The many facets of urban farming

Oxymoron: a figure of speech that brings together two seemingly contradictory terms. This is the case for “urban farming”, began Xavier Laureau, a pioneer in the field and co-manager of the Ferme de Gally, speaking at the “Agricultures Urbaines du 21^e Siècle” (Urban farming in the 21^st century) conference, organised by the Sustainable development and transverse innovation department (DDDIT), on Monday 19 May 2017, at the Pierre Berger campus.
 
The paradox is real enough. Cities have tended to exclude farming activities within their boundaries and even, with urban sprawl, monopolise agricultural land to the extent that it is estimated that every seven years, an area the size of a French “département” is urbanised.
 
 
FROM SUBSISTENCE FARMING TO VEGETABLE FACTORIES
But now a reverse trend is beginning to develop, to the point that urban farming is being hailed as a new Eldorado. The term in fact covers a wide variety of extremely diverse activities. Xavier Laureau drew attention to the “wide gap” between the subsistence farming or social and solidarity-based economic developments and the high-tech multifunctional farms or vegetable factories. “Creating a simple ‘nature experience’ is one thing, developing an organised sector capable of ensuring food security for a city is quite another. The cost of production can range from 1 euro to 200 euros per square metre depending on the circumstances, which does not allow for the same return on investment,” he explained.
At the same time, he noted that there is a “real need for food-producing green spaces” and imagines in the future semi-urban and/or intra-urban farms, capable of providing virtuous short circuits in terms of produce supply. “Sustainable urban farming solutions are necessarily multi-functional, multi-technical and multi-actor,” he added.
On the other hand, Agnès Sourisseau, a farmer and landscape gardener, promotes agro-forestry: deforestation and bare ground contributes to the risk of flooding, whereas maintaining trees provides a means for storing carbon and encourages biodiversity. “In any event, urban farming in the 21st century rhymes with plurality”, confirmed Iswann Ali Benali, head of sustainable cities and urban farming at the Sustainable development department (DDDIT).
 
 
SMART FARMING – A WIDE SCOPE FOR INNOVATION AT EIFFAGE ENERGIE
As a result, numerous initiatives are emerging.
Eiffage Énergie, for example, has created significant “smart farming” related business opportunities in semi-urban farming, by developing natural gas cogeneration units for market gardens, explained Jean-Jacques Pince, regional manager of Eiffage Énergie in Bordeaux, and Gilles Marguerat, agency manager.
Eiffage Énergie Thermie Aquitaine, which operates 83 cogeneration units throughout France representing a total of 286 MW, pointed out that “higher agricultural yield is not synonymous with poor quality”. Eiffage Énergie plans to expand its offer to include horticultural and market garden greenhouses, focusing in particular on wood cogeneration as a complement to gas cogeneration. The use of new technologies is also being studied. Jean-Michel Batto, designer of the IT system at Eiffage Énergie Télécom, demonstrated how new sensors can enable significant productivity gains by measuring water stress in vines for example. Similarly, the use of drones and autonomous robots in fields can facilitate farm management.
 
AN ASSET FOR URBAN DEVELOPMENT PROJECTS
A source of new developments, urban farming can also be an asset for urban development projects. Eiffage Concessions is integrating urban farming into its proposals like, for example, the development of a major business cluster in the Plaine de France area just north of Paris. In Tremblay-en-France (Seine-Saint-Denis), teams led by Emmanuel Gazeau, development manager at Eiffage Concessions, have built a new 15-hectare zone surrounding a sports and cultural events centre, which combines sport, health and nutrition by recreating the link between the population and farming activities and by promoting short circuits.
Applauding the enterprising nature of the agricultural sector, Emmanuel Gazeau highlighted that investment funds are being set up within the agriculture and timber industries, which is helping to facilitate financing. The difficulty lies more with local elected officials, as it is sometimes hard to convince them to go further than just building the equipment; sometimes you have to go straight to the ministries in question or the Greater Paris municipal authorities.
 
At the same time, Eiffage Aménagement is integrating urban farming into new urban developments like the Parc d’Affaires business park in Asnières-sur-Seine in the Hauts-de-Seine region (30 hectares, ultimately accommodating 25,000 residents and workers), which combines production, social and well-being functions. 1.7 hectares of roof space will be used to create terraces for growing produce and shared gardens, combining better quality of life with an economic activity, and not forgetting the benefits in terms of learning opportunities and the community. And the results are tangible: four urban farmers will be employed and 30,000 bottles of fruit juice and 7,000 trays of berries will be produced, explained Antoine Guibourge from the Mugo design office.
 
Similarly, the business park in Châtenay-Malabry will include several agricultural programmes, with one hectare being dedicated to urban farming, a large prairie and farm planned, and a general market hall installed to allow the packaging and sale of produce.
 
The full conference is available in the sustainable development section on the intranet site:
https://groupeeiffage.sharepoint.com/sites/dd/Pages/conferences-Innovation-Transverse.aspx