Urban Agriculture Magazine 42 – Urban agriculture as heritage
The future of sustainable cities lies hidden in the past
Produced in collaboration with the INSUAH project and with supplementary funding from Urban Futures, this edition brings together voices of practitioners, researchers and policymakers. Their contributions span continents, disciplines and perspectives, and highlight the importance of communities in carrying, reinterpreting and retrofitting their heritage – whether through traditional knowledge, shared practices or new knowledge.
In this issue:
- Editorial: the future of sustainable cities lies hidden in the past
- How King Louis XIV’s head gardener influenced market gardening worldwide
- Living heritage at Hofstad: teaching the history of urban farming with hands in the dirt in Antwerp
- Futurizing traditional urban agriculture sites: preserving food heritage through innovation in Beirut
- The Gardeners’ and Vintners’ Museum and innercity horticulture at the Bamberg World Heritage Site
- Rothenburg’s gardens: heritage protection in a medieval urban setting
- Orti Generali: a grassroot regeneration model inspired by local heritage in Turin
- Agricultural heritage as commons in Istanbul’s periphery
- Urban (agri-)cultural pasts and futures in Carthage, Tunisia
- The interlinked history of exotic vegetables production and urban farming in Ghana
- Decolonizing botanical gardens: potential for urban agriculture worldwide
- Organic networks: how sharing seeds and knowledge can reshape urban food systems in Southeast Brazil
- Knowledge grows: the seed library of Aachen
- Urban satoyama: evolving circular food systems in Tokyo
- The social and environmental benefits of water meadow heritage in Milan
- From tradition to adaptation: urban agriculture in regional water management in the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region
- Historical foundations and sustainable innovations in the Nuremberg Metropolitan Region
- The art of watering in the Forchheim district
- Our Tholuwa heritage: women and their knowledge of urban agriculture in Assam, India
- Black Mothers’ Backyards and Kitchens: reclaiming Afro-Brazilian heritage through food and urban agriculture in Brazil
- Rich diversity of food heritage at the core of innovative product development in Ostend
- Re-Imagining community gardens: a biocultural view of restoring urban spaces in Honolulu, Hawaiʻi
- Youth revival of traditional urban agriculture practices under Urban Futures in Ecuador, Zimbabwe and Indonesia
- Bandung urban agriculture heritage: where tradition meets the future
Highlighted articles
Get a taste for the topic by reading online excerpts from highlighted articles
Decolonizing botanical gardens: potential for urban agriculture
Botanical gardens worldwide are confronting their colonial pasts and exploring how to restitute plant heritage to benefit local communities. By reconnecting displaced plant knowledge with urban farming initiatives, botanical institutions can help revitalize traditional agricultural techniques proven effective since the pre-colonial era.
Urban satoyama: evolving circular food systems in Tokyo
Urban-rural mixed landscapes in Tokyo offer a rare and inspiring example of how a dense metropolis can sustain its agricultural heritage. Once dismissed as a consequence of unplanned urban sprawl during the postwar period, these landscapes are now recognized as a sustainable urban form.
Youth revival of traditional urban agriculture practices under Urban Futures
Urban Futures initiatives in three countries show that exposing youth to indigenous foods can have a trickle-down effect within their communities, generating market demand for resilient, locally adapted varieties. Young people are discovering that traditional farming methods are underscored by sound ecological values and scientific explanations.
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