The Majura Valley could be a mini-food bowl for Canberra and the right to develop on the land should be extinguished to make way for job-creating "farm incubators".
That's the conclusion of Ainslie Urban Farm owner Fiona Buining who used her 2020 Churchill Fellowship to investigate urban farm ventures in the United States.
She said in Canberra only 5 per cent of fresh food consumed here was grown locally.
That percentage could and should increase by setting aside land for agriculture on which small-scale farming projects could be fostered, without the constant threat of alternate redevelopment of the land.
She wants to help establish an urban farm incubator in the ACT, like the ones she saw in the United States, to train aspiring farmers, and show that agriculture can be a jobs-generator in the ACT.
"One of the really important things I learnt on my fellowship was the value of actually growing food where people live for many, many reasons," she said.
"And if we don't preserve land for growing food where people live, we will not be able to grow food where people live.
"And the Majura Valley represents a really great opportunity for growing food for Canberra. It has a rich agricultural history."
As part of her fellowship, Ms Buining visited the oldest farm incubator in the United States, in Burlington, Vermont.
"They set a really incredible vision 40 years ago that has just changed the trajectory of farming and food in that city," she said.
"And the move that they made is they identified an area called the Intervale Valley and extinguished the right to development on that land, stipulating that the land had to be used for agriculture, with the farm deriving at least 50 per cent of their income from the land.
"Concurrently, they established a farm incubator to train and support people to become farmers. That valley is now populated with a huge range of small-scale organic farms and associated enterprises that feeds many, many people. So, one farm alone feeds 600 families.
"That has just changed the whole food system in Burlington."
Ms Buining believes that same food revolution could happen in Canberra, increasing food security, reducing emissions as less food was trucked in and maintaining green spaces within the urban environment.
"The Majura Valley corridor through Pialligo to the lake could be identified as an agricultural zone paving the way for an Incubator and incubator farms populating the whole valley," she said.
"This would be a prime agritourism precinct and would propel the local food system and food security to the next level."
Ms Buining runs Ainslie Urban Farm, a business in which she grows microgreens, in greenhouses in her backyard in Ainslie, for local restaurants and cafes. Since the pandemic, she has also been growing and selling seasonal vegetable seedlings.
She attended a consultation session and read the draft East Canberra District Strategy and was disappointed it did not imagine the area could create jobs through agriculture.
"The word 'agriculture' is barely mentioned in the strategy," she said.
"And what seemed to be ignored was the potential for agriculture to actually provide jobs and business opportunities. Everyone needs to eat.
"Food is one of the most fundamental industries and putting big box stores, like concreting good agricultural land, that seems to be a lost opportunity."
The first step was extinguishing the right to develop on land such as that in the Majura Valley.
"It does take a brave person to do this, but now is the time," Ms Buining said.
"Farm incubators spawns businesses, they don't just create jobs. They creates businesses which employ people.
"To me, after what I've seen on my Churchill Fellowship, it would be the no-brainer for Canberra."
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