Urban guerrilla 7 expands arable land and provides bento for cities.

Share +1 Tweet Email

Wen/Zheng Yanwei Gorilla Green Guerrilla

Nowadays, eating outside is very dangerous. Eating fast food and frying may cause cancer if you are not careful. If the lunch is too oily and salty, you will get heart disease and high blood pressure. Even more terrible, you may drink poisonous milk plasticizer.

As we all know, if there is a way to spare some time, cook some home-cooked dishes and bring a lunch box, it is really safer and healthier for the body. If these vegetables are grown by themselves, it will be even more ramming!

The same applies to cities. Although cities are densely populated and must rely on trade and transportation networks to supply their daily needs, relying too much on imported food is like serving up their own health. If we can keep some farmland in the city and provide local food, it will be like cooking our own food, and we can also pack lunch for the city.

In recent years, a new concept of thinking has emerged around the world. It is called "landscape delicious". The technical term is "edible landscape".

The so-called landscape, small from your balcony, large to metropolitan park, suburban forest, can be included. In the past, the public often imagined the environment as "viewing" and "amusement", but they did not think that nature and plants are also very important "food production sources", just like candy houses.

The more traditional edible landscape in Taiwan's cities is a citizen farm supervised by the farmers 'association. When you have free time, you can rent a piece of land in the suburbs, drive to plant it yourself, and feel the pastoral life. In fact, we don't have to run so far, we can start our daily life around us! On the one hand, there are many unused wasteland in the city that no one has heard of. On the other hand, there are many so-called green spaces or parks in the city. In fact, they are just monotonous spaces paved with turf and planted with a few flowers.

If we apply the concept of "landscape is good to eat," these lands can actually be turned into herb gardens or vegetable nurseries with a variety of species, or even a mixture of biodiversity, planting vegetables and flowers at the same time!

If you look closely, you will find that from the beach land to the idle public/private land, Taiwan has many uncles and aunts running into planting crops and actively carrying out green guerrilla warfare. With the introduction of the method of adopting public land, civil organizations concerned about the living environment have also begun to adopt land together with local people. Neighbors can plan together, participate in planting, and even set up vanilla bread kilns and public kitchens to cook fragrant ~ fragrant.

In addition to large areas of land, small landscapes in life can also be delicious. As long as the balcony of the home is matched with thick soil planting method, fresh fruits and vegetables can be planted in a natural and ecological way. The apartment dwellers are able to communicate with each other, and the community atrium has the opportunity to establish vegetable gardens and melon sheds.

Public land adopted by Wenzhou Community Development Association in Daan District

According to the Department of Budget, Accounting and Statistics of the Executive Yuan, Taipei's green space per capita was only 5.33 square meters at the end of 2009, one-fifth of that of many large cities in Asia. And "delicious green space" is even meager. Not to mention packing lunch, it's not even enough to stuff your teeth!

As far as the existing edible landscape is concerned, the citizen farm requires a deposit and rent, the land available is very small, and a special drive is required. Guerrilla occupation of public/private land is basically illegal, and it is unknown when it will be eradicated. Although there is a basic method for claiming public land, there is no substantive support at all. Not only can the government unconditionally take back the land at any time, but there are also a lot of problems related to matchmaking and funding. If someone wants to develop, don't even think that the official will stop it.

To change this situation, we must study the experience of successful people.

In the 1970s, New York garden activists succeeded in renting a Bowery Houston Community Farm and Garden from the government for US$1 a month, which aroused widespread public response and led to the rise of many gardens in New York City (Green Thumb Project). In the 1980s, there were more than 800 community gardens in New York City alone, with a production value of more than US$1 million. However, after encountering pressure from land development, the government began to waver. Through litigation and long-term struggle, the community raised funds to buy 114 plots of land in the form of land trusts, successfully saving more than 500 gardens to continue their operation.

Seattle's P-Patch program, also started in 1973, not only connects people interested in planting and management with the land, but also establishes a complete system for integrating community construction and operation funds. In order to avoid the development pressure of developers, the government also adjusted the land zoning regulations. These gardens are not only cultivated land, they are also leisure parks for local residents to walk and play with flowers and plants, markets for neighbors to buy and sell fresh fruits and vegetables of the season, and public spaces for gathering human feelings and promoting communication among nearby residents.

Gorilla's "Mr Curry" Guerrilla Case

Whether it is land trust or resorting to government amendment to establish an overall adoption supporting mechanism, the final involvement is the people's heart. No consideration, no concern, let alone package lunch, death or life, we will not care. The next time you walk past your living room balcony, or walk past a wasteland surrounded by tin, imagine it tastes good.

It can be very, very tasty.

Share +1 Tweet Email