Taipei City is the largest consuming site in Taiwan. Most of the people have never seen vegetables growing in the field. While facing the severe issue of food safety, it’s important for us to redefine the role of urban agriculture. Why? Urban agriculture is a good way to bring people closer to what they put into their mouth every day. When people start to grow their own food, they will start to care more about the food they buy from the restaurant. When people start to grow food in the community, there will be more vacant lots and rooftops to be well-utilize and thus become a garden. In winter of 2014, we decided that it’s time for us to transform our city into a farmcity. We are ambitious. We want our city to be not only green but also edible.

In “Farmcity – Community Garden Program”, the Department of Economic Development helps to build community gardens from vacant lots to rooftops. People could choose whether to apply our subsidy program and build community garden by themselves. Or, they could choose to adopt a city-owned community garden. No matter which program they choose, the Department will also provide services such as on-site farmer Q&A section, community empowerment training program, community garden design workshops and annual sharing festival.

In the past two years, the Department built over 35,000 square meters of community gardens and provided Q&A sections for over 15,000 people and 230 classes. Over 12,000 people had attended in the class.

Top:Community garden traveling, Bottom Left: Making vegetable riceball, Bottom: Community garden concert, Bottom Right: Program in the allotment garden

Besides the community garden, this program also wants to promote the industry of greenroofs, especially for croporation. The Dept. of Economic Development started greenroofs promotion events from 2016. Over 93 corporate representatives joint the events in one year. We build a new website for them to check information on greenroof materials. We provide on-site Q&A sections to the office buildings and households. The new Taipei Expo Garden Market had grand opening last week. Many prototypes displayed in the market give visitors a glimpse on capability of greenroof.

Top: Major in the Rooftop Community Garden, Bottom Left: Gardens serve as horticulture therapy site, Bottom: Farmer Q&A section, Bottom Right: Training program

Pic.9 The Taipei Expo Garden Market displays

The participants of community garden say: "Community garden program is not only for growing food but also for being outdoor, knowing neighbors and growing community stewardship. Elders are more willing to go outside. Kids eat more vegetables. Neighbors talk to each other more. And I finally know how food grows from seed and how to cook different variety of vegetables" These are the values for Taipei City to keep promoting FarmCity.