Visiting the site for the first time really emphasised for me the importance of the nature and ecologies present on the site, so I then wanted to do more desktop-based research particularly into this side of the site, now that I had more of an firsthand understanding and reference point.
One fantastic source of insight is the publication Fruitful Futures: Imagining Pomona, by LiFE Research Group. LiFE Research Group is a group based at Manchester School of Art, part of Manchester Metropolitan University. It is a group which "explores and reinvents the way we live through investigative future visioning projects". This publication is a collection of writings and speculative ideas, all centred around Pomona Island specifically.
"Through a series of speculative visions of 'What If's', Pomona Island in this case is the subject of writings, proposals and marking points for projects to nurture and initiate collaborations to change and inspire the politics of occupying spaces within and around our future cities." ––– Fabrizio Cocchiarella [Intro, p.2]
Reading this publication gave me much more information and ideas about the site – like with the George Haydock film, its strength is in its collaborative nature, bringing many voices together. Whilst I gained a lot from many of the articles, one in particular stood out to me: Reflecting Complexity: Urban Forest System, by Vincent Walsh. This introduced me to the ideas of agroforestry for the first time.
Reflecting Complexity: Urban Forest System, Vincent Walsh
This article first explains how forests are extremely rich ecological systems, due to the interactions between all of their constituent parts. They also naturally self-regulate. This, Walsh states, is completely different to the predominant industrial food production methods - monoculture systems. These only output one crop, don't have any other benefits or useful outputs, and rely on artificial chemicals such as pesticides. Agroforestry, on the other hand, has the benefits of many different food outputs, as well as timber production, water purification and carbon capture.
Walsh explains that the complexity of an agroforestry system makes it more makes it a more adaptive and resilient system. Monoculture systems, on the other hand, in their human-directed simplicity, require much more water and lead to soil degradation. Because an agroforestry system is a closed-loop, completely self-sustaining ecosystem, it is less affected by outside events, such as socio-economic or ecological shocks. Walsh notes that this means that agroforestry wins over monoculture on issues of fiscal prudence, food security, job creation, urban heat reduction and flood risk mitigation.
"Being able to create an “ecological urban food system” that has the ability to grow an abundance of food is an interesting proposition for a 21st century urban landscape for reasons of, fiscal prudence, food security, job creation, urban heat reduction and flood risk mitigation, to name a few." [p.47]
Walsh closes their article by talking about the Salford Urban Forest System, a project that they led. This is inspiring, as it shows that this is something which can happen right here in the city. As Walsh says, "just think what Pomona could be!"
Reflection
This article has really inspired me. Having previously had no awareness of agroforestry, it has opened my eyes to something which I think could have a lot of potential as part of a proposal for the site. I'm now going to take this as a starting point in a line of investigation into agroforestry and related concepts, to see where my research will lead me in relation to my project.
"Agroforestry represents a viable, practical opportunity to develop systems for urban food production at a local level that can create and reproduce more sustainable approaches that can then be used for the transition to more sustainable cities." [p.49]
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