Epsilon Archive for Student Projects

Abstract

We are now more people on Earth than ever before and more people are living their lives in cities. In parallel, food production is getting more and more attention, not least due to climate change, and the expected climate change. Climate change which both change growing conditions and destroys growing conditions. Food production depends on farmland, but as the urban population grows, the cities surface grows as well. Not infrequently we find growing cities in areas with high-quality farmland. Thus growing cities often equal to farmland disappearing. If we look at the relationship between town and countryside, the growing city population also has moved further and further away from primary production of food. Thus it can be difficult to value both food production, farmland, and the importance of preserving production landscape.
If we look at the city's planning, the ideal in recent has been the green-, the dense and the mixed city. However, the planning of the city's suburbs, the peri-urban landscapes, is often not planned after these ideals. The peri-urban landscapes often consists of external trade centers, or alternatively, left untouched without any real function while waiting for exploitation. At the same time, we see an increasing interest from urban residents to farm food, both for own use and to sale. But as a consumer, it can be difficult to get access to farmland, although there is unused, and unplanned urban land that could be used for large-scale city farming.
The other side of the story is the countryside just outside the city boundary, the peri-urban landscape and the agriculture. As the city grows, it influences the large-scale farming, it becomes increasingly difficult to farm and the agriculture companies can be prevented in developing their businesses efficiently. Moreover, if the municipality owns of the farmland, they often leases at one year at time, which makes it even more difficult for the farmer.

Thus, this essay aimed to seek difficulties and opportunities between urban development and agricultural production. The essay has looked at both urban farming and large-scale conventional agriculture to give a broad picture. The city of Malmö and the urban farming project, Stadsbruk has been the case study. For both cases, the availability of land and lease times a crucial question, why lease also discussed in the essay. Based on this essays question and the results, I established that the various farming businesses are affected to different degrees of proximity to the city. The short leases have negative consequences both large-scale and small-scale production, for the individual user, the company and the biodiversity. Food production in the city can be a way to build bridges
between the city and the countryside, and to increase knowledge of both food and farmland.
The essay also conclude that urban farming has many positive effects, but Stadsbruk might not be the very best and most advantageous method for urban farming. Finally, urban farming can be a way to preserve and develop farm land within the city. The city's population and its planning, especially the peri-urban landscape, could gain a lot in being used for urban farming and not being left untouched with no planning.