URBAN AGROFORESTRY: CONNECTING AGROECOLOGY, PERMACULTURE, URBAN

FORESTRY AND URBAN AGRICULTURE INTO URBAN FOOD FORESTS

Stephen Mann, Dr Shibu Jose, Dr Michael Gold

Most People live in Cities

83 percent (257 million people) live in urban areas

http://www.worldometers.info/).

Environmental and Social Degradation

3333 & Garfield Kansas City

Mo

& Garfield Kansas City MoCorner Grocery store in disrepair

adjacent to cleared, vacant

residential lots.

33 & Garfield Kansas City Mo

33rd & Garfield Kansas City Mo

Water and Food Security

Blue River oxbow eutrophication

Stadium Dr. KCMO

Mid-America Regional Council

“Urbanization has become

a major component of land-

transformation, loss of

wetlands, and deforestation

with resulting degradation

of ecosystems services

worldwide” (Grimm et al. 2000).

58 square miles mostly

within the city’s urban core

served by combined

sewers.(DOJ 2012)

KC Urban area

678 sq mi

2010 Census

EPA vs. KCMO“Kansas City, Missouri, to Spend $2.5 Billion to

Eliminate Sewer Overflows.”

“Since 2002, Kansas City has experienced approximately 1,294 illegal sewer overflows, including at least 138 unpermitted combined sewer overflows, 390 sanitary sewer overflows, and 766 backups in buildings and private properties. The overflows are in violation of the federal Clean Water Act and the terms of the city’s National Pollution Discharge

Elimination System (NPDES) permits

for operation of its sewer system.”

(DOJ 2010).

2011 USDA Agroforestry Strategic Framework (ASF)

• Suggests a focus on the integration of agroforestry with food production in urban areas.

• Adoption of agroforestry principles should start with urban populations and landscapes (USDA 2011).

Sustainable Urban Food Production Opportunity

Urban Food Forest (UFF)) Temperate Climate UFF designers use tropical Agroforestry home gardens as a model for perennial polycultures that produce:

– food,

– fuel,

– fiber,

– fodder,

– pharmaceuticals

– Ecosystems Services

– and human wellbeing

World Wide Sustainability Strategy

Woody Perennial Polycultures (WPP), modeled from multistrata agroforestry systems, are widespread in the tropics, and are being adopted as sustainable, ecologically based land use strategies in urban ecosystems worldwide

Fernandes and Nair 1986; Altieri 1999; Nair 2001; Ferguson and Lovell 2013;

Fernandez et al. 2013

Sustainability Indicators for Woody Perennial Polycultures

Ecosystems Services Benefits people derive from their Landbase

• Provisioning resources, such as of food and water;

• Regulating, such as the control of water, climate and disease;

• Supporting, such as nutrient cycles and crop pollination;

• Cultural, such as spiritual, aesthetic and recreational benefits.

Source MA (2005)

Urban ecosystems generate local and direct services.

Source: Bolund and Hunhammar (1999).

Intentionally Designed Perennial Urban Food Production

Distributed at the neighborhood landscape level local ecosystem services can be increased.

• food provisioning, biodiversity, pollinators, soil building, water retention and filtering, nutrient cycling

• Cultural ecosystems services such as food security, recreational and employment opportunities and spiritual well-being

New Temperate Agroforestry Practice?

• Urban Food Forest (UFF) was coined by Swedish researchers, Clark and Nicholas in a 2013 paper to describe a set of practices based on home gardens, community orchards and perennial urban agriculture.

– Not Forest farming

– Intentionally designed Woody Perennial Polyculture (WPP)

– Important Eco-Social development

Components of Urban Agroforestry

• Agroecology

• Agroforestry

• Permaculture

• Urban Agriculture

• Urban Forestry

Agroecology

Application of ecological concepts and principles to the design and management of sustainable agroecosystems

Focus

• Environmental and human elements of agroecosystems.

• Form, dynamics and functions of elements

• Interrelationships and processes in which they are involved

(Altieri 2000), (Gliessman, 1998).

Agroecological Design Goals• maximize beneficial interactions between

plant species

• mimicking the structural and functional relationships of natural ecosystems

• sustainable production of agronomic crops

• preserving and restoring ecosystem services

• economic viability,

• Vibrant Communities

Altieri 1999; Jacke and Toensmeier 2005; WPP Research 2014

Agroforestry

Intensive land-base management practice consisting of the integration of trees and woody perennials with agricultural crops and/or livestock.

• Intentionally managed

• Multi level optimization of components

• Long term planning

• Economic viability

(Lassoie et al. 2009)

Livestock In the Urban Landscape

Agroforestry Increasing Sustainability

“ agroforestry can show its mettle in terms of environmental sustainability, even with low use of external inputs. Sustainability can be described in terms of conserving the soil, enhancing biodiversity, conserving carbon in terrestrial ecosystems, and enhancing nutrient capture and retention.”

Sanchez, P.A. 1995 Science in agroforestry. Springer.

And Cultural Ecosystems Services

Urban Agriculture

Resilient local food system

– Organic/no till

– Distributed production – In Your Yard

– Edible landscaping/ low ecological impact landscapes

– Food Policy Coalition

– Food Hub efforts

– Kansas City Food Circle

– Mobile Farmers Market

Local Food •U.S. sales of organic products were an

estimated $28.4 billion in 2012

•Produce accounted for 43 percent of U.S.

organic food sales in 2012, *

* USDA ERS 2015

Pike Farmers Market Seattle WA.

Benefits for Neighborhoods

• “The forest garden...supplies people’s spiritual needs by its beauty and the wealth of wildlife that it attracts.”

Robert Hart 1996

• Gardening decreases

street crime

• Healthy Food availability

• Neighborhood Turn Around

Permaculture Design

“Permaculture is the conscious

design and maintenance of

agriculturally productive

ecosystems which have the

diversity, stability, and

resilience of natural ecosystems.

It is the harmonious integration of landscape and

people providing their food, energy, shelter, and

other material and non-material needs in a

sustainable way” (Mollison, 1988).

Permaculture Ethics

• Care of the Earth

• Care of the People

• Fair Share

Image from :www.permacultureprinciples.com

Neighborhood trees into lumber in Kansas City

http://urbanlumberco.com/about

Lawrence (KS)Fruit Tree Project Community Orchard

Neighborhood Orchards

Orchard at Kansas Bhutanese Community

Garden .

Giving Grove plants

‘edible tree gardens’

Green Infrastructure

Center City Neighborhood Association ‘raingarden’ bioswale 34th & Forest Kansas City, MO

Neighborhood Food ForestPermaculture design augmenting green infrastructure.

Center City Neighborhood 34th & Forest KCMO

Green infrastructure 29th & Troost Ave Kansas City Mo

Beacon Food Forest Seattle WA

Community Garden

Somali Bantu Foundation of Kansas

Kansas City Kansas

Degraded Urban site

Transformed into

Urban Biomass into Thriving Business

Missouri Organic kept 20,000 T waste out of landfills producing compost and mulches

http://www.missouriorganic.com/

Community Ecological Enterprise Hub

Propagation of native species ‘local

cultivars’ for ecological restoration

projects.

Research ?

Which rootstock best for fruit trees in

perennial polycultures

Design drawings Christopher Richards

Local businesses that have

ecological and social goals as

part of their core business

definition and mission.

Perfect for Urban Agroforesters

Sustainability Claims for Temperate Food Forests

• Overyielding systems

• Sustainable food production systems

• Lower labor inputs in the long run

UFF Research Project

• Cultivate Kansas City FF Study Area

• The 0.093 ha property is located on a large city lot (.8 ha) in Merriam Kansas.

• Established 2011

• Investigate Sustainability Indicators

• provide baseline metrics of a number of biogeochemical, ecological, agronomic and economic parameters.

Cultivate Kansas City Food Forest 2011

Cultivate Kansas City Food Forest 2015

FF Economic Indicators

First Chestnut harvested from Cultivate KC Food Forest 2014

British Permaculture Research

Permaculture Association Research Network

Geographical distribution of forest gardens in Permaculture

Association Research Network. source: Remiarz (2013)

Conclusions • Urban ecosystems can become more sustainable using

agroecological system design, agroforestry, permaculture and edible landscaping .

• These practices can lessen the ecological footprint of urban areas by increasing the production of ecosystems services.

• Urban Food Forests are valuable Eco-Cultural Agroforestry Systems

• More WPP Research needed

• Urban Agroforesters needed

Thank You

References:

Altieri, M.A. 1999. The ecological role of biodiversity in agroecosystems. Agriculture, Ecosystems & Environment, 74 (1):19-31.

Bolund, P. and S. Hunhammar 1999. Ecosystem services in urban areas. Ecological Economics. 29 (2):293-301.

Clark, K.H. and Nicholas, K.A. 2013. Introducing urban food forestry: a multifunctional approach to increase food security and provide ecosystem services. Landscape Ecology. 28 (9):1649-1669.

Fernandes, E.C. and Nair, P.R. 1986. An evaluation of the structure and function of tropical homegardens. Agricultural systems. 21 (4): 279-310.

Fernandez, M., Goodall, K., Olson, M. and Méndez, V.E. 2013. Agroecology and Alternative Agri-Food Movements in the United States: Toward a Sustainable Agri-Food System. Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems, 37 (1), 115-126.

Ferguson, R. S., and S. T. Lovell 2013. Permaculture for agroecology: design, movement, practice, and worldview A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development. 1-24. Available online at: http://link.springer.com/article/10.1007/s13593-013-0181-6#page-1; last accessed Feb. 19, 2014.

Grimm, N.B., J. G. Grove, S. T. Pickett and C. L. Redman 2000. Integrated Approaches to Long-Term Studies of Urban Ecological Systems Urban ecological systems present multiple challenges to ecologists—pervasive human impact and extreme heterogeneity of cities, and the need to integrate social and ecological

Jacke, D. and Toensmeier, E. 2005. Edible Forest Gardens, Volume I: Ecological Design And Practice for Temperate-Climate Permaculture. Chelsea Green Publishing.

MA Millennium Ecosystem Assessment 2005 Ecosystems and human well-being. Island Press Washington, DC.

Nair, P. 2001. Do tropical homegardens elude science, or is it the other way around? Agroforestry systems, 53 (2):239-245.

Permaculture Association 2014. Permaculture Association Hollybush Conservation Centre, Leeds,LS5 3BP, England. Available Online: https://www.permaculture.org.uk/ ; last accessed September 18, 2014.

Remiarz, T. 2013.Forest garden research – finding the baseline. The Permaculture Association. Available online at: https://www.permaculture.org.uk/research/forest-garden-research; last accessed November 14, 2014.

Torquebiau, E. 1992. Are tropical agroforestry home gardens

sustainable? Agriculture, ecosystems & environment, 41 (2):189-207.

USDA 2011. USDA Agroforestry Strategic Framework, Fiscal

Year 2011–2016. Available online at http://www.usda.gov/documents/AFStratFrame_FINAL-lr_6-

3-11.pdf; last accessed Feb. 20, 2014.

WPP Research (2014). Woody perennial polyculture research.

WPP Research. In: Woody Perennial Polyculture research site. http://wppresearch.org/ ; last accessed November 6, 2014.