URBAN AGRICULTURE: AN OPPORTUNITY FOR FARMERS? A SWISS CASE STUDY

Interest in urban agriculture (UA) has considerably increased during the last decade. Research has shown that UA can have several positive impacts on the social and environmental health of a city. Increasingly, the question of the role of professional farmers is raised. The Food Urbanism Initiative (FUI; see www.foodurbanism.org/lausanne) explicitly looks at this via its use of Lausanne, Switzerland as a case study site. In the first phase, the research team assessed the population’s attitude towards UA by means of a public survey. It concludes that although UA is not the most important publicly perceived urban issue, it is well supported. Presently, the case study work includes the assessment of the existing physical opportunities and the possible various typologies of urban farming that could apply to the site. Current research is investigating the potential of urban farming for professional farmers. Additionally, the success of a series of city initiated pilot projects (micro community plots/plantages, traditional family gardens, sheep keeping and the pedagogic farm of Rovéréaz Domain) reinforces the importance of UA and its implementation via diverse methods. However, the FUI Lausanne urban analysis so far indicates that although there are many potential sites for UA, many of them are small, privately-owned, and disconnected parcels. There are serious constraints for traditional professional farming in urban areas as far as economic and agronomic aspects are concerned, leaving agricultural production in urban areas to be tended by urban “gardeners” or quasi-professionals. Principal issues concern both the legal limits to professional farming and restrictions related to the scale of a successful agricultural operation. Urban and peri-urban farmers may have increased opportunities for commercialisation and partnerships with urban population. Consequently, the FUI challenge is to find the most applicable array of realistic UA project typologies while at the same time doing so with an expanded notion regarding the future role of professional, semi-professional and “hobby” farmers.