Metropolitics

The Risk of “Foodwashing” in Calls for Innovative Urban Projects

Paula Macé Le Ficher & translated by Oliver Waine — 2019-02-22T06:00:00Z

Paula Macé Le Ficher analyzes the ways in which farming and food issues have been integrated into calls for innovative projects organized in Greater Paris, and highlights the potential these programs have for fostering new developments in the field of urban agriculture—while remaining realistic about extent to which they might transform the urban food system in the Paris region.
Since the start of the 2010s, food has emerged as an essential theme for urban projects. This rising prominence

- From the Field / food, Greater Paris, development, urban project, urban agriculture, foodwashing, calls for projects, farming, agriculture

Demystifying Urban Agriculture in Detroit

Flaminia Paddeu — 2017-12-14T05:30:00Z

Urban agriculture projects in North American shrinking cities have been the subject of much media attention in recent years. Taking the example of Detroit as her starting point, Flaminia Paddeu asks what the real benefits of this practice are for the residents of cities in decline.
---- Series: Shrinking Cities The French documentary Demain, showcasing a world tour of ecological alternatives and viewed by more than a million people to date, depicts the city of Detroit as a Mecca of

- From the Field / deindustrialization, Rust Belt, Baltimore, urban agriculture, agriculture, farming, Detroit, Philadelphia, vacant lots, urban decay, shrinking cities, urban decline, Cleveland, smart shrinkage, urban shrinkage, degrowth, shrinkage, wasteland, revegetation, ecological transition, socio-ecological transition

Where Did the Bees Go? New York City Beekeeping Amid Ecological Crises

Mary Kosut & Lisa Jean Moore — 2016-04-05T05:00:00Z

The decline and extinction of bees and other pollinators threatens the global food supply. Residents in cities like New York have engaged in the practice of beekeeping to harvest honey and care for this essential species. Ethnographers Lisa Jean Moore and Mary Kosut explore the connections to urban sustainability that this new practice entails.
Bees have always lived in metropolitan spaces without the aid of humans. Yet, until very recently, most people never thought of them as a species that

- From the Field / environment, urban ecology, urban agriculture, New York, wildlife, Brooklyn, bees, urban beekeeping, colony collapse disorder, DIY, honeybees, pollination

Transition towns, or the desire for an urban alternative

Adrien Krauz & translated by Oliver Waine — 2015-05-15T04:50:00Z

The entry of the term “transition” into the vocabulary of public action shows that questions regarding how to build more sustainable models for society are still relevant. The response offered by “transition towns” is a model for action involving a variety of local and citizen-led initiatives that are based on a method for sustainable environmental development called permaculture.
---- Series: The Renewed Relevance of Urban-Planning Models? Faced with the threat of an environmental crisis,

- Essays / utopia, sustainable development, LETS, local currencies, urban agriculture, agriculture, resilience, model, sustainable urban planning, permaculture, transition towns

The participatory production of temporary public spaces in times of crisis

2015-05-08T04:54:00Z

Are participatory measures a viable solution when it comes to developing urban spaces in times of crisis? According to the right-of-centre city council that came to power in Barcelona in 2011, the answer is “yes”, as reflected in the roll-out of its “empty spaces plan”, or “Pla Buits”, whereby the city subsidises associations and other groups in exchange for developing municipally approved activities on vacant urban lots, until such time as the coffers are replenished – and better uses found for

- From the Field / participation, public space, Spain, green spaces, Barcelona, urban agriculture, crisis, vacant lots, wasteland

What role for urban farming?

Laure Le Gall & translated by Oliver Waine — 2014-09-17T04:55:00Z

While the benefits of farming activities in large West African cities are starting to be recognised within the scientific community, Laure Le Gall believes that urban agriculture is still struggling to find its place within public policy. The few efforts that have been made by planners in places like Ouagadougou belie a desire to contain such activities, or even to relegate them to the urban fringes.
---- Series: Nature in the City In a context where urban space comes at a premium,

- Debates / nature, urban agriculture, market gardening, agriculture, farming, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso

When agriculture meets the city…

André Torre & Lise Bourdeau-Lepage & translated by Oliver Waine — 2013-04-10T04:58:44Z

In this article, André Torre and Lise Bourdeau-Lepage consider the role of nature in the city through the prism of urban agriculture. They defend the idea that the future of this phenomenon is intimately linked to its landscape-related, aesthetic, and even educational qualities, so dear to the hearts of city dwellers.
---- Series: Nature in the City
Long celebrated as a vestige of a bygone age, agriculture in the city has now become an increasingly common feature on politicians' agendas,

- Debates / environment, nature, local governance, urban ecology, urban agriculture, agriculture, farming

Local food: a concrete Utopia

Christian Deverre & Jean-Baptiste Traversac & translated by Oliver Waine — 2012-02-15T06:00:00Z

Roland Vidal recently invited us to look beyond short food-supply chains and rethink local links between cities and agriculture. Here, Christian Deverre and Jean-Baptiste Traversac provide a critical reading of the consequences of changes in farming production methods on the environment and the population.
In an article published in 2011 in Métropolitiques, Roland Vidal denounced both the lack of realism of proposals to feed major urban centres via local agriculture and the erroneous nature

- Debates / France, Paris region, utopia, urban agriculture, market gardening, proximity, short food-supply chains, food, Greater Paris, food culture