Given the stark reality that we are now in a time of deficit spending of the earth’s capital, it is imperative that we regard our economic systems as inextricably bound to ecosystems. The two words, ecology and economy— in fact, are derived from the same Greek root: eco, which means house.  Food systems are a primary example of the interaction of the two disciplines, and a closer look at food through the dual lenses of ecology and economy reveals many startling inefficiencies and even absurdities in how we currently grow, produce, distribute, consume and dispose of food.

Studying the lessons of wild ecosystems provides some valuable direction for redesigning efficient and non-depleting methods and practices for feeding humans.  As clever as we are, we have not yet developed technological processes that are better than nature for renewability.  All human-designed products and processes require a draw-down of the earth’s capital stock.  Wild ecosystems, in contrast, build organic material and resist stresses, performing this work on contemporary sunlight (as opposed to that embodied in fossil fuels) indefinitely and for free.

We have millennia of wisdom – embodied in wild ecosystems and human thought and experimentation – from which to learn.  To cite just one example, the practice of milpa agriculture in Mesoamerica has evolved over hundreds of generations into a mutually beneficial network whereby farmers temporally and spatially shift the growth of maize to feed local populations while sequentially regenerating small forest areas.

In our rapidly urbanizing world, can we design cities that more closely emulate dynamic and productive ecosystems like the milpa?  Perhaps agriculture, reinvented as a form of urban infrastructure, could offer such promise, particularly if combined with the multiple synergies of food production, biomass creation, CO² reduction and sequestration, nutrient recycling, resource renewal and purification, economic revitalization and social vitality.

Author Carolyn Steel will kick-off a day of discussions about these issues at Transforming Cities: How Food Systems Shape Cities on May 2 by explaining her concept of Sitopia (food-place), an integrated design tool with which to address the complex challenges of present and future dwelling. We hope you will join us.

Check out this podcast and transcript of an interview with the Executive Chef at the National Geographic HQ in DC.  It speaks to the commitment of a progressive organization, but also talks frankly about the challenges of greening a food service for up to 1,000 people a day.  From Executive Chef Brian Horne:

“Last year . . . we were actually able to generate a below-budgeted food cost, which was really, to me, a metric that showed it can be done.  It took a lot of work just to track down and find sources, and all of those things, but, at the end of the year, we actually were better in our food costs than when we were not as sustainable the year before.”

Image: Dan

A fascinating piece on the Forbes CSR blog about a new model of cattle grazing developed by the Savory Institute. It’s always amazing to me, the things we don’t know. Humans have been grazing cattle for a millenia. Maybe these grazing technique discoveries are things that we “knew” in generations past and have forgot. But it is still incredible how much there is for us to learn- even about stuff ubiquitous to our lives. I can’t help but wonder what other innovations lay in wait for us if only we turn over the right stones. Remember this story the next time you run headlong into the inertia that boxes us in every day, the simple desire to keep doing things the way we always have. From Capital Institute founder John Fullerton, who has invested significant sums in the Savory holistic management grazing model:

“We have a case study here of true wealth creation… We are building biodiversity, soil fertility, sequestering carbon, and generating financial returns. And if my belief of what will happen to ecosystem services plays out, we will make a lot more money with these assets than with most financial assets.”

The farmers’ market at Fort Greene Park, Brooklyn

Michael Pollan has a fantastic survey of the rapidly growing food movement in the current New York Review of Books. As always, Pollan manages to illuminate a subject with many moving parts in a very small space.

He delivers a succinct history of the movement and describes the many facets of food activism, from environmental to public health issues to more esoteric but no less important subjects like community and democracy.  He points out that this breadth makes it an attractive focus for people on both the left and right of the political divide- one of the many reasons it is a subject with the capacity to really transform the political landscape.  Perhaps most importantly, he points out that locavore tendencies are often rooted in a desire to reformulate traditional consumer culture.  His finish is pretty good as well . . .

. . . food is invisible no longer and, in light of the mounting costs we’ve incurred by ignoring it, it is likely to demand much more of our attention in the future, as eaters, parents, and citizens. It is only a matter of time before politicians seize on the power of the food issue, which besides being increasingly urgent is also almost primal, indeed is in some deep sense proto- political. For where do all politics begin if not in the high chair?—at that fateful moment when mother, or father, raises a spoonful of food to the lips of the baby who clamps shut her mouth, shakes her head no, and for the very first time in life awakens to and asserts her sovereign power.

Local and sustainable food is a subject fairly well outside our focus here at Urban Green, where our eyes are typically trained on green buildings.  But of course most folks in both camps are pulling in the same direction.  We all want to reduce our impact on the environment and support systems that enable healthy (in every sense of the word) communities.  In recognition of this synergy, and cognizant that our shared missions are rarely discussed or acted upon, last year we developed a really remarkable event called Hungry New York.  We gathered 100 folks from both the local/sustainable food and green building communities for a local meal.  The audience included architects, farmers, bakers, engineers and everyone in between.  Hosted by City Bakery, our master of ceremony was English architect and author Carolyn Steel, whose book Hungry City: How Food Shapes Our Lives was the inspiration for both the title and content of our event.  With a short talk from Carolyn as catalyst the dinner spurred myriad discussions and I am happy to report that a number of partnerships were formed that evening- resulting in quite a few unexpected collaborations.  It was a huge success and we are hoping to hold the second such event this October- and with any luck we’ll have Carolyn to lead the way once again.  Look out for more details in this space.