Peri-urban landscapes and the potential of integrated foodscapes to promote healthy communities

Abstract

Imagine living in a city that has farms, orchards, market gardens – places where our communities could access local, healthy produce and … get to know the farmer. Aotearoa New Zealand is an agricultural nation producing enough calories to feed 40 million people globally. We also, however, import enough food to feed our national population. As has happened in many countries in the Global North, New Zealand has over the last 100 years actively zoned food production out of our cities, which for nearly 90 per cent of New Zealanders is where we live, purchase and consume food. There is a clear spatial disconnect between where our food is being produced and where the majority of New Zealanders live. Our research, however, has shown that there is a strong desire by urban New Zealanders to reconnect with their food. The peri-urban zone, with its scale and proximity to urban centres offers valuable potential for communities to access local food produced close to where they live. Based on an extensive survey and design critique workshop with Greenfield residents and peri-urban growers/farmers operating within the peri-urban zone of Canterbury, New Zealand, this research has developed a set of spatial land-use typologies specific to the peri-urban zone, and which addresses the question: ‘How can landscapes for both people and production prosper within peri-urban New Zealand through spatial design, reconnecting New Zealanders with the land and with food?’ The outcome of this project is a series of urban design models for the co-existence and mutual benefit of accommodating both people and food production within peri-urban zones – spatial typologies that re-prioritise local food production and local access as a vital part of cities.