Producing edible landscapes in Seattle's urban forest

Abstract

Over the next decades, green infrastructure initiatives such as tree planting campaigns, and ecological restoration will dramatically change the species composition, species distribution and structure of urban forests across the United States. These impending changes are accompanied by a demand for urban public spaces where people can engage in practices such as gleaning, gardening, and livestock production. This article analyzes the institutional framework that undergirds efforts in Seattle, Washington to normalize the production and use of edible landscapes. We focus attention on the role of grassroots fruit gleaning groups and highlight their bridging function between Seattle's agriculture and forestry policy arenas, creating an entry point for re-conceptualizing urban forests as sites of production. We conclude that a vision of urban forests as providers of goods as well as services may provide a more solid foundation for achieving urban sustainability than the current "hands off" approach to urban forest management. Gleaning and gathering in urban wild and cultivated landscapes provides opportunities for inhabitants to steward public natural resources and interact deeply with nature.

Urban Foraging: A Ubiquitous Human Practice Overlooked by Urban Planners, Policy, and Research

“…Some work has been conducted on the history of urban harvesting of wild and semi-wild produce, as for example, Konijnendijk's [25] research of the European context. However, as stressed by several researchers, contemporary foraging within the borders of urban and peri-urban environments receives less attention in both the developed [26] and developing worlds [4,27].…”

“…For example, work in Seattle in the US has shown that far from being unimportant, harvesting in urban green areas is practiced by many and for multiple reasons [11], such as the collection of fruit and greens for food, medicinal products, and raw materials for craft work. Furthermore, civic groups promoting citizens' rights to forage in urban green spaces are in some cities beginning to have an impact on planners and the vision statements of different authorities concerned with urban green planning [26].…”

Urbanisation, Nutrition and Food Security: A Climatological Perspective

“…The different types of urban food production systems include, but are not limited to, allotments gardens, community gardens, rooftop gardens, community orchards, as well as private gardens in household lots (McLain et al 2012 ). It is expected that these various types of gardens will have different abilities to provide health/nutrition services and storm attenuation services.…”

Eco-Efficiency Assessment and Food Security Potential of Home Gardening: A Case Study in Padua, Italy

“…Urban food demand has been satisfied by the development of conventional food systems that are based on industrialized and global supply-chains associated to environmental stresses [6]. Achieving sustainable food systems requires a renovation that promotes "in loco" [7] and environmentally-just [6] food production and consumption, and cities have become key spaces to integrate green and edible vegetation [8] for this purpose. Although urban agriculture (UA) literature…”