Grüne Liga Berlin was  holding an International Urban Farming Conference at the Heinrich-Böll Foundation in Berlin on the 11th and 12th of September 2017.

► Download: Documentation International Urban Farming Conference Berlin (pdf)

Here you will find informations about participating projects and  the program.

The Conference, held in the same year as the International Garden Show (IGA) in Berlin, aims to facilitate a professional exchange between projects of urban agriculture worldwide. It focuses on urban farming initiatives that are supported by municipalities, and on the enhancement of local government partnerships between cities in the Global South and the Global North. Through our presentations, workshops, and excursions, we hope to exhibit the value and diversity of urban agriculture and to build networks between international urban gardening projects, organizations, and municipalities. Our aim is to discuss the political frameworks that surround urban farming in order to create better urban networks and partnerships for urban agriculture in cities around the world.

Background

Urban agriculture has existed for as long as there had been cities. Recently, it has been experiencing a worldwide renaissance. Everywhere from New York to Berlin to Bangkok, city dwellers plant and harvest on roofs, on public and private lands, on walls, and even in bags and containers. The reasons for the revival of urban farming are as many and as diverse as the reason for the movement itself. Urban Farming was to make the city green instead of grey so as to increase the quality of life and create a social and intercultural melting pot. This green city would limit the effects of a warming climate and increase biodiversity within our urban environments. The practice of urban farming also revitalizes local economies by creating local jobs and encouraging the development of more marketable trades and crafts. This in turn provides for more food security and food sovereignty within local communities. Urban farming is ought to expand into more cities and their surrounding areas, as it is estimated that around 10 billion people will live on our planet in 2050, two out of three of them in cities. Providing good nutrition for the billions of people on our planet during an age of changing climate and rapidly draining resources is then one the biggest challenges of the twenty first century.

Program

In the past year we have reviewed papers from over one hundred activists and experts in the area of urban farming. They are to present their papers in the following panels of the International Urban Farming Conference:

• Food Health and Food Sovereignty
• Climate and the Environment
• The Rights of the City / Access to Resources / Local Economies
• Education / Empowerment / Training

Project contributions with a municipal policy reference — especially ones that dealt with cooperation between the Global South and the Global North were given particular consideration.

You can find our conference program here.

This conference is sponsored and supported by Engagement Global and its Service Agency Communities in One World with financial sponsorship from BMZ. We are also sponsored by the Anstiftung, the Schweisfurth Foundation, the Heinrich-Böll Foundation, the Research and Documentation Centre of Chile and Latin America (FDCL) with financial support by the European Union, Misereor, and the World Food Institute.

Contact us:

conference organization:
Ines Meier, mobil: +49 157 34 959 851
Udo Fickert, mobil: +49 157 38 540 660
Julia Scherer/Thais Benedetti Lamoza, mobil: +49 157 51 976 944
urbanfarming@grueneliga-berlin.de
phone number 030 – 44 33 91 0

press:
Christian Lerche
christian.lerche@grueneliga-berlin.de
phone number +49 30 44 33 91 -49

excursionen:
Elisabeth Meyer-Renschhausen, mobil: +49 157 51 979 803