At Pedestrian Space we approach the topic of urban and community agriculture from multiple lenses, including:
• Framing issues of local food networks in an urban resilience perspective
•Food sovereignty, healthy local food systems and community resilience
• Food access, health, privilege and (in)equity: Walkable access to locally & regionally grown produce as an aspect of equity, public health & community resilience
• Food literacy via school and community gardening
• Well-being, health and therapeutic benefits associated with gardening
• Issues of local gardening and agriculture in the scope of diverse potential crisis (war, migration, pandemic, supply chain distribution, natural disaster etc)
• Championing urban gardening to be more accessible across communities
If you are working with issues of urban and community agriculture, particularly via the lens of food equity, community resilience, education (school gardens, educational gardens etc), health (hospital gardens, therapeutic gardens as well as public health) and related themes, please feel free to connect as we expand our network of people working with and advocating for these issues.
Earlier this year (2024), I decided it was time for me to commit to using my role at the intersection of media, research and advocacy to begin to work with issues of community and urban agriculture with my primary drivers being the issues noted above.
I started at the hyper-micro level – my home- with my learning and experimentation.
I am simply crazy about quality, organic, locally grown produce and in 2024 started growing vegetables on our balcony gardens to begin to develop my own gardening literacy and seed-to-table experiences as documented at @citykitchengarden.
On our spacious balcony in the city we grew carrots, parsley, cilantro, corn, peas, green beans, diverse chili peppers, microgreeens, lettuce, sunflowers….
I’ve grown chili peppers indoors before but this was my first time growing them outdoors as well as growing multiple varieties and absolutely loved it.
We love chili peppers in our home and for our first round of growing outdoors, raising numerous varieties in the balcony gardens. Ready for a small chili pepper farm!
As with everything we are growing (most of it as a 1st time experience), the goal is to grow very flavorful and quality plants. And when it comes to the peppers, of course with a great range of spice.
Growing corn from seed to maturity, on a balcony in the city nonetheless, was also an achievement of a lifetime for me.
While I am proud of the success, I am also ready for more space – to grow more corn!
I view the home garden as a great testbed for developing knowledge and a site of potential great experiential learning.
Part of this learning experience is also dedicated to expanding our ‘kitchen literacy’ and learning diverse ways to use plants, for example with the carrot tops fresh from our garden above, harvested and made into a simply delicious Chimichurri spread.
From May 2024-July 2024, as NGO founder of Pedestrian Space I hosted my first ‘industrial placements’ from the MA in Film & TV program at the University of Bristol offering two tracks: walkability & community agriculture.
Yujie, one of the students chose the latter and produced videos on a local community garden and became an active local volunteer in her community through the placement. Learn more via link above.
In July 2024, I hosted my first workshop on community agriculture & momentum building with The Schumacher Institute. View more at link below.
This year I also learned about agrihoods via this document at the Urban Land Institute website. During the summer of 2024 I began my own research on this topic, beginning with a series of interviews (in progress) with different individuals (planners, agrihood founders and developers, farm managers) on best practices & barriers of these developments.
We have added a Community & Agriculture focus at our Reading Resources page to list the texts we are adding to our library and learning from on.
Visit our Reading Resources at link below!
In August 2024, Pedestrian Space became a member of the Inter-institutional Network for Food, Agriculture and Sustainability (INFAS) at The Agricultural Sustainability Institute at University of California, Davis which is meaningful for me as my organizational mission includes networking and alliances for sustainable food systems.
In August 2024, I was really delighted to ally with Andrea and Kay of Sky Farm Island to be welcomed into their Global Farming Community whose mission it is to increase the visibility of urban farming. In September 2024 they published a very thoughtful write-up on the work I am doing here at Pedestrian Space weaving together issues of walkability with food access, security and sovereignty.
https://www.skyfarmisland.com/blog/walkability-and-urban-farming
With the Sky Farm Island team, I was honored to host the first season of their podcast, featuring interviews with urban farmers around the world.
Stay tuned for links to episodes here!
In September 2024 I finished the following courses offered by Cornell Small Farms Program.
PUA 101: Deciding Where to Farm in the City
PUA 102: Urban Farm Planning and Management
PUA 103: Urban Farming by Community Nonprofits
PUA 201: Urban Agriculture Skills for Planners
“Urban Agriculture Skills for Planners helps planners and urban farm advocates understand important structures, approaches, and policies that allow urban agriculture to be better incorporated into planning practice. The course covers concrete strategies for community engagement, comprehensive planning, zoning reforms, and resource provision, including example plans and ordinances. ”
Photo: Annika Lundkvist (2015)
As with the issue of walkability, the theme of focus here at Pedestrian Space, many of my observations and even the source of some research motivations are rooted in lived experience.
I photographed the above photo in the Puna district on the Big Island of Hawai’i to capture the richness, vibrance, and diversity of locally grown fruit on this volcanic island. There are multiple farmers’ market with local vendors and affordable pricing of a truly rich range of locally grown fruits and vegetables. Read more below…
Watch a short clip of our 1st corn harvest in our balcony test kitchen garden here
Are you interested in connecting over these issues?
📮 Please feel free to get in touch at info@pedestrianspace.org
-Annika
