Abstract
Over the past decade food has become increasingly integrated into the urban planning agenda in North American cities, as signaled by events such as the release of the White Paper on Food Systems Planning by the American Planning Association. Urban agriculture has become progressively recognized by municipal planners and policy makers as an important component in the transition to “green” and sustainable cities. As Rosan and Pearsall point out, many municipal politicians and policy makers have attempted to embrace urban agriculture as a means of reinventing and marketing their cities as “green” and attractive places for a growing socioeconomic demographic of skilled professionals interested in social justice and sustainability. In recent years, a plethora of research has examined the benefits and practical challenges of urban agriculture. However, less attention has been paid to land-use issues and particularly the dimensions of race and class in decision-making and planning processes. As the authors succinctly state, urban gardens and farms, which are often celebrated as efforts to bring fresh produce to underserved, largely minority communities, are often led by middle-class whites and thus may reflect white values and fail to speak to the communities these gardening projects purport to serve. (p. 5)
In the seven chapters of this book, Rosan and Pearsall examine and contextualize the changing landscape of discourse around urban agriculture in city policy making and planning, paying particular attention to power and inequity in decision-making processes related to urban land use. They shed light on the “politics surrounding the institutionalisation of urban agriculture” (p. 6) and how certain voices have been privileged while others are excluded in these processes. They use Philadelphia as a case study, a city which has tried to reinvent itself as “the Greenest City in America” (p. 18) to trace the change and shifts in discourse around urban food production over the past 130 years with particular attention to radical shifts in urban food production, food policy, and food planning in the last two decades. The authors propose contributions to growing bodies of literature on the history of urban gardening (through documentation of Philadelphia’s long history of urban food growing) as well as food planning and food justice; this is certainly accomplished through this informative and well-documented case study. The authors’ use of this case study approach provides a thoughtful demonstration for other municipalities grappling with the institutionalization of urban agriculture, demonstrating lessons on processes to embrace and those which might be avoided in those efforts.
Rosan and Pearsall draw on a diversity of data and information sources to inform their discussion, including planning and policy documents, archival resources, and contemporary media such as newspapers, magazines, and websites. They also draw on semi-structured interviews conducted with urban gardeners and policy makers over a five-year period to understand how urban agriculture is framed and valued from different perspectives. As such, the book is peppered with an appropriate complement of quotes, representing not only those in positions of power but also a diversity across race and class divides whose lived experience as farmers and activists provides a colorful illustration of the information presented by the authors.
This book ultimately tells a story of the evolution of urban agriculture over many decades and its progressive institutionalization within political discourse and urban planning agendas. It traces a boom and bust of economies and of urban agriculture: when the economy is in a bust phase and land prices are low, urban agriculture has been used to redevelop underprivileged neighborhoods and goes through its own boom phase. This redevelopment leads to increases in property values, a stronger local economy, and is tied to economic boom phases. During these economic booms, land used for urban agriculture becomes more attractive for sale and redevelopment, which then leads to a bust and decrease in urban agriculture activities.
Chapter 1 provides an overview of the main arguments in the book. Chapter 2, which focuses on urban agriculture in Philadelphia from the late 1800s to the 1980s, illustrates these boom and bust cycles. Rosan and Pearsall begin this chapter with a focus on the time period between the late nineteenth century and the 1940s, providing an interesting and seemingly unprecedented investigation of urban agriculture prior to the well-known Victory Gardens movement of the World War II era. The narrative moves then to the 1970s, a period during which the act of urban gardening transitioned from an association with civic duty to becoming part of a more cohesive social movement focused on empowerment and social justice for marginalized communities. Reflecting on the 1970s as a time of economic downturn, the authors discuss the evolving role of urban agriculture as a means of neighborhood redevelopment, reclamation, and increasing food security. In addition to highlighting the changing role of urban agriculture in Philadelphia through cycles of boom and bust, this chapter also illustrates the changing roles of gardeners, non-profit and charitable organizations, and the effects of economic cycles on policy and planning imperatives. In looking to the past, this chapter provides a backdrop for chapter 3 against which the authors illustrate what is new about contemporary approaches to urban agriculture in the city.
In chapter 3, Rosan and Pearsall demonstrate the various frames through which contemporary urban agriculture is perceived, that is, “new social movement” frames related to: environment, sustainability, and planning; social development through youth programs; and recreational activities, among others. A small but noticeable gap in this account is the ways in which many cities (and perhaps Philadelphia is an exception to this) have integrated urban agriculture into a much wider array of social welfare programming (i.e., gardening programs for immigrants, homeless persons, and incarcerated and recently released offenders, among others). As such, the social service sector reaches many other socioeconomic groups and more diverse demographics through urban agriculture in addition to what Rosan and Pearsall describe. There is, however, a value to the framework through which this chapter is presented: it effectively illustrates different agendas and also points to different scales and levels of activity and funding, that is, the different impacts of programs and support at individual, neighborhood, municipal, local, state, and federal levels. Chapter 3 shows that, due to a diversity of sectors embracing urban agriculture, it has become embedded in city culture despite long-term challenges in terms of political and civil society acceptance.
Chapters 4, 5, and 6 move from a historical examination of urban agriculture to a contemporary analysis of its integration into city planning and policy discourse and the complex challenges of confronting race and class privilege in “green cities” movements while building equity and social justice into this work. Chapter 4 embarks on an examination of how urban agriculture has moved from the margins to becoming more mainstream in the planning discourse, and integrated into the urban sustainability agenda. In the past several years, urban agriculture has become mainstream to the extent that many initiatives within Philadelphia and other municipalities have attempted to formalize and systematize a citywide approach to urban farming and gardening activities. In this chapter, Rosan and Pearsall highlight the tensions between different approaches to valuing land use, and raise questions related to equity and representation in decision-making processes. They reflect particularly on questions related to equity and diversity in food systems planning: How are considerations for diversity and equity integrated with the activities of formal entities such as the Food Policy Advisory Committee? Who has been included, and who has been excluded, in consultations related to the development policies which have formalized urban agriculture into planning processes (consultations on formalizing access to land and incorporation of urban agriculture into zoning codes)? The lessons learned through responding to these questions are valuable for planning approaches and ensuring planners’ attention to engaging with disenfranchised groups. They are also useful for those interested in policy-making processes, the role of food policy councils in municipal decision making, and the need for these processes to critically reflect on their role in promoting equity and empowering marginalized groups.
Chapter 5 fully delves into questions of race and class politics in urban agriculture. It explores what the authors refer to as a “new wave” of urban growers who are primarily white, middle class, with postsecondary education. They contrast this new demographic, their values and motives, with demographics of more marginalized urban gardeners and previous waves of urban farmers who represented primarily low-income, disenfranchised, and minority populations. Chapter 5 draws attention to critical questions of race and class in ongoing debates about urban agriculture with particular attention to land access as well as privilege in directing social movements and decision-making processes.
The final two chapters move toward an examination of what is possible in urban agriculture, what needs to be changed, and what should be preserved in the ongoing institutionalization and mainstreaming of urban farming. In chapters 6 and 7, Rosan and Pearsall “put growing in the city in perspective and . . . acknowledge its strengths and limitations” (p. 131). They also examine questions about what role urban agriculture should play in urban sustainability. They suggest that planners, policy makers, and proponents of urban agriculture engage in critical reflection on equity and social justice, and the ways in which these issues are critical to more effective urban planning for food production in the city.
Overall, this book provides an important reflection on race, class, power, and privilege in urban agriculture and urban land-use planning more broadly. These issues frame various discourses on the need for and benefits of urban food production. In particular, the book provides a valuable look at privileged voices and suggests the need to meaningfully engage with diversity in our approaches to land-use and urban planning for sustainable cities and food systems.