Geschichte und Theorie der Landschaftsarchitektur Prof. Dr. Stefanie Hennecke

Differences between urban agriculture in Latin America and Europe - Examples: Medellin and Helsinki Part 1: Medellin

Seminar : Urbane Landwirtschaft und Landschaftsarchitektur

Theodoro Mezger | 030838696. March 2013

Introduction

In this paper two cities are going to be analyzed, explained and compared regarding their urban agriculture context: Medellin, as an example of a developing city and Helsinki, as an example of a developed city. These examples reflect the reality of two extremes within the world, which are intended to analyze. Many individuals throughout the world are talking about guerrilla gardening, urban agriculture, gardening and farming and it has become the latest trend to grow your own garden. The alimentation problem is becoming quite big in the world, the aliments are not equal reachable for everyone and the prices and quality scare us. The goal is to understand the cultural background, the intention of the existing projects regarding urban farming, and the way people and governments are handling these themes. The differences between both countries (geographical, political, and cultural) make the similarities and the common purposes of the projects more interesting to analyze.

Background

Medellín, officially called the Municipio de Medellín (Spanish for Municipality of Medellín), is the second largest city in Colombia. It is located in the Aburrá Valley, one of the northernmost of the Andes in South America. In 2012, it had a population of 2.7 million. With its surrounding area, the metropolitan area of Medellín (área metropolitana de Medellín), composed by another nine cities, is the second largest urban agglomeration in Colombia in terms of population and economy, with more than 3.5 million people 1.

In the 80’s Medellin was known as one of the most dangerous cities in the world due to the intern drug war happening in Colombia. As the consequence of this, a lot of farmers and countrymen were forced to move into the cities and settled themselves in the margins forming precarious areas. The growth of these marginal communities in slums of Medellin’s urban areas started affecting the shape and development of the city. Most of the populations settled in these areas are IDP’s (Internally

21 http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Medell%C3%ADn

FIgure 1.

FIgure 1: comparison between poverty and unemployemen (pobreza y desempleo), gross domestic product (Valoracion PIB) and poverty impact (Incidencia de la pobreza) for Medellín

Displaced Persons) as described by UN-Habitat reports. Due to above factors, nowadays, the city is one of the most unequal cities in the world, with a Gini coefficient of 0,54 points. As an consequence of this, the difference of human development index between the best neighborhood and the worst slum is about -18%. From 2001 to 2011 the extreme poverty index has a change of -4% 2. Graphic 1. makes a comparison between poverty and unemployemen (pobreza y desempleo), gross domestic product (Valoracion PIB) and poverty impact (Incidencia de la pobreza) for Medellín. Nevertheless, the city is today a model for social and urban development, awarded 2008 with the Holcim Golden Award for Urban Planning in Latin-America 3 and in 2013 with the city of the year, making it the most innovative city in the world.

Helsinki is the capital and largest city of Finland. It is in the region of Uusimaa, located in southern Finland, on the shore of the Gulf of Finland, an arm of the Baltic Sea. The population of the city proper of Helsinki is 602,200 (30 September 2012), making it by far the most populous municipality in Finland. Helsinki is located some 80 kilometers (50 mi) north of Tallinn, Estonia, 400 kilometers (250 mi) east of Stockholm, Sweden, and 300 kilometers (190 mi) west of Saint Petersburg, Russia. Helsinki has close historical connections with these three cities.

Project description

About ten years ago, the city of Medellín started a new social policy with the purpose to improve the quality of life of the inhabitants. Most of the available economic resources were used to help the precarious areas, were the people need them the most.An example of this is the Metro Cable, which is a gondola system that connects the slums with the main metro system and thus with the whole city. Leisure, housing, environment and public space are other aspects, that all together with the transportation generate the Master plan Medellin 2030, also called as Bio 2030. This project is planned and impulsed by the mayoralty of Medellin, with cooperation of the URBAM center (Centro de estudios urbanos y ambientales)4.

However, one of the specific problems is born from the lack of waste management in the slums. The streets are so narrow there and the construction of the non formal houses are so unorganized, that the city is unable to offer a proper waste collecting service. The improper placement of the waste leads to several health problems and natural catastrophes.It’s also important to emphasize that this problem is also combined with famine, that is sadly present in every Latin-American city, caused by the poorness and the low income of the inhabitants.

According to this, Corantioquia (Responsible for managing, protecting and promoting the ecological resources of the State) started 10 years ago a pilot project that intends to solve these problems in a

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2 http://www.medellin.gov.co/irj/go/km/docs/wpccontent/Sites/Subportal%20del%20Ciudadano/Plan%20de%20Desarrollo/Secciones/Información%20General/Documentos/DesarrolloEconomico/publicaciones/Boletin%20Mercado%20Laboral%20%202012/Pobreza%20y%20Condiciones%20de%20Vida%20de%20los%20Habitantes%20de%20Medell%C3%ADn,%202011.pdf

3 http://www.holcimfoundation.org/T1644/Urban_integration_of_an_informal_area_Colombia.htm

4 http://www.eafit.edu.co/centros/urbam/Paginas/urbam.aspx

FIgure 2: typical constructions of the zone

multifunctional project. The project is called Solares ecológicos which means “ecological plots”. With plots are meant the roofs of the typical constructions of the zone. (Figure 2) They construct with the possibility of enhance the dwelling upwards in case of some familiar moves in. The plots have been always an important area for the inhabitants, on which they dry the laundry, grow some plants and when the area is big enough, kids are tempted to play.

The project intends to allow this population to be self-sustainable, cultivating and selling their own products, using organic waste management as fertilizer and energy generator. The impact of this urban agriculture in the urban landscape helps to improve not only alimentary needs but also life quality and environmental protection. In this way, the new inhabitants of these territories learn how to integrate with the surrounding communities and be productive in the city. The strategy they are using to cope this problem is the implementation of “ecological plots and roofs”, together with an environmental education campaign in this areas, allowing these communities to develop an ethical culture of the territory, increasing community participation in environmental and economical enterprises.

Urban agriculture provides a complementary strategy to reduce urban poverty and food insecurity and enhance urban environmental management.The levels of hunger and poverty in the city require the development of policies and actions to increase the supply and household access to basic food, safe and sufficient. Urban agriculture plays an important role in enhancing urban food security since the costs of supplying and distributing food to urban areas based on rural production and imports continue to increase, and do not satisfy the demand, especially of the poorer sectors of the population. Next to food security, urban agriculture contributes to local economic development, poverty alleviation and social inclusion of the urban poor and women in particular, as well as to the greening of the city and the productive reuse of urban wastes.

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FIgure 3: An example of an ecological plot “Solares ecologicos”

Growing your own food saves household expenditures on food; poor people in poor countries generally spend a substantial part of their income (50 ‒ 70%) on food. Growing the relatively expensive vegetables therefore saves money as well as on bartering of produce. Selling produce (fresh or processed) brings in cash.

Urban agriculture is part of the urban ecological system and can play an important role in the urban environmental management system. Firstly, a growing city will produce more and more wastewater and organic wastes. Urban agriculture can help to solve such problems by turning urban wastes into a productive resource.

Urban agriculture may function as an important strategy for poverty alleviation and social integration and also Women may profit from this due to the positive stimulus it may bring. Several examples exist of municipalities or NGOs that have initiated urban agriculture projects that involve disadvantaged groups such as orphans, disabled people, women, recent immigrants without jobs, or elderly people, with the aim to integrate them more strongly into the urban network and to provide them with a decent livelihood. The participants in the project may feel enriched by the possibility of working constructively, building their community, working together and in addition producing food and other products for consumption and for sale.

Project implementation in Medellin

In this manner, the people from Corantioquia wrote a book, a guide for the slums inhabitants where they can learn how to improve their environment as they use their plots and the available resources. With the PRISA methodology (percibir el entorno, reconstruir la historia, imaginar el futuro, socializar resultados y ejecutar compromisos) which translate “perceiving the environment, reconstructing the history, imagine the future, socialize and implement commitments results” Corantioquia started 2004 working with 2000 IDP’s of certain regions in Medellin that separate, manage, transform and use the waste solids, reducing by 60% the pollution load per family to be disposed in the Landfill. What they are aiming with the book is to increase levels of community participation in environmental management with emphasis on the management, use and disposal of domestic waste and the adoption of agroecological practices more friendly to the environment. They are working directly with the families which need it the most.

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FIgure 4: Growing tomatoes on a ecological plot with recycled pots and compost

So not only the macro aspects are being treated, but specific themes like waste management and recycling, feeding and education. They formed a group of experts that visit the communities and offer them sort of workshops, with very explicit themes:How to reuse plastic bags, containers and other kind of plastic waste to make pots for growing plants.How to make biological fungicides and pesticides only from waste resourcesHow to make fertilizer with the help of earthworms and how to feed them with, for example, potato skins. How to prepare the products, especially for children alimentation (healthy dietary practices).How to store these products and give them a long validity. How and where to sell the surpluses and profit from them.

Thesis:

The plots and roofs of the constructions in the slums of Medellin bring a new way of thinking. Means, every square meter which was used to construct is now available again, with enough sun and water. With the proper structural analysis, this can be a good way to see the city greener and solve the issues that were treated in this paper. The starting point is already there, the municipality is investing in the project and the people are very engaged liking it.

Although it sounds very functional and idealistic, there are still some aspects that needed to be reviewed. Despite the aliments are produced on a base of biological principles, the plants are still exposed to city pollution and acid rain. Consequently, there must be a proper research on what plants

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FIgure 5 Woman involved in the project taking care of her ecological plot

are really profitable and strong enough for the conditions. Urban agriculture could be in a bigger scale a competition to regular rural agriculture. Also, the legal restrictions are a moot point and have to be discussed. I believe the municipality should look very close this projects, because improper handling can lead to more, or bigger problems. Another aspect could be the dispute between urban agriculture and urbanization. These last two aspects leads to the thesis: Do they have the same intentions regarding urban gardening in Medellín and Helsinki? The answer is no.

So, is the concept urban agriculture applicable for every sort of urban/home grown veggie? Are they aiming the same in finland and in colombia when they start one of such projects? No.Urban farming and urban gardening, are indeed two different concepts. We realized that the proper name for what’s happening in Medellin should be called Urban Farming, because the main aim is economical. People are looking here for an alternative way to survive in the economic crisis. What the municipality trying to solve are the waste management problems. In contrast to this, what is happening in Helsinki is more a social movement.

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