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

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!

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.

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.

* In this project, the word “immigrant” is primarily used to refer to individuals who themselves underwent a process of migration in their lifetime (first-generation). We acknowledge that not everyone who is referred to as an immigrant here necessarily self-identifies with this term.

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