2023 Freetown DAT Report - Flipbook - Page 45
Freetown DAT
The Edible City
Cities across the globe are facing issues with food
supply with global urbanization. Urban food distribution
networks are dependent on complex supply chains that
are vulnerable to major disruption from a number of
externalities. As a result, many urban communities have
been experimenting with urban agriculture.
Food insecurity is a near-universal challenge for
Freetown and Sierra Leone. “81 percent of Sierra
Leonean households were unable to meet their basic
food and nutrition needs and an additional 15 percent
were severely food insecure and needed emergency
food assistance” (Food Security Monitoring System
analysis 2022). Freetown is experiencing dramatic inmigration as rural residents flee acute poverty for the
economic mobility that urbanization is providing, but
food insecurity is a real challenge. Urban agriculture
is already widespread in Freetown, with women
representing an estimated 80% of urban farmers.
Some of the challenges that they face include land
tenure, access to clean water, limited capital for
purchasing tools, fertilizers and related barriers. Kissy
Junction, and perhaps some other station sites, could
allow an intentional strategy to build in significant
investments in community agriculture and garden plots.
Urban agriculture represents a potent communitybuilding strategy when structured in a model that
allows community members to hold shares in a
distributed ownership model that benefits citizens at
a neighborhood scale by sharing equally in collective
yields. In Freetown, the Treetown campaign provides
another existing innovative model that has demonstrated
success in linking paid labor through technology to
provide community benefits.
Possible partners to initiate an urban agriculture
initiative could include the New England Women’s
Farming Association of Freetown and the Twenty-First
Century African Youth Movement (AYM).
Possible resources include the Edible Cities Network.
The network promotes edible city initiatives around the
world via pilot cities, sharing of best practices and a host
of related resources. As they describe themselves, “The
whole group consists of 32 partners with representatives
from local city administrations, Non-Governmental
Organisations (NGOs), Small and Medium Enterprises
(SMEs) and other Edible City Solutions around the
world.” The network consists of urban communities in
Europe, Africa, Latin America and East Asia working
together to build a better world for everybody in the
cities.
While the following case studies are not comparable
contexts to Freetown, they do provide adaptable models
that would suit an urban agriculture initiative in the city
and demonstrate the benefits of effective deployment
of volunteer-based urban agriculture as a communitybuilding strategy with economic development benefits.
Todmorden, UK: The Incredible Edible Movement
Local civic leaders in Todmorden launched the Incredible
Edible movement in 2007, which is now a global
movement spanning over 700 cities in 25 countries
– illustrating how the model can be adapted across
many contexts. Their organization is all-volunteer and
has planted open spaces and other areas all over their
city with edible plants of all kinds. The food is free for
anyone to harvest. Over 90%of residents are aware of
Incredible Edible. According to civic leaders, nearly 50%
of their citizens report that Incredible Edible has had a
positive impact on their income. Another 46% of local
food businesses said that Incredible Edible has had a
positive impact on their sales. Two new social enterprises
have been created to grow local food as a result. They
have expanded their plantings incrementally and now
grow food on 9,763 sqm of land. They’ve also increased
the production of the land, increasing total produce
output by 37%. They have also complemented the
core of their work – food plantings – with placemaking
and public art that reflects a key mantra of the town:
kindness. They say “our currency is kindness,” and they
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organize community plantings, educational events and
food and community events of all kinds. Todmorden’s
focus on creating an edible city has made them an
international sensation and a destination for visitors.
They now have an official tour map of their edible city
and have given 60 tours for over 1,000 visitors in the
past year alone.
Newport, Vermont: Building Momentum
In 2009, a Design Assistance Team worked with the
small city of Newport, Vermont. The city is in an isolated
rural region called the Northeast Kingdom, and they
struggled with unemployment and dire community
needs – including access to fresh food. During the
community process, it became clear that there was
high interest in having access to community gardens
and starting an urban agriculture initiative. Following
the DAT’s recommendations, a local property owner
donated a downtown parking lot for the initiative,
and local businesses donated materials that allowed
volunteers to establish the first community garden in
Newport. Families were given plots in the garden and
provided with skills and training. As more participation
in the garden built momentum, some local restaurants
began to source fresh produce directly from the garden.
New restaurants began to open downtown and a new
food festival was organized annually. Today, the town
boasts a full community farming initiative with gardens
throughout the community and a downtown market that
highlights local producers and attracts tourism.
Seattle, United States
Seattle’s experience demonstrates how volunteer
initiatives can be carried out effectively at a citywide
scale. In the 1990s, the City of Seattle developed a
neighborhood council system and an initiative with
residents to utilize local volunteers to encourage
neighborhood-driven projects. Through this program,
they were able to mobilize incredible contributions
from across the community. Over 30,000 citizens
participated in developing neighborhood plans across
37 different communities. Tens of thousands of people
participated in implementing over 2,000 community
projects. These projects catalyzed over US $100 million
in investment in the city. Surveys showed that 43%
of adults regularly volunteered their time for their
community and 62% participated in one neighborhood
or community organization.
