Dutch suburb where residents must grow food on at least half of their property

[cbabe]

https://www.theguardian.com/environment/2024/nov/28/oosterwold-dutch-suburb-where-residents-must-grow-food-on-at-least-half-of-their-property

‘You have to find your own recipe’: Dutch suburb where residents must grow food on at least half of their property

Aerial shot of Oosterwold. Photograph: Tara Schepers and Yolanda Sikking/Municipality of Almer

In the suburb of Oosterwold, a living experiment in urban agriculture, the 5,000 inhabitants find different creative ways to fulfil the unique stipulation

By Hannah Docter-Loeb
Thu 28 Nov 2024 10.00 EST

When Marco de Kat starts planning his meals, he doesn’t need to travel far for fresh food. Right outside his house is an 800 square metre plot with all sorts of produce – apples, pears, peppers, basil, beets and cauliflower, to name a few. During the winter months, he and his wife can pretty much survive off the vegetables stored in their freezer. Even after living in Oosterwold for a number of years, it’s something that still excites him.

“Yesterday, I forgot to think about what to eat,” he says. “You walk through your garden and you find something and that’s what you eat.”

Oosterwold, where de Kat has lived since 2017, is a 4,300 hectare (10,625 acre) urban experiment located in the north-east of the Netherlands, in a suburb of the city of Almere, where de Kat works as a municipal councillor. First visualised about a decade ago by a local network, it was established by local government and Oosterwold planners as a way to challenge the rigidity of Dutch city planning, giving people more freedom – and responsibility – over the urban design process.

The area, which has about 5,000 residents and a growing waiting list, is completely self-sufficient. Residents can build houses however they like, and must collaborate with others to figure out things such as street names, waste management, roads, and even schools. But the local government has included one extremely unusual requirement: about half of each plot must be devoted to urban agriculture.

(Change up your hoa rules this year.)

[jimfields33]

1. The deer and rabbits would love these rules.

[alittlelark]

2. A dog in the yard takes care of those problems

Having a cat takes care of most of the smaller problems as well.

[jimfields33]

3. Good points.

But you’d have to leave them out all night. I forgot to mention we have coyotes.

[Diamond_Dog]

4. A few years ago the city near me had a fruit orchard

People in the neighborhood planted fruit trees in an empty lot and cared for them until some vandals came along in the middle of the of the night and chopped them all down. ☹️

[Old Crank]

5. The 800 sm garden, 9400 sf,

Is a bigger than the lot our duplex was on. That is one big garden. That is only practical out of towns.

[WestMichRad]

6. Good rule!

Not including the forested part of my lot, I’m close to meeting this rule, here in Michigan.

Requires tall fencing, which thankfully my community allows.

[MissB]

7. amazing.

I have a half acre here, so that would be stretching it I think. I live in an area that has very tall trees (huge fir trees) so my property is pretty much ringed by some sort of tree. I have massive oak, maple and fir trees mostly. (lots of leaves right now!)

Open space is mostly planted but there is no way I have a quarter of an acre of food production. I'm impressed with their edict.