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Where have all the houses (among other things) gone? Some critical reflections on urban agriculture

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  22 January 2014

Laura B. DeLind
Laura B. DeLind*
Affiliation:
Department of Anthropology, Michigan State University, East Lansing, Michigan, USA
*
* Corresponding author: delind@msu.edu
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Abstract

Urbandale Farm (Lansing, MI) has much in common with other urban agricultural projects throughout the US and especially those in the rust-belt cities of the Midwest. It raises food for an economically challenged neighborhood. It offers opportunities for local participation, education and job creation, and it is supported by diverse public and private institutions. By all official accounts, Urbandale Farm is good at what it does. Its acreage, production, income and entrepreneurial activities are all increasing, and it has become a poster child for urban agriculture throughout the city. However, despite its good work (or possibly because of it), Urbandale Farm, and urban agriculture more generally, may unwittingly be helping to rationalize the displacement and continued social and political inequity of urban neighbors rather than reinforcing greater place-making, neighborhood empowerment and sustainability. Using Urbandale Farm as a case in point, this paper critically explores how urban agriculture is being used by some scholars, activists, governmental offices and agencies to transform fragile neighborhoods. It questions some of the movement's underlying assumptions as well as some of its actual benefits and beneficiaries. The paper also offers suggestions—for the purpose of initiating a more nuanced conversation—on how urban agriculture can be reconfigured philosophically and practically to shed its neoliberal tendencies and contribute to a more structurally based social and political transformation.

Keywords

urban agricultureMidwestcritical reflectionneoliberal tendenciessocial transformation
Type
Commentary for Themed Content: Urban Agriculture
Information
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Volume 30 , Special Issue 1: Innovations and Trends in Sustainable Urban Agriculture , February 2015 , pp. 3 - 7
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2015 

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