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Meals In Metropolis

What models of urban agriculture exist in Melbourne ?

How could they be improved?

Exploring food production and redistribution models in the city of Melbourne.

Increasing urbanisation in both the First and Third Worlds calls for a greater integration of nature into the city. As cities grow more compact and dense, they need to be redesigned as sites of consumption and production. Many foods are already grown in metropolitan Melbourne, and surplus food is currently distributed using a range of models. In this elective students were exposed to the breadth of urban food production and distribution models that exists within the city limits, and asked to analyse them using a series of questions.

What are the benefits and disadvantages of such models from the (economic, social, environmental, cultural) sustainability perspective? Could urban agriculture feed Melbourne’s urban population? What crops or animals could become part of the urban agriculture system?

Elective Leader: Ferne Edwards (VEIL)

Browse through the image gallery to see all the students' work.

“Thirty Tips for Sustainable Micro-brewing” Tyson Savannah

Micro-breweries are “typically small industrial operations that craft unique beer but consume a lot of power and water and often have significant levels of emissions”. Tyson has researched global examples of increased micro-brewery sustainability, and has illustrated where these changes could be made using the local Mountain Goat Brewery as an example.

“Thirty Tips for Sustainable Micro-brewing” Tyson Savannah

Key recommendations touch on topics of localism, retrofitting and new building-sustainable solutions and the use of waste materials. There’s also a great tip for behaviour change to encourage employees to ride to work!

"PermaBlitz!" Kate Steele

Permablitz is a new social innovation using backyard space for food production. It moves away from dominating themes of individualism and commercialism and instead supports the need for people to work together. In particular, it evaluates success on an ethics of production which involves people.

"PermaBlitz!" Kate Steele

Kate’s study of this new production model provides an excellent introduction, first describing its various attributes and then identifying and analysing possible areas of sustainable improvement. She discusses issues such as minimal funding and a reliance upon volunteerism - and suggests some innovative strategies to address these issues.

“From Vertical Garden to Fresh Fridge” Tilly Charles

Tilly explored the innovative potential use of Fytofoam, which is a biodegradable foam used as a growing medium for plants. It is very lightweight and could be used in vertical and roof top gardens.

“From Vertical Garden to Fresh Fridge” Tilly Charles

With the FreshFridge design, Tilly addresses the issue of growing urban density with less ability to grow-your-own by offering an indoor/ outdoor horizontal solution.

“From Vertical Garden to Fresh Fridge” Tilly Charles

“Planting in Public - Public reserves as ‘Public’ Space” Michael Littleford

Michael’s study explored the transient boundaries between public and private space - between residents’ backyards and adjacent space from public reserves in Newport. He found that some residents are extending their vegetable patches out into the public space of the reserve, and that this friendly acquisition improves the sense of community in the area rather than generating any ill-feeling.

“Planting in Public - Public reserves as ‘Public’ Space” Michael Littleford

The project raises questions of the importance of community, the social equity of space, the use of wasted space and the sometime flexible boundaries between public and private.

“Planting in Public - Public reserves as ‘Public’ Space” Michael Littleford

The shared space he discovered suggests another form of community garden – an informally-organised yet highly productive shared garden between neighbours, and led him to propose possible sites for more public, shared food plots in the area.

“The Mushroom Carpark” Ben Doherty

This exploration offers an innovative approach to redesigning car parking stations into transitionary resources which could be used for mushroom production. Ben suggests that in the short-term future there will be reduced car use due to high fuel prices and the subsequent uptake of car-sharing schemes and cycling. The ensuing reduction of car use will provide a new wasted space – car parks.

“The Mushroom Carpark” Ben Doherty

“Wild Foods: Blackberries” Haley Smolenski

“What is a weed? A plant whose virtues have never been discovered.” Ralph Waldo Emerson.

In sustainability we have to re-consider how we define value in what we consume and discard. $4 billion dollars are spent annually due to blackberry agricultural losses and management.

“Wild Foods: Blackberries” Haley Smolenski

Haley has traced the problems of current management practices, and suggests possible alternatives around foraging (which is gaining popularity in the UK and Europe) and food production.

Previous management plans have used poisons, resulting in difficulties with the transition of the blackberry from weed to resource, making this a complex proposal to implement.

“The Observatory Café” Georgie Cummings

Georgie’s work is based on the kitchen-garden/restaurant model, illustrated by The Observatory Café in the Botanical Gardens. The concept supports localised food production, reducing the need for transportation and associated environmental costs.

“The Observatory Café” Georgie Cummings

Georgie suggests retrofitting rather than overhauling the restaurant for increased sustainability.
She reconsiders how the garden “fits within” the restaurant space, suggesting ways that it could be brought into the dining area as opposed to remaining hidden behind the kitchen.

“The Mobile Market” Brittany Carver

The Gembrook Sustainability Market is a food and artisan market which incorporates many sustainability principles - stallholders must only use recycled materials and sell either pre-made recycled objects, made recycled objects or home-grown and home-cooked produce. Produce sold at the market travels directly from farmer/maker to consumer.

Brittany identified two current problems: the market isn’t open often enough to meet the community’s needs, and much of the locally-grown food is exported.

Brittany proposes “The Mobile Market” for the provision of greater access to fresh, affordable food produced in the local area. Her work raises issues such as context and the transportation of food (should we transport food less, more or simply use different methods?), access to affordable, healthy food for people with busy lifestyles and the contrast between supermarket and farmers’ market accessibility.