Food in my back yard (FIMBY): Implementing urban agriculture into Australian suburbs

The recent climatic events, economic uncertainty and peak oil are leading to greater levels of awareness of our vulnerability for food supply and security. During the summer of 2010/11 much of the east coast of Australia was inundated with record rainfall and proceeding flooding, which impacted on food delivery from regional production areas to urban markets. Consequently many of our major food outlets in suburban neighbourhoods ran critically low in supply and price increases were significant. These
events have lead to a wider dialog on where does our food come from and how can we ensure food supply as we enter into the dual challenges of rapidly increased energy cost and climatic shifts. Resourceful and progressive communities are taking action to address this issue with the implementation of urban agricultural in urban spaces that traditionally have been occupied by ornamental landscapes such as suburban back yards and parklands. This paper discusses what actions are taking place using various cases studies from local government, community groups and individuals across Australia.