Planning for urban agriculture: opportunities to improve food security and food justice outcomes in Sydney
This study explores the contribution urban planning can make to strengthen food security and food justice through urban agriculture. With increasing demand for urban agriculture globally, this analysis draws insights from international research and considers the relevance and applicability of those lessons for planning and practices in the Australian context. It explores the effect of regulatory and strategic frameworks on urban agriculture outcomes and examines whether such frameworks enable or hinder those activities.
Through case studies of innovative urban agriculture typologies in Sydney, this thesis gathers data on the impact of current planning regulations on urban agriculture from the perspectives of urban planning professionals and case study operators. The NSW planning framework is found to prioritise economic value over the social value of land which is relegated to a secondary measure. This is despite awareness of the positive health and well-being effects of local food production particularly across metropolitan environments within Australia and beyond. However, the challenge of prohibitive planning controls at a local governance level in Sydney and an absence of attention on food security and food justice in the NSW urban planning approach is resulting in the marginalisation of urban and cultural food production.
The key informants of this study offered insights into planning strategies that can address food security and food justice in Sydney, Australia, along with mechanisms that can better integrate urban agriculture into urban environments for community and commercial benefit. Research findings of global planning models that utilise a combination of land zoning, land use inventories and food strategies to strengthen food systems planning can also inform the NSW planning framework.