Churchillian evaluation of urban ag
From the November 2006 edition of Agriculture Today.
Recognition of the importance of urban agriculture to both food systems and social wellbeing is climbing the agenda in many developed countries.
“Those countries are increasingly recognising that the food system is changing due to social, environmental, economic, technological and political circumstances,” David Mason, NSW Department of Primary Industries urban agriculture leader said.
“They are beginning to recognise the role that urban agriculture can play in response to those circumstances and associated uncertainty.”
“The Singapore Government, for example, has an objective to increase the country’s annual production of the fresh vegetables consumed by its people – in a citystate – from five per cent to 20 per cent.”
“Recent research by the South Australian Department of Primary Industries suggests that the value of agriculture associated with urban areas, including the perimeter, represents up to 25pc of Australia’s total agricultural production,” Mr Mason said.
“That is $7 billion of $28 billion – one quarter.”
Mr Mason has just started a 2006 Churchill Fellowship two month study tour of urban agriculture and readers will be able to follow his progress through Singapore, Holland, England, USA and Canada on an interactive website.
“The developed countries I have chosen to visit are all responding to the circumstances I have outlined,” Mr Mason said.
“The United States Department of Agriculture estimates that greater than 40pc of its total production is associated with metropolitan areas.”
In the USA a lot of effort is being made to protect agricultural lands.
“The main body is the American Farmland Trust and I will be attending its national conference in Delaware, along with 500 delegates,” Mr Mason said.
“In Canada, agricultural land associated with urban areas of Toronto is protected by legislation.”
In Holland, urban agriculture is recognised for what it can contribute to bio-diversity, natural resource management, bio-solid and water recycling, scenic amenity and tourism, plus human health benefits derived from the freshness of local food.
“Urban agriculture is a very complex issue,” Mr Mason said. He has become an expert in the field since starting to research it in 1992 and in June brought home new insights from the inaugural World Planners Congress in Vancouver, Canada, where urban agriculture was high on the agenda.
“When I returned to Australia I re-mapped the urban agriculture framework, which can be viewed on a personal website I have created.”
Mr Mason will diarise his Churchill study tour on the website and says comments are welcome.
According to Mr Mason, there is “a lot of negative talk about agriculture in the Hawkesbury at the moment, emanating from some of our local politicians and other people who want to subdivide their land and are missing the point about better alternatives.
“I believe there is a bright future for small area local agriculture.
“Attacking urban agriculture diverts attention from the real issue of preserving the broader environment from the impact of increased housing development,” Mr Mason said.
Contact David Mason at www.urbanagricultureworldwide.com
Diners feast on local farmers' flavours
Mouths bubbled with joi de vivre and fell silent with food, as local patrons ate their way through a weekend of landmark dinners in the Hawkesbury this month.
The Flavours of the Hawkesbury gastronomic event in Kurrajong Village helped to prove the point that the ultimate value of urban agriculture rests with how well consumers praise it by eating the produce.
“I will make a prediction based on what I experienced that within three years Kurrajong Village and surrounding areas will establish themselves as a regional centre for slow food,” David Mason, NSW Department of Primary Industries urban agriculture leader said.
“Within seven years it will have an international reputation,” Mr Mason said.
Mr Mason was amongst a near sellout crowd of local diners to participate in an initiative by Natalie Smith and her staff at Sassafras Creek Gallery and Restaurant.
Mr Mason said three things stood out about the weekend event.
“The restaurant was booked out Friday and Saturday nights, and Sunday lunch with a substantial patronage for Saturday lunch.
“Secondly, the greater majority of patrons were local and thirdly, nearly all the food came from local farms in the Hawkesbury.
Natalie Smith said she was surprised by the enthusiasm of the people whom she contacted about providing her with produce and products she needed.
The menu included duck from Pepe’s farms at Freemans Reach, guinea fowl from the Game Farm at Bilpin, olives and wines from Tizzana Winery at Ebenezer, artichokes from Tally Matthew’s farm at Maroota, other vegetables from the Hawkesbury Vegetable Farm at Wilberforce, Willowbrae Chevre goats cheese from Wilberforce, Sunshine Swiss brown mushrooms from Freemans Reach, herbs and salad mixes from Darling Mills Farm in the Hills District, free range eggs from Duck Paddock in Grose Vale, Kurrajong Native Foods, Wirraninna Ridge apple cider from Bilpin, strawberries from Enniskillen Orchard in Grose Vale, smoked meats from Value Valley Meats at North Richmond, Kurrajong Kitchens lavosh, and Geoff Rose Hawkesbury prawns.
There also was a locally made dukkah – a traditional Egyptian hazelnut based condiment – by Nature’s Temptations.
The great majority of contributors were Farm Gate Trail members and with support from Hawkesbury Harvest, Mrs Smith and her staff undertook a pilot of the Slow Food concept, an innovation started in Italy in 1986.
The web site, www.slowfood.com says that “Slow Food is an international association that promotes food and wine culture, but also defends food and agricultural biodiversity worldwide”.
Slow Food is based on the development of a local-regional food system.
“Natalie Smith and her staff are pushing the vision that the roles of agriculturists and food providores in the Hawkesbury region of Australia could become synonymous with icons like Tuscany in Italy,” Mr Mason said.
Mrs Smith concedes some logistical problems - including the fact that it’s a challenge for enough restuarants in the area to develop sufficient demand as a group to make it viable for providores to supply them.
She says it’s easier though for consumers to get Hawkesbury produce, at the Sydney markets, regular Castle Hill growers markets and in future, the Rouse Hill complex that will be developed.
