The Development and Institutionalization of Urban Agriculture Policy: Emerging Governance Models in Three Norwegian Cities

Urban agriculture has been closely associated with citizen activism and voluntary work based on local bottom-up initiatives. However, municipalities have been interested in urban agriculture, and this chapter presents the development of public policies and the main actors in three cities, Oslo, Bergen and Trondheim. They show many common traits in institutionalization of urban agriculture policy. But there are also differences particularly between role of voluntary groups and bottom-up and top-down processes, degree of networking, relationship to ordinary peri-urban agriculture and new forms of urban agriculture, and the implementation of urban agriculture in plans. Oslo shows a politically driven implementation through traditional participatory methods with plans and visions for developing urban agriculture as a social activity in green/urban spaces and as new ways of professional production of food in dense urban areas. In Bergen, the voluntary sector has an active role as co-creators of policy through political activism and participation in strategy development and in running competence center. In Trondheim, the policy is co-produced with the growers each year based on their experiences, and the connection to ordinary, professional agriculture is strong. While Oslo and Bergen have developed strategies for developing urban agriculture, Trondheim has consciously chosen not to do so.