Totally Stockholm 1
Issue #24 Issue #17 TOTALLY DUBLIN 17 Issue 17 –
Getting Diggy With It - Urban Farming We looked at urban farming in Stockholm back in our 17th issue. In a story with the title ‘Getting Diggy With It’, we profiled Trädgård på Spåret, a garden situated on discontinued train tracks, inspired by other urban gardens and projects like Berlin’s Prinzessinnengärten and The High Line in New York. We also spoke to the network Stockholm Stadsodling, and co-founder Ulrika Flodin Furås who explained the movement. Now we’re revisiting the organisation, and are asking Ulrika what has happened when it comes to urban farming in Stockholm over the last few years. Has this gardening movement grown further? Oh yes, I really think so, a lot. Especially this year of course, with corona and all, people have been even more interested, since they have all been at home in the city. The interest is growing at a steady rate. Are there a lot of opportunities to grow within the city, any initiatives that have helped progress? Or are there mostly obstacles to overcome? Well, the interest is much greater than there are places to farm. There are no new allotments, they’re supposedly in the works, but the waiting lists are very long. And there aren’t many places for community growing. There are a few, Trädgård på Spåret, Odla ihop in Tantolunden, Bellevue Farm by Wennergren Center. They are the three biggest. And Högalidsodlarna perhaps. There is great interest in doing it, but the possibilities are not as great. And it’s the lack of land that is the main issue. I think Stockholm would benefit from more opportunities, it would become a nicer city. These urban farms are not only there for the growers, but for the passers-by too. And it’s important from a biological diversity viewpoint. Finally, if you compare Stockholm to other cities in this regard, how are we doing? Oh, both Gothenburg and Malmo have directed initiatives to city farming. From official sources within the municipalities. Sure, I reckon part of the reason is because the land is even more attractive here of course, but Gothenburg and Malmö still do a lot more, like smaller shared farms or allotments. Issue #24 – Stockholm 2039 – 50 Stockholmers on our future There is a lurid appeal in going back in the past to read about the future. Some predictions do stand the test of time, whereas others, well, don’t. When we set out to predict how Stockholm would look in the future, we turned to our old friend, Marcel Proust. “The only true voyage would be not to travel through a hundred different lands with the same pair of eyes, but to see the same land through a hundred different pairs of eyes”. We couldn’t quite get a hundred people but we gathered 50 of Stockholm’s movers and shakers to get their respective take on what the future might bring. As they targeted the year 2039 none of these predictions are yet wrong, but some already sound like they have a hint of truth in them. Pontus de Wolfe – singer songwriter It’s somewhat contradictory, because essentially you want nothing to change about the city you love. At the same time I want to be able to point out locations for my hypothetical future daughter and tell her what they used to be like in the old days, Slussen, maybe Sergels Torg, changed or gone. Perhaps the water has swallowed it all. Perhaps you’ll need to restore it constantly in order for it to look the way you remember it, as the old impressions fade, as with movies or video games. I’ll point to the sky and tell her “There used to be airplanes with trails of smoke following them, like spider webs across the sky.” Niklas Ekstedt – Chef-patron of Ekstedt In 25 years Sweden will be the only country with clean air, so I predict that we are going to have a huge boom in tourism. Restaurant menus will have changed dramatically by then, with chefs having to source new ingredients and shift the focus away from fish and meat, which will have become increasingly scarce and expensive. I think food is heading in the same direction as the music scene and will eventually split into two distinct factions – a super-consuming mainstream and a more intellectual, independent school of thought. 11