Urban Gardening and Rural-Urban Supply Chains: Reassessing Images of the Urban and the Rural in Northern Vietnam

Abstract

This chapter explores the sites of production of what consumers in Vietnam perceive to be clean and safe vegetables, that is, urban gardens in Hanoi and rural areas. Adhering to the historical continuity of home gardens, the chapter identifies a semantic shift of gardens from aesthetics to utility in the light of food anxiety. Furthermore, the chapter examines the terms of access to and social control over public and sacred spaces used for gardening. Apart from urban gardening, urbanites draw on personal networks of rural-urban food supply to ensure food safety. The chapter suggests that the rural emerges as a signifier of safe foods based on the prevailing image of the countryside in Vietnam as the place of intimate social relations and contact with nature.

The Provision and Accessibility to Parks in Ho Chi Minh City: Disparities along the Urban Core—Periphery Axis

“…In addition, the quality of existing parks should also be improved, as the latter are generally deteriorated or poorly equipped. In new planned urban areas, we can imagine new ways of creating open and green spaces, for example land reserved for parks can be designed into vegetable gardens and managed by local residents, as urban food growing is increasingly popular in Vietnamese cities because of food safety concerns [69]. HCMC could also use the canals and rivers, which are evenly distributed throughout the city, to compensate for its lack of parks.…”

Grow at home, buy local: (De)commodifying 'rural' vegetables and herbs

“…Important is the reference to the countryside that is considered a purveyor of safe and fresh produce (Kurfürst, 2019: 223). The idea that 'rural' produce is clean and safe, moreover, appears to be a driving force, when urbanites attain their supplies with agricultural products from kin or friends residing in the countryside (Kurfürst, 2019;Wertheim-Heck and Spaargaren, 2016). Such an appraisal of trust-based relationships and the countryside hint towards the different evaluative techniques urbanites apply to assess food safety.…”

“…By contrast, the outer space comprises a small rooftop terrace, on which the house's facilities such as the reservoir for fresh water and the air conditioning are located. With the striving for clean and safe food this outer space, is increasingly used to cultivate vegetables and herbs (Kurfürst, 2019). These spaces of cultivation signify the house owner's wealth.…”

“…Often a development plan already exists. Yet, as long as the constructions have not started, this kind of interim usage is tolerated by the authorities (Kurfürst, 2019). 4 That is how urban dwellers make use and sense of the urban green surrounding them.…”

“…1 This paper presents urbanites responses to these perceived dangers with empirical reference to urban Vietnam. In Vietnamese cities residents, particularly members of the urban middle class, are increasingly in search of 'clean and safe vegetables' (rau sạch, rau an tòan) (Kurfürst, 2019).…”