[p2p-research] metropolitan agriculture in detroit and flint, michigan

[Michel Bauwens]

hi steve,

thanks for these very sensible comments, of course, I was assuming that the
article was mentioning those forms of bottom up gardening and food
production, not elite food, but I may have misread,

but a critique such as you formulate here, could be exactly what the article
would be about, i.e. a reference to the original, with your added insight
...

On Sun, Oct 17, 2010 at 11:46 PM, Steve Bosserman <steve.bosserman at gmail.com
> wrote:

> Hi Michel,
>
> While I appreciate the positive tone articles like the one from
> Worldchanging offer about the advance of urban or metropolitan agriculture,
> they give short shrift to the real problem at hand - the absence of tasty
> and culturally familiar, affordable, quick and convenient, and healthy and
> safe meal choices that provide daily calorie and nutritional requirements
> from sustainable local food systems.
>
> Instead, they focus on increased food production and improved distribution
> to the point of retail.  This addresses some food system issues, but not all
> or even the majority.
>
> For instance, one of the unintended (or intended depending on one's
> position in the current food system!) is that the dominant culture maintains
> tight control over what I call the "last mile" of food systems--the economic
> and geographic "distance" between availability of meal ingredients and the
> consumption of complete meals.  This last mile includes the two highest
> revenue generating and profit-making value-added steps in the food chain:
> food processing and food preparation.  Small wonder the food industry does
> not want to relinquish regulatory and financial oversight!
>
> At this point, the U.S. is nowhere in truly localizing food processing /
> food preparation.  And until we address this shortcoming, sustainable local
> food systems that meet the needs of the bottom 80% rather than the top 20%
> will be an illusion supported by subsidies (grants, gifts, and premium
> prices).  The good news is that ongoing developments in DIY, distributed
> manufacturing, maker revolutions, hackerspaces, etc. will provide the means
> by which the bottom 80% can meet their needs without total dependence on
> those outside their communities, neighborhoods, and rural areas.  These
> developments constitute one of the major areas where capable and committed
> people like Sam Rose and others in the P2P network are making a profound
> positive difference.
>
> In thinking about postings on P2P about urban / metropolitan agriculture,
> let's take the opportunity to reframe the dialogue about local food systems
> from a humanitarian standpoint and redirect the actions in those systems so
> they meet the total food needs of each member every day.  That's more
> effective than getting counting the bunches of radishes and pounds of
> tomatoes grown in community gardens and sold at a premium to the top 20%.
>
> Would this be of interest to you?
>
> Best regards,
>
> Steve B.
>
>
> On Sun, Oct 17, 2010 at 4:24 AM, Michel Bauwens <michelsub2004 at gmail.com>wrote:
>
>> hi sam, (and steve)
>>
>> if you have time, a reference to this in our p2p blog would be veryu
>> welcome,
>>
>> see below in the worldchanging article for reference to your region of
>> activity,
>>
>> Michel
>>
>>
>>
>> URL = http://www.metropolitanagriculture.com/
>>
>>
>> [edit<http://p2pfoundation.net/Metropolitan_Agriculture?title=Metropolitan_Agriculture&action=edit&section=1>
>> ] Description
>>
>> "Metropolitan Agriculture is an organization dedicated to creating better
>> links between metropolitan areas and food production. They hosted their
>> first global summit and launched their 'Innoversity' at the end of
>> September. They currently bring together six cities: Amsterdam, London,
>> Detroit, Flint, Johannesburg, Sao Paolo, and Chennai to work on issues
>> around sustainable food production, exchange ideas and best practice. The
>> phrase 'metropolitan agriculture' quickly conjures up images of urban
>> farming, food production on large vacant lots in otherwise heavily built up
>> areas, and this model is certainly represented amongst the cities
>> contributing to the conference. In actuality, however, that kind of urban
>> farming is appropriate to a minority of cities. Much of the potential for
>> urban agricultural reform is hidden further from view -- for example in
>> reconfigured supply chains, or in policy focused on poverty reduction or
>> better nutrition." (http://www.worldchanging.com/archives/011671.html)
>>
>>
>> --
>> P2P Foundation: http://p2pfoundation.net  - http://blog.p2pfoundation.net
>>
>> Connect: http://p2pfoundation.ning.com; Discuss:
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>>
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>>
>> Think tank: http://www.asianforesightinstitute.org/index.php/eng/The-AFI
>>
>>
>>
>>
>>
>


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