemicals, which are harmful to human health.

Although the pollution levels of Central American cities don´t reach those of large American cities, it´s evident that the high population concentration, the decrease in natural areas and the characteristic centralism of their economies (most industries are located in the urban centers), as well as the growing vehicle fleet, are risk factors that should not be overlooked by people when thinking about creating an urban farming.

In Guatemala City, for example, air pollution is the highest on the entire region. At the end of 2019, the country´s state university published that 205 cubic micrograms of polluting particles (μg/m3), were registered in the country´s capital, when recommended by the World Health Organization (WHO), should be between 20 and 70 μg/m3. All these residues are deposited in the soils, which are then used for growing food for human consumption.

To avoid serious damage in the future, it is advisable to analyze the quality of the soil in which we plan to cultivate, and take other precautions so that the plants and vegetables are not exposed to the contaminating particles that haunt the air.

Although, they are factors to consider, they should not discourage anyone who wants to be part of this new trend. “Urban farming teaches us to learn about nature, the production processes and the value to have our own food,” said Molina. “Learn from the process of plants, introduces ourselves to forest processes, and then to natural processes. Perhaps, with this, we will be able to change our thinking and our actions, for the benefit of a life more integrated with nature,” he concluded.

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