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Feeding the multicultural city: Gardening know-how and culinary heritage of immigrants

Published on
November 13, 2024

This project highlights the gardening know-how and culinary heritage of immigrants and their contribution to Amsterdam's food environment. It hopes to stimulate policy to recognize immigrants as powerful changemakers and food transition stakeholders.

Text Source: Amsterdam Institute for Advanced Metropolitan Solutions

A novel way of gardening in the city

In this project, we look at gardening knowledge as an essential facet of the food cultures of many immigrants living in Amsterdam today. We focus on the neighborhood of Nieuw-West, where many residents still possess hands-on knowledge of food cultivation from their countries of origin.

Many also show an interest in gardening both as a recreational activity and as a way of procuring high-quality, organic produce. Yet, a shortage of gardenland means that very few residents currently have an opportunity to grow their own food.

Our research centers on the Wereldgroentetuinen, a new type of green enterprise in Nieuw-West that offers allotment gardens for rent in what was once a disused commercial greenhouse. The climatic conditions in this (unheated) greenhouse allow gardeners to grow crops here that would usually not fare well in the Dutch climate. Sopropo (bitter gourd), kouseband (bora), caigua, okra, tajerblad, peppers, and melons flourish here—as do tomatoes, Madame Jeanette peppers, courgettes, beans, herbs, cucumbers, and pumpkins!

Mixed haul: Aubergine, kouseband (bora), Sopropo (bitter gourd), Madame Jeanette
Mixed haul: Aubergine, kouseband (bora), Sopropo (bitter gourd), Madame Jeanette

Cities are seeking ways to encourage gardening—but may overlook culinary heritage aspects

In recent years, a growing number of cities in the global North have begun to rethink the urban food system and are seeking ways to feed citizens more sustainably in the future. Policies encouraging urban gardening activities have become a core tenet of the envisioned food transition.

However, policymakers routinely fail to consider the past in their efforts to craft a more sustainable foodscape*. In particular, urban food policies need to acknowledge the role that immigrants' culinary heritage has long played and continues to play in transforming our food environment. Especially for a multicultural city like Amsterdam, developing a truly inclusive and 'deep foodscape' that accounts for its residents' diverse food histories, traditions, and skills will be critical to its future success and welfare.

The Wereldgroentetuinen are also a space to socialise and share tips
The Wereldgroentetuinen are also a space to socialise and share tips

For me, this project is about connecting past and future. As a historical center of migration, Amsterdam houses an amazing range and depth of food knowledge – and we urgently need this knowledge to create a different food future. If we mobilize the diverse culinary heritage that lives in this city, Amsterdam can lead the way in changing our food system for good.
Antonia Weiss, Post-doctoral researcher from the Rural Sociology group and research fellow of the AMS Institute

Urban gardeners and their histories

With funds from AMS Institute and WUR's Rural Sociology chairgroup, and in collaboration with local artist collective Cascoland, we are making several greenhouse gardens accessible to a group of residents from Nieuw-West. Using a combination of sociological and historical methods, we follow the residents' gardening endeavors and analyze their gardening knowledge in a biographical context. This allows us to relate their garden creations, horticultural skills, and food know-how to their individual life stories.

Changing the narrative: What do we hope to achieve?

By uncovering valuable forms of food knowledge amongst Amsterdam's residents and linking this knowledge to historical processes of migration, this project seeks to change the narrative on the future of food in cities. Through our observations and analysis, we aim to alert policymakers to the necessity to tailor urban food strategies more closely to the needs of people from diverse food cultures as well as to develop a greater variety of urban gardening environments in which a broader range of crops can be grown locally.

With our findings, we also hope to inspire urban stakeholders to make better use of the rare know-how and creativity that immigrants bring to transform the urban foodscape and to recognize immigrants as key stakeholders in the food transition.

*(Foodscape: the places and spaces where people acquire food, prepare food, talk about food, or generally gather some sort of meaning from food).