11 Urban farming in Tokyo
Toward an urban-rural hybrid city
Toru Terada, Makoto Yokohari, and
Mamoru AmemiyaWhy agro-activities?
The Brooklyn Grange, situated in the middle of Brooklyn, New York, is an
approximately 1-ha rooftop farm overlooking the Manhattan skyline that produces
23 tons of organic produce annually (Brooklyn Grange 2014). Meanwhile, far
removed from New York, situated in Nerima ward in the Asian metropolis of
Tokyo, the popularity of Taiken Noen (Hands-on Farming), where participants
grow produce while receiving instruction from farmers, continues to increase.
Urban residents grow vegetables in the 1,300 or so plots on 12 farms in Nerima
Ward, comprising a combined area of approximately 5 ha (Nerima Ward 2009).
At present, such agro-activities or urban farming are increasingly being
incorporated into urban lifestyles around the world (Viljoen 2005; Hou, Johnson,
and Lawson 2009; Gorgolewski, Komisar, and Nasr 2011; Tracey 2011). These
forms of productive gardening differ from conventional “agriculture” engaged
in by farmers for the purpose of crop production on large-scale farms but entail
agricultural production activities that are primarily carried out by non-farmer
urban residents with emphasis not only on production but also value in terms of
health, environmental conservation, and social participation. It has been pointed
out that this simultaneous interest in such activities around the world is underlain
by a number of universal benefits of urban farming that contribute to the resolution
of various problems facing large cities (Guitart, Pickering, and Byrne 2012). For
example, the social benefits of such activities include environmental education
for children and young people, improved food security, revitalization of the local
community, engaging the elderly as productive citizens, and crime reduction
(Okvat and Zautra 2011; Bendt, Barthel, and Colding 2013). The economic
benefits include revitalization of the local economy through the direct sales of
produce at produce stands, the supply of affordable foods, beneficial impacts on
family finances resulting from self-production, and the offering of employment
opportunities (Blair, Giesecke, and Sherman 1991; Voicu and Been 2008; Ladner
2011). The ecological benefits include improvement of urban flooding (flooding due
to local runoff) through the maintenance of permeable land and urban ecosystems
through habitat creation, urban soil improvement through the cultivation of vacant
lots, and awareness of food systems ecology (Goddard, Dougill, and Benton 2010;
Aubry et al. 2012; Yadav, Duckworth, and Grewal 2012).