Urban Food Production

Urban Food Production

Overview

• Urban food production is one of the best strategies for reducing Greenhouse Gas (GHG) emissions and to learn about sustainable practises.
• When supplies of cheap fossil fuels (oil, coal, gas) were cut off from Cuba during the Special Period (1990-2000) the population reverted to organic and permaculture farming practises both in cities and in rural areas. Collectively they were able to reduce per capita GHG emissions to 4 tonnes per person per year.
• They did this by composting organic waste material, planting nitrogen fixing cover crops, and using more human labour inputs to help manage local food production. Organic, regenerative and permaculture food production techniques were widely practised as presented in the documentary film The Power of Community: How Cuba Survived Peak Oil

CERES Urban Farming Course

• You don't become an expert gardener overnight. It takes years of practise.
• To get a head start it worth joining a Community Garden or attending a course such as the CERES Complete Urban Farming Course presented by Justin Calverley which runs for 14 weeks (weekly sessions). There is also a book that accompanies the course titled The Urban Farmer.
• There are also other good on-line resources to draw inspiration from:
  • My Smart Garden and especially the Resources section that has instructional videos from local experts.
  • My Green Garden by Maria Ciavarella has a focus on Italian food production and preservation practises.
  • Deep Green Permaculture is an excellent resource prepared by Angelo Eliades and showcases a Permaculture urban food forest in Melbourne, Victoria, Australia.
  • Huw Richards - Permaculture Inspired Kitchen Gardening on YouTube which presents short, easy to follow gardening videos for beginners.

Urban Farming missing Manuals

• There are two big issues that need to be addressed with urban farming, but are rarely discussed.
  • Water loss as stormwater (roof rainwater) and water loss to sewage (toilet flusing, showers, sinks)
  • Nutrient loss mainly to sewage (nutrients in our urine and poo).

Water loss

• It requires a large amount of water to grow food.
• Foodprint Melbourne project has found that it takes over 475 litres of water per person per day to grow our food Food Print Melbourne, Dr. Rachel Carey, University of Melbourne. This number would be lower if Melburnians ate less meat, dairy and processed foods, which in general require larger water inputs in comparison to more vegetarian based diets.
• Agriculture extracts 70% of the waterflows from our waterways which severly comprises the health of our waterways, especially during drought.
• Growing food locally at home, using roof water and large rainwater tanks (10,000-20,000 litres storage), grey water diversion to the garden, taking shorter showers (2 minutes) and using dry composting toilets leads to an overall reduction of total water usage ANU Press Troubled Waters: Confronting the Water Crisis in Australia’s Cities
• Ideally we should prioritise water use at home to grow food and plants. Minimal water should be used in the home for other household requirements (e.g. 2 minute showers, dry-composting toilet, cooking and drinking).
• The United Nations recognises our basic right to clean water and estimate that daily water requirement should be 50 to 100 litres per person per day UN The Right to Water
• Melbournian's currently use 155 litres per person per day and most of this water is sent to the sewer.

Nutrient loss

• Nutrients are naturally contained within soils and can be made available to plants through:
  • composting of food and other organic material
  • weathering of rock to release minerals
  • fixing of nitrogen by nitrogen fixing plants and associated bacteria
  • addition of other inputs such as crushed rocks, seaweed and shells
• However, in a typical household most food nutrients are lost because they are flushed into the sewer.
• To recycle these nutrients back to the garden requires a waterless composting toilet. As a first step urine can be recovered in a pee bucket, diluted with water (1 in 10) and used as a liquid nitrogen fertiliser on the garden.
• The correct processing of humanure is detailed in The Humanure Handbook by Joel Jenkins. This book is also available for free as a pdf on The Internet Archive.
• The Victorian EPA also presents a list of approved Waterless Composting Toilets].
• Humanure can be safely used under fruit, nut trees and in non-food producing garden beds (but not for most Australian natives because they prefer soils low in nitrogen).
• Food waste can be safely composted and used in vegetable food growing beds.

Top 10 Gardening Tips

1. Grow food production trees and shrubs
2. Mulch your garden
3. Install a rainwater tank and divert all roof water to your tank or garden
4. Establish hot compost bins and recycle all food and organic waste
5. Keep rabbits or chickens and experiment with producing their food production and recycling their waste
6. Plant a pollinator garden to attract bees and other insects to help pollinate your flowering vegetable plants
7. Plant plants that produce flat-topped flower clusters known as umbels (e.g. parsley, dill, celery) which help to attract pest predator insect species to your garden (biological control agents)
8. Installing a waterless composting toilet

Food production trees and shrubs

• Trees produce the greatest amount of produce for the lease amount of space because:
  • unlink annuals they don't need to re-grow each year
  • their roots have greater access to water and nutrients
  • they occupy more vertical and horizontal space in the garden
• In my garden I have a range of productive trees:
  • Loquat - evergreen that produces fruit in December and can be waterered all year.
  • Apricot - produces fruit from December to January
  • Apple (dwarf) - produce fruit from January to February
  • Blackberry - produces fruit from January to February
  • Fig tree - produces fruit from January to March
  • Persimmon - produces fruit from March to April
  • Almond - nuts ready in March to April
  • Olive - fruit available from April to June
  • Lemon - produces fruit twice per year and also requires regular watering

• Most fruit trees can be planted in early Spring.
• Allow for a 3m x 3m space between each fruit tree.
• Try to use dwarf fruit and nut trees because they are easier to net and manage.
• Plant something you love and enjoy eating.

Mulch you garden

• Replace hard surface and grasses areas with mulch such as pine bark chips, bush mulch, or simply collect and place any organic material on the ground to cover the soil.
• Mulch will:
  • allow for rainwater and grey water to soak into the ground
  • help keep moisture in the ground
  • reduce stormwater runoff and allow more water to infiltrate the ground to recharge lost moisture in soils
  • reduce weed growth
  • is how Nature does it (leaves fall from trees to form a natural mulch)
• All you need to do is remove any concrete or impermeable surfaces and then apply a thick layer of much (10-15mm)
• You can put down cardboard or newspaper to help suppress weed growth.
• Top us mulch as required or establish vegetable ground covers to help create more mulch (e.g. leaves falling from a loquat tree, or ground covers such as Nasturtium or Warrigal Greens

Install a rainwater tank or downpipe diversion system

• Install a large rainwater tank (ideally 10,000 - 30,000 litres if you have space.
• To size a tank use this example calculation:
  • Roof size of 100m2
  • can receive up to 60mm of rain in a big downpour
  • which requires 100 x 60 = 6,000 litres of storage capacity.
• A 10,000 - 30,000 litre storage tank will be able to hold many rain events during winter, so that the tank water use can be extended through Spring and Summer.
• The greatest water use will be in Summer.
• Additional items to consider for rainwater tanks include:
  • a leaf strainer so that organic debris from the roof does not enter tanks
  • relocating the television antenna so that it doesn't encourage birds to poop onto the roof
  • regular cleaning of gutter
  • a pump to provide pressurised water for watering the garden

• Rainwater can also stored in the ground, because soil also holds water.
• Install downpipe diversion systems to direct excess roof water to mulched garden beds.