Andres Duany

Agricultural Urbanism

Architect, planner, and co-founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism, Oct 29, 09.

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At the same time Texas farmers are struggling with decaying economic opportunities, declining soil quality, and rising fertilizer and transportation costs, rising food and energy prices, debates over food-based energy (such as corn-based ethanol), and recent E. coli and Salmonella scares in our nation’s food supply suggest growing threats to food supply.

Houston is surrounded by extremely fertile soil, and the city used to get all of its food from farms in a 100-mile radius. Today, the average Houstonian’s food travels more than 1500 miles, and nearby arable land is quickly being consumed by sprawl. However, the region is simultaneously witnessing a resurgence of local farmers’ markets and renewed interest in family farming.

“Agricultural Urbanism,” is an evolving approach that weaves various food-related activities, such as small farms, shared gardens, farmers’ markets, and agricultural processing, into the development model of walkable mixed-use traditional small town design. The leading thinker in this fast-growing discussion is Andrés Duany, an architect and planner who was a co-founder of the Congress for the New Urbanism. (Duany will be in Houston on October 30 for an evening lecture hosted by Houston Tomorrow.)

Earlier that day, Duany will participate in a seminar at the Houston-Galveston Area Council. The focus will be to provide the Houston region’s county officials with new ideas about how rural counties, in particular, can fashion policies and incentives to help preserve rural character, grow small towns, provide new jobs and entrepreneurial enterprises, and add population in a way that may be win/win for everyone.  A number of agricultural and social experts have argued for years that more of North America’s food should be produced close to where the consumers live; agricultural urbanism may be one way to accomplish that.

Here’s what Duany says about this topic:

The ability to grow food has implications for communities on multiple levels: from food security and health issues, to ensuring a local economy, to the vast environmental benefits of local farming, and the social benefits of a productive activity in which all members of a community can engage. Research is ongoing to develop techniques for assimilating agriculture into an urbanism acceptable to the expectations of modern life.

When farmland is built upon, a basic premise in Agricultural Urbanism is that one third will be urbanized while the production of the whole will be tripled. Agricultural urbanism requires the careful orchestration of both design and legal components and always has an impact on the economy of the community. This tradeoff is achieved by intensifying the agricultural activity at every level of the urban-to-rural Transect: window box, balcony, and roof gardens are designed into the more urban Transect Zones and progressively larger community gardens, yard gardens, small farms, and ultimately large farms appear in the more suburban and rural Transect Zones.

With Agricultural Urbanism, a condition specified will be that every dwelling, in some measure, participates (or allocates that portion of the household budget which would normally be dedicated to maintaining ornamental landscaping) in the production of food. Larger farms may be centrally managed with connection to distribution systems. A heavy equipment yard may be held in common, as well as facilities for the processing and storage of high value food. An educational component which ensures the passing of knowledge from one generation to the next as well as a part of health education is almost always included. There is a very positive attitude towards agricultural urbanism on the part of those who are environmentally concerned, those who would enjoy the society of a shared endeavor (front gardens often serve a purpose of social discourse—a role not unlike that of a porch) and for those who wish to take precautions with their health and welfare.

Urbanism must be cohesively designed. By concentrating development, land is liberated for agricultural use. Agricultural projects must be precise both in terms of the land cultivated, and in the management of it. The transect will help organize the appropriate placement of agriculture at the scale of both the master plan and the architecture of buildings.

This is NOT urban agriculture. This is agricultural urbanism in which all aspects of the urbanism are focused on the production of food.

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