Sustainability Through Urban Agriculture

This week’s blog post may be a bit of a departure at first glance. It doesn’t directly discuss the typical topics of architecture, building design or building products. Instead, we are taking more of a macro view of the built environment and its sustainability.

One of the side discussions of sustainability and your ‘carbon footprint’ has returned us to a discussion on local food versus food that is shipped thousands of miles to end up on your plate. All those miles that produce are trucked/shipped expands your carbon footprint incredibly and also makes for produce that is harvested too early to prevent spoilage and product loss for the produce distributors. So now we’re seeing restaurants that tout local food, farmer’s markets, food co-ops, community gardens and in some areas of the country, community supported agriculture (or CSAs).


TRPinc has often supported some of these avenues towards local food, and has begun discussions on organizing a community garden in Henderson. Recently, a couple of chance encounters have piqued our interest in the local food movement. This article, titled ‘Dancing with Urban Agriculture’ written by Howard Blackson for the PlaceShakers and NewsMakers blog, discusses how his neighborhood has embraced the movement by planting Victory Gardens full of veggies and fruit trees and also raising chickens and fish…all on their suburban/urban residential lots. They have organized themselves to the point that they are updating their Community Plan through the local City Planning Department. The idea of the Victory Garden has been around for many years and is deeply entrenched in our history as a nation, yet it has fallen to the wayside right along with the importance of community building.



In his recent travels to Thailand, Chris found that nearly all of the produce is local and purchased almost daily. Freshness of the food is a very important ingredient in Thai cuisine. Chance encounter #2 occurred when he met a young couple from Wollongong, Austrailia at a Thai cooking class that was held on an organic farm in Chiang Mai, Thailand. As they all were enjoying their freshly cooked dishes made from ingredients that were pulled from the garden yards away, Chris learned that Rich and Ally had recently purchased a suburban house in Australia, complete with vast grass lawns and a pool, and transformed it into a living, healthy and efficient home with an abundant food garden. They run a website, Happy Earth, which outlines what they call ‘adventures in urban sustainability.’



So…what would it take to do something like this in Southern Nevada? In both circumstances, one step led to the building of a community of like-minded homeowners. We’re sure it takes hard work, knowing the quality of our soil here, but we’re certain it isn’t impossible.