Why we need agroecology in the age of urban dystopias

MEDIA RELEASE: AFSA celebrates extension of DBC Abattoir foreclosure access for smallholders in WA, calls on state governments to take long term action to save family farms

By Emmylou Reeve, Jade Sorenson, Katie Barnshaw, Ben Trethewey, Ojas Chopra, and Patrick Meaney

Australian food security is threatened by rampant development that is eating into agricultural land. The region of Western Sydney accounts for three-quarters of the agricultural production in the Greater Sydney area. However, a startling 60 per cent of agricultural land in the western Sydney food bowl has been lost over the last 10 years, posing serious concerns for the future of local food production in urban and peri-urban settings around major cities. As highlighted in the People’s Food Plan, urban and peri-urban food production is integral to an agroecological transformation. Further, the encroachment of housing estates into rural areas threatens not only future food security, but also poses serious threats to biodiversity and native ecosystems.

The first stop along AFSA’s Agroecology Roadshow – Bilpin (Dharug Country), located in the Blue Mountains – is one such area under threat from urban sprawl, with an accelerating loss of agricultural land to low-density housing. Despite an increase in density across our major urban centres, low-density housing continues to invade rural regions as developers buy up land without restriction. Governments continue to support extractive industries in this region, disregarding human and more-than-human beings, as biodiversity and agricultural production are neglected for the profit-driven development by mega-conglomerates like Lendlease.

Do not let the semi-rural aesthetics of sprawling suburbia blind you to the true environmental horrors it harbours. Suburban sprawl is a name given to the style of urban planning characterised by low density housing, dependence on privately owned cars, and an undefined edge between urban and rural areas. Suburban sprawl sees spiralling growth outward – as you travel out of the city along any major highway, you’ll likely encounter housing estates you could have sworn were not there last time you came out this way. Such housing estates prioritise the construction of houses and roads, with schools, hospitals and amenities trailing behind.

A prerequisite to the construction of suburbia involves the destructive clearing of land, habitats and the displacement of animals. Once the land is cleared, large amounts of heat absorbing asphalt is laid for primarily fossil fuel hungry cars to traverse, with public transport lagging well behind. Asphalt retains more heat than vegetated areas, leading to increased temperatures and creating what is known as the Urban Heat Island Effect (UHI). Low-density urban development demands a car-dependent lifestyle, as everything is more spread out – making public or active transport less feasible or appealing. More frequent use of the car, even for short errands creates carbon pollution and excess noise. Finally, suburban housing is sparsely spread out, with most green spaces dominated by widespread invasive grass species which hinder biodiversity and require significant watering to maintain. With farmland dwindling, the status symbol of the neatly cut suburban lawn is a disturbing parallel to our current issue at hand, as its origins trace back to English aristocrats demonstrating they could afford to maintain grass that didn’t serve food production purposes.

The right to access local, nutritious, ecologically sound food is a central tenet of food sovereignty. Despite multiple UN Declarations (UNDRIP; UNDROP) declaring access for First Peoples and smallholders to land as commons, within the contemporary colonial Australian landscape these rights are not upheld – as development and economic growth are privileged over First People’s Sovereignty and the Right to Food.

Privileging agroecology in urban and peri-urban areas should be at the forefront of any housing development, as access to nutritious and ecologically-sound food is a human right. Governments must prioritise First Peoples’ sovereignty and smallholder access to land when creating land- and water-use policy, instead of prioritising profit-driven suburban development and extractive industries.

As a result of prioritising residential use over food production, this suburban encroachment drives the problematic rezoning of agricultural land, often imposing major restrictions on agricultural production, such as the inability to sell from a farmgate, restricting the viability of smallholder enterprise.

If food-systems thinking was applied to town planning and development, the impacts on people and planet would be immeasurable. Instead of subsidising capitalist extractive industries, imagine taxing corporations for their socio-ecological impacts. Then imagine a world where agroecology was subsidised and incentivised. Alternatives that elicit emancipatory transformation for all beings must be the focus of governments and corporations. For what is serving as short term gain is leading to irreversible long term pain.

Harvest Farms (hosting the first AFSA Agroecology Roadshow dialogue), like many smallholders around the continent, operates through a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) model. CSA offers an alternative to the industrial, supermarket-led food system, aiming to bring producer and consumer together through a subscription that sees consumers ride the highs and lows with smallholders. This provides increased stability for smallholders, as they are often paid upfront and can therefore budget for the growing season. Consumers are provided access to local, nutritious, agroecological food – a win-win. Incorporating diverse First People’s and smallholder led enterprises within development models will serve to provide resilience against the rising tide of socio-ecological crises. The ongoing trend towards broadacre farms coupled with suburban sprawl is contributing to an increasingly volatile and unjust food system.

Kicking off this Friday 4 October in Bilpin, come and hear about the work that Harvest Farm are doing to protect agricultural land and build solidarity economies through CSA at the the Agroecology Roadshow.

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