Greening Rome - Global Rome: Changing Faces of the Eternal City - page 248

although it is progressive and even desirable, the movement for urban farm-
ing and gardening in Rome clashes against three main barriers that limit its de-
velopment: media silence, lack of practical support from the institutions, and
lack of coordination among the actors involved. The relative silence in the media
and the indifference to the subject on the part of city institutions force the move-
ment to assume a sort of “underground” identity which is able to survive mainly
through interpersonal connections and, especially, via blogging and other forms
of virtual communication. lack of coordination among its participants instead
limits the movement's efficiency and political strength. institutional, commu-
nicative, and cultural bottlenecks notwithstanding, it has been estimated that
about seventy urban gardens existed in Rome in 2011, distributed from the center
to the extreme periphery, and covered over 90 ha.1 by comparing the urban farm-
ing and gardening movement in Rome with similar initiatives internationally
(united states, Northern europe, and in poor countries from africa to asia and
south america), it is possible to note further specificities. first, urban farming
in Rome is not driven by social and economic necessity (fao 2011; Gottlieb and
Joshi 2010). even in times of economic crisis when Roman families are forced
to restructure their expenses, the prices for fruit and vegetables in the market
remain relatively affordable even to those in the lower income brackets. This is
not because fruit and vegetable prices are supported by state policies and thus
kept artificially low but, rather, because the industrialization of italian agricul-
ture since the end of world war ii, although radical and deep, has not erased the
network of family farms. These still persist and are able to supply local markets
in urban areas with fresh produce at relatively cheap prices.
second, in part for the preceding reason, urban farming in Rome is not driv-
en by the need to access local, fresh food. The italian diet, and Roman cuisine in
particular, are highly flexible and dependent on what is available in the market
seasonally, thus placing a high premium on local produce. Third, urban farming
in Rome is not about promoting entrepreneurship (Kaufman and bailkey 2000).
a lack of startup capital, barriers to accessing the market, and bureaucratic ob-
stacles discourage cultivating small plots of land in the city for profit or as an
employment opportunity.
more than anything else, the majority of urban farming and gardening ini-
tiatives in Rome represent a critique of and a reaction to contemporary urban
planning and policies for sustainable urbanization (mougeot 2000, 2005, 2006;
moustier and Danso 2006). The immediate objective of the movement is instead
to foster community-making and identity (bailkey et al. 2007). This is not a
weakness but indeed a merit in a city where half the surface area is urbanized
and over 90 million m2 of new constructions are forecast as part of the municipal
government's plan for social housing (erbani 2012).
This chapter traces the origins of urban gardening in Rome and maps its
contemporary social and cultural landscape. The image that emerges is one in