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.)