Bringing food production much
closer to home makes sense.
As our
population becomes more urbanised,
the environmental and financial impacts
of transporting produce to our suburbs
have risen.
Meanwhile, traditional
agricultural belts are facing the...
More
Bringing food production much
closer to home makes sense.
As our
population becomes more urbanised,
the environmental and financial impacts
of transporting produce to our suburbs
have risen.
Meanwhile, traditional
agricultural belts are facing the challenges
of water shortages, climate extremes and
declining land productivity, while onceproductive land on the urban fringe is
being increasingly developed for housing
and other infrastructure.
This all coincides
with concerns about the health and
environmental impacts of large-scale
commercial agriculture.
Until the Second World War, when
advances were made in synthesising
fertiliser, most people grew at least some of
their own food.
They kept a few hens, had
fruit trees and large veggie patches.
Scraps
were fed to the chickens, or composted and
mixed with animal manure then returned
to the soil.
Backyard food production was
labour-intensive but highly productive,
and supplemented by produce from
market gardens and smallholdings on
Less
