Lofty ambitions for food planning
by Katrina Kalleske
UniSA graduate Elise Harris has recently returned from exploring the colourful range of food production in Singapore from community gardens, green roofs and planter boxers. She is hoping her research will help to change the Singapore Government’s food production policies.
At the moment, only 10 per cent of Singapore’s food is produced in the country. Armed with a Bachelor of Urban and Regional Planning with Honours, Harris received a fellowship from the Singapore Institute of Planners to look at producing food on green roofs in Singapore. However, once she arrived in Singapore, she realised there was plenty of land on the ground that could be used for urban agriculture and subsequently changed the focus of her research.
"I looked instead at a variety of food production methods such as food-producing buildings, community gardens, planter boxes in apartment blocks, green roofs and green walls," Harris said.
"The Government in Singapore is keen to increase the security of its food supply and is doing this by increasing the number of countries they import food from as well as buying land in other countries.
"I am arguing that Singapore can also increase its food security by producing more food locally. The big advantage of this over imported food is that it is more resilient to oil price increases, as less oil is used for transport.
"There are other advantages too such as the recreational value of community gardens, as well as bringing people together; greens walls and roofs are good insulators and reduce stormwater run-off; and balcony planter boxers increase visual amenity."
Harris presented her findings to the Singapore Institute of Planners during her visit and said the work was a little controversial for them as the issues she talked about such as food security, peak oil and climate change weren’t really on their radar yet.
The Urban Planner, who discovered food systems planning while writing her thesis, said food is beginning to become a bigger issue for her profession.
"Planners are now starting to realise that people need access to affordable and healthy food. There are only a few projects in Australia looking at the link between the built environment and food production but it is a matter of increasing concern for the public."
While Harris has many ideas about what could be done in Adelaide in regards to city planning and the impact on food production (she believes the 30-year plan for Adelaide reduces food security), she is turning her attention to regional Western Australia for now where she has recently started a job as town planner at the seaside Shire of Esperance.
She has been busy developing new landscaping, home occupation, wind turbine and solar panel policies, and has plenty of ideas for other projects.
"I am hoping to implement some projects to relocalise the food system which could be urban agriculture, farmer’s markets, community gardens or backyard gardens," Harris said.
"I am also looking at ways to decrease the greenhouse gas emissions from our electricity use by implementing energy efficient projects and by encouraging renewable energy generation.
"There may be scope to develop a biomass energy plant here but I have to do more work to figure out what would be the best option."