Abundance Sheffield

In their own words:

“Abundance is a project to harvest the seasonal glut of local fruit like apples, pear and plums. Each year hundreds of fruit trees go unpicked either because people don’t notice them, may not be physically able to harvest them or there are just too many fruits at one time. Abundance is a team of volunteers who have been helping harvest city fruit and redistributing the surplus to the community on a non-profit basis - to community cafes, nurseries, Surestarts and individuals. Abundance has been distributing free fresh fruit around the streets of central Sheffield and Meadowhall Shopping Centre from the custom designed mobile fruit unit.”

______________________________________________The Abundance project has great potential to show the public first hand the issues of sustainable sustenance and the increasingly important role of urban agriculture on a holistic approach through the microcosm of the current process. The concept of interdependence between specialized knowledge networks, in addition the application of architectural ideas with the Abundance project begins to explore how Sheffield as a city can be looked at in an entirely different context; that of the city over a period of time becoming it’s own sustainable system by feeding it’s inhabitants.

Urban Agriculture on a holistic scale.

As we begin to approach the post-oil society, questions are asked as to how the trans-national logistical network will be able to function when traditional transportation networks cease to function. In this worst case scenario, how will urban population centers begin to sustain themselves? The United States embargo against Cuba left a post-Communist Havana in a situation where the people had to feed themselves. Parking lots and interstitial spaces were converted into food farms to feed the city’s population. A network of information centers dotted around Havana support the local food farms, and everyone benefits. A city that can be judged on it’s most basic function, that of sustaining the population that inhabits it. Could Havana represent a paradigmatic shift in how we look at our urban concentrates?

Exploring the potential for a community pantry.
There is also a huge social and community effect too: Community pantries, mobile food farms, market stalls, jam, cider, town center feasts. After all, it all comes down to celebrating local food, doesn’t it?