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Question: Creating New Urban Spaces of Sustainability and Governmentality: An Assessment of the Development of a Food and Urban Agriculture Strategy for Edmonton, Canada

Answer: The global human population became more urban than rural in 2007, and by 2050 it is estimated that nearly two-thirds of humanity will reside in cities and towns (Hanlon, 2008). From a sustainability perspective, this demographic transition presents both challenges and opportunities. Urbanization promotes interactivity, education, social awareness, varied employment opportunities, social advances, and innovation (Knight & Riggs, 2010). Yet the dominant direction and patterns of urban growth result in a loss of farmland, urban decline, transportation issues, pollution, loss of habitat and biodiversity, and soaring infrastructure expenses (Arku, Kemp, & Gilliland, 2011). The sustainability challenge presented by global urban growth is to transform cities into viable self-regulating, resilient and ethical social, economic, and environmental systems both in their internal functioning and in their relationships to areas beyond their boundaries (Wiskerke & Viljoen, 2012).
Urban food strategies have the potential to act as strategic resources in advancing urban sustainability. While growing food has always occurred in cities, particularly in the latter part of the twentieth-century food production lost its legitimacy as an acceptable urban activity and subsequently was largely erased from most urban planning policy and legislation (Oswald, 2009). But over the past two decades, growing numbers of citizens are challenging urban municipalities to support and enable urban agriculture (UA), as they engage in activities to better feed the city (Harper, Shattuck, Holt-Giménez, Alkon, & Lambrick, 2009). UA includes a range activities related to intensive food production, processing, distribution, and waste recycling that are integrated within urban ecological and economic systems (Thibert, 2012). UA is accomplished by ‘tapping on resources (unused or under-used space, organic waste), services (technical extension, financing, transportation), and products (agrochemicals, tools, vehicles) found in the urban area, and in turn, generates resources (green areas, microclimates, compost), services (catering, recreation, therapy), and products (flowers, poultry, diary)’ largely for the benefit of the city (Mougeot, 2006, pp. 4–5).
In spite of their many benefits, as the case study of Edmonton’s food strategy development will illustrate, many urban food strategies are caught in the ‘sustainability dilemma’ (Borowy, 2014): While clearly a widely popular public policy issue, to achieve significant long-term tangible results requires difficult political choices that most are not willing to make, or even debate. Furthermore, to fully realize the transformative potential of food as a strategic resource in advancing urban sustainability will require municipalities both to embrace a paradigm shift that treats food as a catalyst for developing new relations between governments and civil society actors, and to frame urban sustainability as more than a ‘profitable commodity’ (Lorr, 2012).
This chapter is based upon participatory action research examining the development of an urban food policy in Edmonton, Canada from 2008 to 2013. Three data gathering techniques were employed: participant observation, semi-structured interviewing and document analysis, and data was analyzed using a grounded theory approach that included coding for themes and triangulation. Participant observation occurred while the two authors engaged in activities related to the development of Edmonton’s food and agriculture strategy, including workshops, public education campaigns, and council hearings. The authors were also academic researchers associated with the Food and Urban Agriculture Citizen Panel, and participants of activities and discussions organized by a civil society organization, the Greater Edmonton Alliance (GEA). The authors conducted 15 informal and semi-structured in-depth interviews with people keenly interested in food and sustainability issues in Edmonton, and with varying levels of involvement in the development of Edmonton’s food and agriculture strategy. Additional documents were collected including City of Edmonton policy and background documents, meeting minutes, videos, and surveys, as well as handouts and e-mails written by civil society activists, and more publicly accessible documents such as blog posts and newspaper clippings.

This article responds to the call for studies that situate individual sustainability activities with a wider social context (Franklin, Newton, & McEntee, 2011) and for more comprehensive accounts of the evolution of food policy initiatives (Mendes, 2007; Wekerle, 2004). We build on scholarship that examines the successes and challenges in advancing urban sustainability through UA, and use assessments of urban sustainability indicator frameworks and critical sustainability studies to assess Edmonton’s food and agriculture strategy as a vehicle for transformative change toward citywide sustainability.

(Source: , 23 Sep 2021)

Source Link: https://doi-org.onlinedatabase.librarynet.com.my/10.1108/S1047-004220140000014009