Supplementary Essay In addition to Urban Futures Presentation

a slice of yimby life

Charlotte Gildart-Butler MA Architecture and Urbanism 2011

The pre-industrialists would barely recognise the developed western world as we live today. Government intervention has changed the way society functions, encouraging corporate growth and capitalism as a dominant control function. This is evident in legislation, and policy, seen in practice, through the expansion of pension funds and share prices and through supermarkets exponential dominance, referred to as giga-corporations. Technological advancements have shaped our society and humanity. Lifestyles have become debatably easier whilst also being more stressful and consuming. Convenience and waste is tolerated, the life span of material goods is accepted as a linear flow (rather than the desire cradle to cradle, as suggested by McDonough). Machinery and logistics have changed work dynamics. Increasing leisure time is at the disposal of most people in developed nations. As an international society we have become dependent on computers for information, memory, social and professional contact and banking. The use of computers has become an integral part of our daily lives. There have been many alterations, we now categorise as global reform. It is my intention to discuss the three texts.Globalization and Localization, (Lash and Urry, 2010), recognises the effect of globalisation and the nature of global relations in the banking and business sector. A hungry City, (Steel, 2008) highlights, how globalisation has affected our food habits, including distribution and farming in our contempory societies. The vertical Farm, feeding the world in the 21st Century (Dr. Despommier 2010), offers an insightful vision to the future potential of sustainable farming. If these utopian ideas are integrated with our lifestyle there lies an interesting, new economy. This new economy will be fuel-efficient, with the potential to put localism at a higher agenda. Economies of sign and space, (Lash and Urry, 2010: chapter 11) refers to a quote from Raymond Williams (1983), that countries are not working effectively, they are both too big to cope with the problems arising in contempory social life and too small to deal with the bigger international problems. Global governance has emerged, this is evident as the book states, in economic transfers, growth of global governance and global culture; however, these merge as they all inter-relate. Economic transfers, (an example being the 1973 oil crisis, where price increases affected many realms, including economic policies) cannot be made independently of international transformations. Additionally, global governance is evident in the fact that the London Olympic games will be available to watch by over half of the worlds 5.5 billion population (Wikipedia 2011). People want to be part of the same cultural experience. Tourism is a major player in the worlds international economy. Tourism provides employment, distributes wealth, and enables currency exchange and international awareness. This has the effect of blending extremes in societies, creating understanding and sharing knowledge, all of which are perceived advantages. Additionally, there are many disadvantages. Growth of global governance is evident in the establishment of the United Nations and the European Community; both have been established with centralised powers. 2

They have developed an inter-national society, offering an overlapping network of power to constrain individual states and reprimand illegal behavior, having developed the policy to implement this. Through implementation of these powers, they are a stronger governance than a national society, having powers to constrain individual societies. Luard (1990) has progressed this, recognizing that if there are no longer coherent national societies, then an international society is coming into existence, brought about he suggests by two processes, which have combined. Firstly, the diversity seen in contemporary societies; apparent through shared beliefs, standardisation of conditions, similarity in interests and the way of life found within them. Secondly, the apparent reduction in size of international society, through time space compression. International travel, evident through ease in availability and lower cost facilities is enhancing peoples interconnectedness. Global culture has helped people to have an understanding of nations and diverse cultures, through the much available satellite television and the Internet, broadcasting many shows around the world. The accessibility of similar gadgets has enabled communication of information, especially images, allowing global cultures to be accessed at the touch of a button, from virtually anywhere. It is worth noting that global culture has not touched all parts of the world, thankfully. However, with the rapid spread of communication links, it will not be too long until the global culture effect, is seen infiltrating all parts of the world. (Fuller, 2009), discusses capitalism in Laos, the country opened its first stock exchange in 2010, this prompted a local newspaper to run a series of articles offering a glossary of capitalist terms, the article commented, Everything has a price. There is a huge dominance of banking, facilitated by our lack of regulation. Within London, there has been an increase in foreign banks. In 1961 there were 100 by late 80s there were 450, employing 50-200 staff per branch. We have seen the internationalisation of credit and finance, with banks growing in the area they are based in. London was once the leading base for foreign exchange, by the mid 90s this had changed. The growth of Tokyo, Hong Kong and New York as financial centers has seen a network of international control develop. This is controlled through fund managers and stock market prices. It is worth noting that 80% of London turnover is accounted for by overseas banks (Coakley, 1992: p61-62). It is uncertain at this time with the devastating effects of the recent 2011 tunsnami hitting Japan, how this will affect the worlds monetary system. Estimates of 200 billion will be claimed in insurance payouts, inevitably this will affect the international stock markets. International companies, such as Sony are already losing market shares. We are familiar with the term economies of scale but there is also, politics of scale. The bigger the business becomes, the more we, as consumers and citizens shrink by comparison. Monbiot (2000: p14). Monbiot discusses how this diffuses consumer power and makes markets less responsive to demand and the fact that prices will not fall as businesses consolidate. Monbiot discusses that there are not only benefits to business expansion, While companies may reap significant economies of scale they may experience less pressure, as they grow, to pass them onto consumers. The example of British supermarkets is specifically given to 3

exemplify this. Giga-corporations are proving to be very successful; shares are valued in many millions of dollars. Their growth is encouraged by fund managers, through sales and acquisitions of shares and the government, through tax incentives. Also by encouraging individuals to be financially independent; as they pay into pension funds and other repayment vehicles, demanding high returns on their investments. There are many examples of megacorporations with take-overs in the banking system. The Halifax taking over The Leeds Building Society and now The Lloyds TSB has taken over The Halifax and Bank of Scotland. Yorkshire, the UKs second-largest building society, is expected to agree a takeover of Norwich & Peterborough. (Lodge, 2011). Further consolidation of the banking industry results in the rich getting richer and the market see less choice and the eradication of individualism, farmers and craftsmen. These realities of exploitation of lesser societies through global governance, as the developed world dominates, are discussed in Hungry City, (Steel, 2008). The book gives a historical account of food development and relays the process of food production, food transportation and how food demands have evolved. Steel (2008), explains how we once lived with the recognition that we needed food to survive, and describes the growing desire for a variety of tastes and growing desire for sugar. However, there were constraints of transportation and keeping food fresh and we lived in a manner that recognizes this and priorities it. The vast majority of us now endorse the lifestyle of convenience, backed by our ability to pay, even though we are experiencing high inflation, the demand is still there. We are happy to accept the mass production of food, supported by its distribution in supermarkets; this has now changed the way we live almost unrecognizably. We hardly associate what we see in the countryside as our food source, wanting to see the countryside as unspoilt land utilized for walking and countryside pursuits and we block out the cruelty associated with cheap food, over-farming and highly intensive rearing of food. It is often the case that what we dont see, we dont worry about especially if the results are favorable to our pocket. Society has endorsed the cheap option of food; with this, there is a compromise of the how fresh food is. Virtually everything has preservatives in it. (As a result it is a fact that our bodies are taking much longer to decompose once buried.) Food isnt something one would naturally choose to transport very far as it goes off very quickly unless subject to some sort of preservation process. City dwellers need vast quantities of food, which is edible even when out of season. We have high demands on the type, option and look of the food we eat. The success of the supermarket lies in its ability to provide these vast amounts of food to a satisfactory level (within date of consumption, it is not bruised, and it tastes fresh). These satisfactory standards of food require vast amounts of packaging to ensure no bruising of fruit and vegetables. Imported food is packaged in cargo containers, which require very low temperatures to preserve. Excessive amounts of plastic and cardboard are used to ensure this food is bought in the correct quantities to serve us for one meal and to ensure it looks desirable on the supermarket shelves, in its retail-ready packaging. There is excessive waste, and thats without discussing the transportation excesses and environmental costs. 4

Supermarkets supply and consumers demand, a successful cycle, which has resulted in huge profits for the conglomerates. These 2 statements exemplify the success of the supermarket system. (The New York Times, 2010) For the three months ended in January, Wal-Mart had a profit of $4.63 billion, or $1.23 a share, up from $3.79 billion, or 96 cents a share, a year earlier. Sales increased 4.6 percent, to $112.83 billion. Almost all of the increase was because of the international division. (Finch, J and Wood, Z The Guardian.co.uk, 2010) Tesco posted, a 12% increase in half-year profits to 1.6bn. Total revenue climbed 7% to almost 30bn or 165m a day. The chief executive of Britain's biggest retailer, said that while economic recovery was "slow and steady" at home, the group had seen a "sharp" bounce in its international business. Urry (2010) recognized global flows, and as there are no clear national societies but lots of flows of food and goods between nations, all of which are dependent on each other, food has been internationalized. In the UK, we get our Lamb from New Zealand, coffee from Columbia, sugar from Mozambique and a massive amount of our fruit and vegetables from Europe, with huge poly-tunnels in Spain that can be seen from space. As a result of transfers in supply and demand around the world, we are all also very dependent on oil. Oil is an increasingly rare commodity, currently prices are rising, once it has reached unaffordable prices, food supplied in this way will become a very expensive resource. This international-dependency and longdistance logistics of our food is not a sustainable existence. Supermarkets encourage excessive purchasing, offering Buy-one-get-one-free deals on a regular basis. There are food surplus mountains encouraged by our globalised way of living, with the European Community and United States agricultural business offering funding and subsidies, to encourage farmers to produce more. Countries are interlinked and interdependent. Farmers are dependent on the sales and the consuming countries are dependent on the produce. We, the society, are dependent on the food conglomerates; we have no direct relationship with those who feed us, until the point when we pay for the goods. Supermarkets provide us with 80% of our food in Britain, but theirs is a business of prerogative (Steel, 2008). This unsustainable living, excess and irresponsibility, cannot continue and we must find alternatives. Supermarkets are often under their own rule and have such huge influence they act in making their own policies. Supermarkets have risen above local powers of the street rule, they are stronger than the independent nations as they have consolidated as food suppliers and have effectively passed above government control Steel (2008). Additionally, Steel gives several examples of the strong control held by some companies, here are three examples: 85% of the tea market is controlled by just 3 companies. 90% of the global trade in grain is governed by 5 companies. 81% of all American beef is in the hands of just 4 giant processing companies.

Theres no such thing as free trade in food. I believe we need to find new ways of punishing these hugely successful companies for immoral practice such as price fixing and under-cutting farmers so there is very little profit for the farmers. Currently fining them doesnt work. As long as supermarkets profits enable their fines to be paid, they seem to function unconcerned. Companies such as Wal-Mart behave as if they are above the law. Monbiot also raises awareness about the decision not to tax supermarkets for outof-town car parking and that permission was granted to use 41-tonne lorries on British roads. Corporations can afford to buy many benefits, not just through advertising but through sponsorships, they are buying the heart of our communities. It has been said that there will be no shops left on our high streets by 2015. There will be shops, where people want to be sociable, to go to trusted individual outlets and where people have time to spend going to independent shopping units. But increasingly these communities are in decline, as Urry and Lash stated, countries are too big and too small, survival is difficult. Accepting supermarkets dominance is eased by price cuts and shopping offers, combined with customer satisfaction and convenience, however, we are still left with the problem that supermarkets are dictating and ruling as a global dominator. Steel writes of Sitopia from the Greek sitos, meaning food, and topos, meaning place. Sitopia means food-place, as opposed to utopia (good place, or no place) a term used by Plato to describe an ideal and therefore unattainable community. A sitopia could be the implementation of vertical farming. Dr. Dickson Despommier writes about growing vegetation and crops with the use of aquaponics from farming fish on site in specifically designed buildings. These buildings would ideally be located in urban areas or in parts of the world where food production proves difficult. An interesting topic that has the potential to be a sustainable answer to the many problems of food supply. Producing vegetation, wheat crops, bio-fuels and fish in urban areas could have many solutions attached to our over-populated environment, which has varied global economic and climatic problems. These are the benefits of vertical farming as discussed by Despommier: -Year round vegetation -Not reliant on weather system -Creates sustainable centres -Reuses redundant or abandoned city buildings -Returns farm land to nature -We cant go to the mars without developing this system -Reuses carbon emissions -Allows crop production in famine areas due to climatic conditions. Additional benefits are: 1. Transportation costs are reduced, a great environmental benefit.

2. Preserves the exhaustible commodity of oil Despommier (2008: 246) One solution to the land question is to grow all biofuel-producing plants in vertical farms. Brazil produces ethanol from sugar cane, which fuels 30% of automobiles; in the UK we could embrace this fuel. 3. Education. To have food grown around us in our schools, offices, wasteland sites in cities and incorporated into our cities residential and office buildings brings an awareness to everyone about what we consume and where and what it takes to develop these consumables. This education, increases independence, increases holistic benefits and increases peoples morals. 4. Improves air quality, through increased amounts of photosynthesis. This has subsequent benefits on peoples health and stress levels especially; which in turn improves productivity. www.greenplantsforgreenbuildings.org discusses this further; Live indoor plantscapes demonstrate natures hearty resolve and process of cleaning surrounding air while exchanging it for fresh oxygen. For those who seek clean, natural solutions to environmental issues, live interior landscaping can serve as a living illustration, affirming belief in nature's intelligence. 5. Holistic. We are less stressed and more productive around plants. Respected research by Dr R S Ulrich, Helen Russell and Dr Virginia Lohr verifies that plants significantly lowers workplace stress and enhance workers productivity. Dr. Lohrs study (2006), demonstrated that participants working in an environment with plants present were 12 percent more productive and less stressed than those who worked in an environment without plants. 6. Improves the feeling of happiness. People are constantly striving for the feelgood-factor, community togetherness and pride being part of the greater good. The current coalition government is prioritising this, as they are trying to determine peoples level of happiness. 7. Helps to relieve problems of land shortages. Super size cities such as Los Angeles, Hong Kong and London house more than 5 million people. Cities have land at a premium and so utilising land efficiently by growing plants and crops vertically would resolve lots of land shortage issues. There are many people and companies working to achieve greener growing environments. Here are some examples of the current studies and work being implemented. Toyota is developing its own species of flower. This genetically modified flower was specifically chosen for its ability to absorb nitrogen oxides and create water vapor; these attributes clean the surrounding air and lower temperatures. Beneficial in highly populated, indoor environments. (Kozeniewski, 2009) Cuba has effectively adopted the idea of urban farming; inventive and successful in supplying the city population with food resources. Todmorden, West Yorkshire, displays a successful example of edible green plantings replacing ornamental planting on derelict sites and in once neglected roadside verges. Local people implement this idea; it is a great example of a bottom up approach working to tackle issues of climate change.

Manchester International Festival is embracing the work by Despommier and commencing a three-year pioneering project to convert a disused building in Greater Manchester to a Vertical Farm environment. Dolston Farm shop has adopted Despommiers ideas and implanted them in a Victorian terraced house in London. Increasingly students, individuals, companies and partnerships are realizing the need for a change in society. The UK government has spoken about localism, trying to bring it to the forefront of our agenda. Increasingly society is realising that we need to move in a radically new direction. We as a society should embrace change; changing our NIMBY (Not-in-my-back-yard) attitude to one of YIMBY (yes-in-myback-yard). We need to grow a social conscious, reduce waste and excess, be more self-sustaining and consider ways to reduce consumerism. The financial and legal knots weve tied ourselves in will take a considerable amount of un-tying before we can easily move forward. Our legacy of commercialism, capital dictatorship, greed and our priority of connivance over the environment need to change. The idea of farming in specifically designed buildings or adapted disused buildings located in the city offer alternative solutions to supplying food to highly populated areas. Sustainable ways of growing in these environments need to be found to make this new way of growing vegetation a viable option. Currently, the mega-corporations control over our food ownership needs to change through our social interaction and in our local environment. Governments are encouraging everyone to be increasingly self sufficient for their future prosperity, state pension funds are limited in the UK. The public is told there will be an increased age limit for both men and women to work. Depleting public funds encourage people to increasingly save for themselves, investing around 30% of the monthly income into long-term retirement plans or superannuation. These are encouraged in all developed nations and often the larger companies are where the money is invested. PB, ESSO, Shell, Tesco, Wall Mart, Glaxo Smith Cline, etc. These huge corporate companies are pressured into being increasingly successful, to increase their market share and increase their price per unit on the stock market. Pressure is raised on companies to achieve their forecasted figures to provide instant financial gratification. The effects of globalisation are here but not necessarily positive for localisation or the environment. We as individuals need to live more responsibly. We should be less reliant on the mega-corporations and increasingly more localized in the way we live. Food, a basic necessity is a good way to start this localized philosophy. The government should be financially backing new entrepreneurial ideas, supporting the reduction of our heavy demands made on our environmental resources. Idealistic, probably, but seeing the reduction of corporate dominance would be good for a diverse society, utopian ideas would be encouraged, individual enterprises would be given opportunities to be implemented.

Feeding the world in the twenty first Century, I believe should rely on various sources with increasing supply of organically farmed vegetation, home grown produce and city grown vegetation with the use of disused buildings. Also with supermarkets providing food, from corporate outlets, which have been grown and then imported from over seas. As we know, 80% of our food in the UK is imported from overseas; it would be beneficial to see this reduced by half. Being more local in the way we farm and this driven by demand, would allow production to be closer to the end user. We, as a nation need to be educated to become more conscious of our supply and then we as a nation can change our demand. This local supply-demand model could be supported by the implementation of vertical farming, in highly populated areas,areas; UK cites seems to be a good starting block. My thesis fits into this analysis as it leads me to consider the reality of implementing Vertical Farming in urban areas. However, I am left with many questions. Is this an option to supplying the Nation with food? Can Vertical Farming feed urban areas and can it work on an international basis? Will Vertical Farming be implemented and to what extent can it be successful? I intend to proceed with a feasibility study, analysing the practicality of vertical farming in urban areas in the UK.

References
Literature Dr Despommier, D., 2010. Vertical Farm. New York: St. Martins Press. Steel, C., 2008. Hungry City. London: Vintage Books. Lash, S. and Urry, J., 2010. Economies of sign and space Globalism to Localism. Nash. J., 2010. Chapter 2 Optimisation. In: Stibbe, A. ed., 2010. The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy. Devon: Green Books Ltd. Kumar. S., 2010. Chapter 3 Grounded Economic Awareness. In: Stibbe, A. ed., 2010. The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy. Devon: Green Books Ltd. Whitfield. P., 2010. Chapter 8 Permaculture Design. In: Stibbe, A. ed., 2010. The Handbook of Sustainability Literacy. Devon: Green Books Ltd. Girardet. Herbert., 2009. Creating Sustainable Cities. Devon: Green Books Ltd. Girardet. Herbert., 2004. Cities people planet. London: John, Wiley and Sons. Monbiot. G., 2001. Captive State. London: Macmillan. Sheherazade. G. ed., 2007. A slice of organic life. London: Dorling Kindersley Ltd. McDonough, W. 2009 Cradle to Cradle. New York: North Point Press. Papers and Journals and websites Bradbury. D., 2009 Toyota provide flower power to the prius-plant www.businessgreen.com/bg/news/1803107/toyota-applies-flower-power-priusplant. Korzeniewski. J., 2009 Toyota-develops-its-own-flower www.autoblog.com/2009/10/30/report-toyota-develops-its-own-flower-for-cleanerair-at-prius/ CABE 2009 Todmorden http:/www.cabe.org.uk/case-studies/incredible-edibletodmorden Tyler. B.Y., 2009 Vertical Farm in Vancouver, BC Fuller. T., 2009 New York Times- Capitalism is making in roads in Laos Rosenbloom. S, 2010 New York Times Profit Rises at Wal-Mart, But Outlook Is Clouded Finch. J. and Wood. Z., 2010 The Guardian.co.uk. Tesco success has proven to be outstanding especially in the face of recession Dr. Lohrs (2006) www.Greenplantsforgreenbuildings.org http://www.healthalternatives2000.com/vegetables-nutrition-chart.html John Vidal (2011) guardian.co.uk, Monday 23 May 2011 Steve Lodge (2009) Financial Times, Capitalism is making inroads in Laos www.ft.com/cms/s/2/ab00b060-570f-11e0-9035-00144feab49a.html#ixzz1HzJPjLFi Dr. Ulrich. R. (2006) University research indicates that flowers and plants promotes innovation. http://iis.aboutflowers.com/workplace/research.htm http://www.plantcultureinc.com/whyGreen.html http://www.flickr.com/photos/70429056@N00/443810941/ http://mif.co.uk/event/vertical-farm/ http://tescopoly.org http://standupforamerica.wordpress.com/2011/04/21/capitalism-v-communism/ http://www.allvoices.com/contributed-news/6998467-demographics-andpopulation-growth-helped-to-climate-change 10

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http://www.world-crisis.net/food-crisis.html http://ecology110armine2011sp.wordpress.com/2011/05/09/population-growthand-its-impacts/ http://webcache.googleusercontent.com/search?q=cache:rkZGIiTHrVkJ:news.bbc.co .uk/2/hi/business/4788916.stm+supermarket+dominance&cd=1&hl=en&ct=clnk&gl =uk&client=safari&source=www.google.co.uk Terry Kurby and Mc Donough (2006) The Independent. Tesco's 2bn profit raises concern over supermarket's high street dominance - This Britain, UK http://newsthump.com/2010/12/22/supermarket-dominance-could-see-end-ofone-pound-beans-warn-corner-shops/ http://microloneurope.co.uk/fuel-news/ http://themigrantmind.blogspot.com/2011/02/urban-heat-island-in-pictures-part5.html http://undsci.berkeley.edu/article/0_0_0/howscienceworks_18 http://www.bioecon.com/news-bioecon/491-study-estimates-land-available-forbiofuel-crops.html Web Forum http://www.urban75.net/forums/threads/supermarket-dominance.154001/

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