BRISBANE FOOD CITY...Landscape Architect, Catherine is passionate about healthy urban design, walkable cities and placemaking. She is co-founder of Green the Street, an initiative

BRISBANEFOOD CITYFOOD SYSTEM VISION PRIZE

2050

BRISBANE FOOD CITY | 2050 | FOOD SYSTEM VISION PRIZE | ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION BRISBANE FOOD CITY | 2050 | FOOD SYSTEM VISION PRIZE | ROCKEFELLER FOUNDATION 2 3

For some, the shift started with the first local tomato they bit into, fresh off the vine. Juicy and sweet, still warm from the sun that had been powering it…

For others, it started with watching Queensland Blue pumpkin seeds push up through the soil, strong and determined, unfurling themselves with startling veracity.

Others remember exclaiming when they realised that the red onion they had just picked up, the skin crackling slightly under their fingers, had been grown ‘...in that field down the road?! I didn’t know we could grow onions here!”

The shift to this richer, more deeply connected version of life began slowly. Slowly, the shiny veneer of plastic packaging and year round oranges began to lose its sheen. The fluorescent lights in the supermarket, and the yelling, all-in-caps signs started to become unbearable.

Then, a small farm appeared, next to some scrubby bush, in one of the oldest suburbs of Brisbane. The farm sat on a patch of land that had been a chip factory, and before that, a dairy farm, and before all of that, for as long as the land could remember, it had been a natural clearing next to an ancient track that led up the mountain to the place of the honey bee dreaming.

It was not the first farm in Brisbane. In fact, it was only there because others had come just before it. These farmers, picked up a thread, reimagined the future, nurtured conversations and dived in. Because of them, this farm took root.

The farm grew from the energy of our local community and the strong, deep desire that ran through us all for something more. We had lost something, on a long and twisting road, dropped our rituals, our ceremony, our knowledge of the plants. We had our lost seeds and the slow, steady rhythm of the seasons. And somewhere along the way, we had lost our sense of direction. But here it was, a small farm, in the middle of the city. It appeared like some kind of wayfinding signal and we used it to find our way back to ourselves, the land and each other.

From this farm, and the ones that came before, others grew. Stories of pulling beetroots from rich soil and what it felt like to harvest asparagus spears with a fresh snap were passed around like folklore. The tug of the soil, the promise of seeds and the enlivening energy of new friendships pulled us out of our houses and down to these landscapes that brimmed with life and possibility and hope.

The beginning... Brisbane Food CityIn Brisbane 2050, food is the connecting life force across the city.

In Brisbane, 2020, we can feel the pull of this future. We are telling its story as an act of orientation. Through the telling of it, our future - the one we hope to inhabit - becomes stronger. We find our way via conversations and connections and by a strong and purposeful reimagining of how things could be.

Our Vision for 2050 sees food as the reconnecting force between the land, communities, ecosystems and waterways. Currently, food is holding a latent energy, and with a spark has the remarkable potential to enable transformation of our city across all spheres.


Bee One Third - Jack StoneUrban beekeeper producing raw neighbourhood honey

University of Queensland - Kiah SmithEarly career Sociologist in the fields of environment and development,

with a focus on agrifood political and cultural economy

Sprout Node - David Swain and Will SwainIndustrial design and tech developer father- son team developing an

urban farming platform

Loop Growers - Alice Star and Phil GarozzoBio-intensive, regenerative, closed loop farmers taking waste (yields)

from cafes and turning it into compost to grow fresh produce

Neighbourhood Farm - Micah Oberon and Matt BakerFarmers on small scale, bio-intensive, urban farm producing locally

grown food for the neighbourhood

City Winery - Adam Penberthy & Travis CraneOwner of urban micro-winery with a restaurant focused on locally

sourced produce

Blue Dog Farm - Jackie HincheyRegenerative farmer with a focus on salad greens and grazing produce

Drinks with Chefs - Alanna SapwellChef who emphasises on the use of ethically raised and sourced

produce, Australian Gourmet Traveller Best New Talent 2019

Ashley Baxter, Tech Developer (Hey Monty)Jeremy Addison, Town PlannerKali Marnane, ArchitectGlenn Browning, Water Engineer

Craig Christensen, Principal, Urban Designer Sarah Schatz, Graphic DesignerJoshua Darrah, Graphic DesignerBrenna Quinlan - IllustratorBrisbane Community

Stakeholders

Other contributors

Core team

Kylie is grateful to call Brisbane

home and loves spending time

outdoors. At Our Food System,

Kylie inspires and empowers

people to believe they have

the power to transform the

food system. She does this by

building the food citizenship

movement; influencing change

at the household, community

and policy level, facilitating a

more democratic food system.

Nick loves Brisbane for its social

nature and public transport.

Nick runs the Mini Farm Project

which grows food for the those

in need by converting under-

utilised spaces across the city

into urban farms. Nick works at

an impressive pace, managing

two farms, with an extra coming

on board in 2020 and has

grown a community that works

tirelessly to grow food for the

most vulnerable in Brisbane.

Ellia’s favourite favourite

part of Brisbane is the

cacophony of bird call. With

a background in ecology,

Ellia cultivates urban spaces,

reimagining Brisbane’s

potential to incorporate

nature, biodiversity and

urban agriculture through

her business Future Wild.

She also works with chefs to

create gardens that showcase

menu items and create

dialogue around local food

production.

As an Urban Designer and

Landscape Architect, Catherine

is passionate about healthy

urban design, walkable cities

and placemaking. She is co-

founder of Green the Street, an

initiative dedicated to making

Australia’s streets greener,

shadier, walkable and more bike

friendly, kickstarting dialogue

around rethinking how we

design, interact and transform

our streets.

Ellia Guy

Catherine SimpsonKylie Newberry

Nick Stein


Brisbane’s inner city has flourished with an profusion of climate controlled indoor growing facilities, ranging from aquaponics, hydroponics, vertical gardens and glass enclosed rooftop gardens. These productive growing spaces are established in disused buildings, including warehouses and carparks, rooftops and specially designated green space. Council has facilitated the growth of these inner city farms through rezoning and alterations to policy that encourage the use of abandoned buildings for agriculture, creating a prime environment and opportunity for these enterprises to grow. Where disused buildings have been bought by developers, the Urban Agriculture policy that calls for 10% of floor area designated for urban agriculture ensures space is retained in new buildings.

While this would have been an unacceptable trade off in the past, the efficiencies of controlled environment agriculture and demand for locally grown produce, means that developers are more willing to integrate agricultural applications into their building mix. Furthermore, the farms are managed by the local food system network and require little oversight by the building owner.

Moving out from the inner city, market gardens begin to appear as the land expands out. Ranging in size from quarter acre to two acre blocks, these growing spaces are sheltered by a border of native shrubs, including wattle and pigeon pea, alongside taller shading trees along the western edge, protecting against the harsh afternoon sun. Fruit trees (commonly banana and citrus) are planted in rows between crops, with a myriad of other edible varieties planted amongst the trees. This model of syntropic farming/food forest, is an essential component of the urban farms, providing much needed relief from the searing sun, as well as creating vital ecological habitat around the borders.

Water sensitive urban design is a prominent feature of these sites, with collection ponds, small dams, rain gardens and sediment traps common features across the market gardens. These features capture and store rainwater, filtering it, capturing excess sediments and nutrients and slowing down the movement of water onsite. As a sub-tropical city that can experience episodic flooding, these design aspects are an important inclusion.

There are a number of similarities across each of these farm plots, including Sprout node sensors that neatly flag the row ends, beehives, chicken coops, on-site composting

Integration of these farming solutions came about from conversations about the feasibility of outdoor market gardens across the entire city. It was recognised that diversity in growing environments not only provides resilience in the face of extreme weather events (flood, fire and drought) but also offers water efficiency (important in an already dry sub-tropical city forecast to get dryer). Additionally, these more highly productive growing spaces offer a more efficient model of supplying more densely populated inner city populations with food. Solar power is utilised as the primary source of energy for these farms, ensuring energy efficiency.

and worm farms. However, each farm still exhibits its own unique character. based on the size, diversity of climate resistant crops and the friendly presence of community plots at some sites.

The diversity across farm plots is further enhanced by the presence of Indigenous owned and managed farms, every few suburbs. These patches of land, similar to the market gardens, are solely for use by the Juggera and Turrbal traditional owners in Brisbane. Crops include kangaroo grass, native raspberry, lilly pilly and saltbush, and many micro-enterprises have been established off the back of these farms, developing unique regional products that are in demand across the world. These sites provide a vital connection to our Indigenous heritage and foster principles of connection to country, justice, and regeneration.

Progressing out past the suburban fringe, blocks start expanding and swathes of gum trees repeat across the landscape. Here, you notice the market gardens are interspersed with broad-acre crops, grains, legumes and tubers; providing citizens with nutrient diversity needed to sustain a healthy and nutritious diet locally.

Inner city abundance Suburban market gardens

Peri-urban farms

A tour ofBrisbane 2050

Brisbane Food City changes feel and shape as you move from the dense inner city, out into suburban areas with traditional breezy Queenslander houses and further on to the larger blocks and open space that typify the peri-urban fringe. Spread across 190 suburbs, high-tech indoor farms sit alongside regenerative market gardens, connected via strong community connections and a city-wide technology platform. This local food system fosters resilience, diversity and community participation.

An interconnected web of urban farms and food hubs


Powered by a new generation of urban farmers

Connecting community through technology

Decentralised distribution through food hubs

Urban farming We welcome a new generation of farmers who have been inspired to take up urban farming as a career through the immersive education and training that starts from their first day of Kindergarten, at age 4. The overarching model that ties Brisbane Food City together is a social enterprise that provides a living wage for farmers. This has transformed farming from a fraught

career to an appealing career path. Farmer incubator models, along with farmer-to-farmer cooperatives provide the necessary training, support and guidance for both aspiring and experienced farmers and foster friendship and social connection.

of produce across the city, minimising food wastage. Food is transported between farms and food hubs using automated electric refrigerated vehicles.

Advanced composting facilities feature prominently at all farms, food hubs and many homes. This new generation composting technology ensures zero odours or mess, consistently delivering a high quality natural fertiliser. The ease of composting has encouraged many households to install composting facilities in their backyards and they are also a common feature in highrise basement carparks across the city.

With advancements in virtual and augmented reality technology, digital storytelling has assisted in shifting the city’s food culture toward a local, plant-based diet. Immersive technology has gifted us the ability to transport people onto farms to hear first hand from the farmer how their food was grown, including details on how much water was used and the amount of carbon sequestered (front of mind questions as the Antarctic ice sheet melts alarmingly faster). Local chefs transport people into their personal kitchens, showcasing recipes for speciality tropical produce like local green papayas, that have been growing in popularity. The classes often end with tips on what to do with food waste and a run down on the seasonal produce that is coming up for harvest.

a coffee at the adjoining cafe, or to check out their own veggie plot within the community garden patch that sits alongside the food hub.

The food hubs are more than just a retail store. They provide a meeting point and a space to relax, and are where the community comes together - to connect, celebrate, cook and relax. Whether they’re attending a workshop on soil health or a cooking class at the community kitchen, the food hub has become a central meeting point where social connections are formed and strengthened in the community.

The annual ‘production planning meeting’, which brings together all small and medium sized family farms across the city, allows for a comprehensive scheduling of their production calendar throughout the coming year. This allows the farmers to plan for possible periods of over and undersupply to ensure production and harvest is balanced across the city.

A lot of the food hubs also have seedling nurseries, overseen by community. These nurseries keep an abundant supply of locally adapted, climate resilient seedlings. Seeds are swapped between food hubs and are a connecting force across the city.

Brisbane Food City is underpinned by a blockchain based data platform, equipped with an easy to use app interface that is used across almost every aspect of farm and community life. The platform provides for on-farm management systems, collection and administration of daily harvest data, local food hub aggregation, inventory and distribution logistics and the ordering and purchase of fresh produce by the community. Interfaced with an app, it allows the community to nominate the times at which they can contribute to on-farm jobs such as weeding, planting and harvesting. Increased community participation has been further facilitated and enabled by changes to working conditions, including a reduction in the working week along with increased flexibility in working arrangements.

Sensors and IoT agriculture solutions help to drive farming processes; assisting farmers in analysis and planning. Harvest data from each urban farm is entered into the data platform, via the easy to use app interface, that allows real-time updates to the local food hubs. This pooling of data from farms across the city not only ensures an efficient supply chain but also provides an aggregating mechanism that helps ensure efficient distribution of fresh produce to prevent gluts or undersupply at each food hub. It also ensures diversity

Food hubs have become the new corner store; prominent in every neighbourhood across Brisbane. They provide a decentralised distribution model for the food grown at nearby market gardens, peri-urban farms and indoor controlled-environment farms. The food hubs, connected via a city-wide data platform, play a crucial role in Brisbane Food City when it comes to the aggregation, storage, cooling and distribution of fresh produce, reducing bottlenecks and food waste.

These simple yet welcoming hubs have become a popular change from the bright lights of the diminishing supermarkets, and stock a wide variety of fruit and vegetables, multi-grain breads, preserves, value-added products, fermented and small goods, spirulina, raw honey, mushrooms, legumes, grains and nuts all grown within the confines of the Brisbane City Council local government area.

With food scraps in tow to deposit into the adjacent composting facility, the community swarm to the food hubs like bees to a hive, collecting their weekly fresh produce. Some have ordered online, others prefer to stroll around choosing as they go. There is the added convenience of home delivery. While this offers considerable convenience (and is handy for sick days, when quarantining is essential), most people choose to wander or bike down to the hub, enjoying the chance to bump into an acquaintance or friend, often stopping for


Informing and empowering food citizens

A thriving food culture

Encouraged to pitch in at farms and food hubs for credits toward produce has brought the community together. The simple act of working alongside each other, sharing in both the joy of bumper harvests and disappointment of failed crops, has brought the community together in a way many have never experienced before. This reconnection, with each other, the land, and mysterious, life giving force of seeds has led to a quiet, humming appreciation for community and the sustaining energy of the Earth.

Virtual and augmented reality has enhanced Brisbane’s relationship with food, intimately connecting individuals to information and data that previously lay hidden. Through learning about the quantity of water in a tomato, or the carbon sequestered by a silverbeet crop, citizens are informed about their food in transformative ways.

At the core of Brisbane Food City is the power of its citizens. The local food system is powered by the people, for the people. Our Vision envisions a local food system that both educates and empowers its community. Importantly it also creates a dynamic of belonging and participating that allows Brisbane’s inhabitants to concurrently create and support a food system that meets their needs. This shift in dynamic, from consumer to citizen is an important bridge that has led Brisbane to a co-created foodscape.

Gathering local communities around urban farms and food hubs provides a meeting ground for local residents and has resulted in increased social connectedness and the emergence of a strong and cohesive community. Together, they have shifted from seeing food as a commodity to appreciating it as a connecting force, creating a mechanism for food citizenship. Additionally, greater access to fresh, highly nutritious food has led to improved physical and mental health, enhancing quality of life.

Our Vision incorporates local Indigenous knowledge into city farming practices, rebuilding our connection with Traditional Owners and building an important bridge to a healed and culturally vibrant future. Workshops and education around native bush tucker, arts and culture are offered by the traditional custodians of the land and local Aboriginal residents guide us in restoring and building our city’s connection to our significant cultural heritage. Designated land set aside for traditional owners to manage their own farms and crops has created a burgeoning movement around bush tucker and native grains.

Varieties of climate-adapted crops emerge from urban farms as seed saving becomes a sacred practice again. New tropical and sub-tropical varieties are brought into the local lexicon of food, accompanied by guidance and practical cooking skills, delivered via virtual reality and community cooking classes. Recipe development of locally devised dishes, as well as a recipe database for the city is created and contributed by local residents.

Chefs, already strong proponents of local producers, have become advocates in educating and shifting our diets toward these varieties and introducing us to new flavours. Yams have become a staple addition to our diet due to their suitability to the hotter temperatures we’re experiencing and are complemented by their high nutrient density. Chefs have also helped facilitate the shift to seasonal eating and provided education in how to utilise parts of fruits and vegetables we never thought of, like flowers, stalks and leaves.

A prosperous local economy

Brisbane Food City has seen the local food economy flourish with over 150 urban farms across the city, coupled with food hubs in nearly every suburb. There are thousands of square metres of indoor, controlled environment farms, 20 rooftop growing spaces and over 100 cafes and restaurants are sourcing local produce. Hospitals and aged care facilities have transformed their carparks into aquaponic production sites, making the most empty space.

Farmers are paid fairly through a social enterprise model, recognising their vital role in the city. Micro-

enterprises, ranging from training providers, to value-added processors, have blossomed throughout the city and significantly contributed to strengthening the local economy. Through the process of social procurement, hospitals, aged care facilities, and the central performing arts centre are not only growing a significant portion of their own food, but securing produce from within the city boundaries. Bush tucker and speciality Australian native culinary products have become sought after products regionally, kickstarting growth of Brisbane’s export market.

A shared sense of identity

Brisbane Food City has seen enormous growth in social capital. The community’s increased connection to the land and their food, through regular participation in farms and food hubs, has resulted in a significant growth in social connectedness. People’s lifestyle has improved with more time spent in nature, either helping out on the farms, or tending to their garden at home. There has been an increase in foraging across the city, with excess shared with neighbours. Kids are much more aware and informed about their food and how it’s grown, with many farms offering a weekly after school program onsite, along with changes to the school curriculum to ensure that food citizenship is taught early on. Community harvests bring everyone together and are a great celebration around local food, along with the Spring Festival, culminating in a city-wide shared feast.


Community Food SystemHealthy Sustainable

Equitable Democratic

Through the simple act of reconnecting people with their food, there has been a huge shift in the way citizens shop, cook and eat. Brisbane Food City has transformed the food environment, increasing access to nutritionally dense, affordable fresh food.

Increased visibility of food growing in every neighbourhood, along with community participation on the farms and food hubs, has resulted in more informed and empowered food citizens whose food choices are influenced more by values of universalism rather than purely cost and convenience. Rich, fertile soils have led to increased nutrient density in foods. Quality, freshness and taste has also increased which has resulted in increased consumption of fresh produce. Variety has also increased, with access to a suite of native, tropical and sub-tropical fruit and vegetables not previously widely available. Legumes, grains, fish, nuts and mushrooms are all grown throughout the city as well. This has led to an increase in the population now consuming a highly nutritious diet.

Cooking skills have also increased, through both the cooking classes held at the community kitchens, and through chefs taking people through the recipes at home through use of virtual reality technology. Increasing fruit and vegetable consumption is also supported through the ‘Food as Medicine’ program where the GPs, dieticians and nutritionists prescribe a tailored eating plan along with tokens that provide the patient/client with subsidised fruit and vegetables for the length of the healthy eating plan. These work hand in hand with citizens, making sustainable, local and organic food the easy choice, ensuring we nourish both our city and the planet.

Brisbane Food City is a fair and equitable food system. This is enabled through various mechanisms. First and foremost, farmers are paid fairly through the local food system. The organisational structure facilitates the establishment of a living wage for all, and means that those growing our food are paid fairly for the value they provide to the community. Our Vision has created a range of new, diverse jobs and micro-enterprises.

Furthermore, a Foundation has been formed as a ‘resilience and transformational fund’ to ensure that 20% profit is reinvested back into the community in the form of micro-loans, grants, and scholarships, along with a ‘crisis fund’ which provides sufficient funds to rebuild farms and infrastructure after extreme and increasingly common weather events.

A sliding scale on produce and value added products is introduced across the city, to ensure that food is affordable for all across the different income streams. Higher income areas pay a premium price to ensure that food remains affordable for residents in low income areas.

Sustainability is a central tenet that runs through all of Brisbane Food City.

Starting at the farm, seed banks leading to climate-adapted crops ensure crop resiliency in a changing climate. Regenerative agriculture and other farming practices such as syntropics and food forests, nourish and feed our soils, reduce city temperatures and encourage biodiversity. The overall vegetation cover from these urban farming plots reduces the heat island effect through shading and evapotranspirative effects, which reduce overall energy consumption.

Farm plots are structured around water sensitive design including rainwater collection (including tanks and dams).

Food is transported short distances in electric vehicles to nearby food hubs, resulting in a system which uses minimal energy inputs. Chefs throughout the city are educated in basic farming practices, and regularly utilise secondary crops which minimises food loss and waste.

Both household and commercial food waste is incorporated back into the system, through traditional and high tech composting systems, present at food hubs and farms. A diversified farming system across the city, ensures there are resilience buffers across the system, ensuring preparedness in the face of extreme weather events and climatic shifts.

Aquaponics, hydroponics and vertical farms in the inner city, also provide greater diversity and resilience during these times, along with growing food with fewer inputs than traditional market gardens and peri-urban farms.

Our Vision is citizen led and community driven. Participatory governance models and structures underpin the heart of Brisbane Food City. Through the involvement of community members in having a say in what crops are planted, to how their community food hub was designed, this process has resulted in models that are more relevant to the needs and wants of the residents in different neighbourhoods across the city. With a greater level of influence over their own food system, people’s purchasing habits have significantly shifted away from the supermarket system, to a more localised model which values its farmers, chefs and everyone else involved in bringing food to the people of Brisbane.

The Brisbane Food Policy Council (est. 2025), has been hugely successful in shaping and directing the growth of a fairer food system, through influencing changes within planning schemes and policies.

By building a community of food citizens, we unlock our ability to influence and guide the food system to one that is fairer and more resilient for the planet, our people and the natural environment.


Train

ing p

roviders

+ educationLocal governm

ent

Cultural custodians Tech

nolo

gy d

evel

opm

ent

PRODUCTION

COMMUNITYCO-CREATED

CONSUMPTIONCitizensChefs/Restaurants/Cafes

DistributorsFood hubsRestaurants/cafesHospitalityAged careEntertainment precincts

Food manufacturingMicro-enterprises

FarmersMicro-enterprises

CompostEnterprises

DISTRIBUTION

WASTE PROCESSING

Stakeholders

Climate change

Catastrophic events (floods, drought, fires, storms)

Desertification

Rising waters (groundwater & seas)

Soil loss

Population increases

Late-stage capitalism

Biodiversity decline

Ageing farming population

Premature death from non-communicable diseases

Insufficient fruit and vegetable intake

New generation thinking

Pandemics & new patterns of behaviour & questions of current status quo

Localisation & bio-regionalism

Growing urban agriculture sector

New grant funding

New economic paradigms + models

Emerging technology

Transformative policy

BRISBANE

Para

digm

atic

shi

ft

INC

REA

SE R

ESIL

IEN

CE

Pressures on food system

UN

DER

MIN

E RESILIEN

CE

ForcesForces acting on Brisbane’s food system

Documents

BRISBANE FOOD CITY...Landscape Architect, Catherine is passionate about healthy urban design, walkable cities and placemaking. She is co-founder of Green the Street, an initiative