[04]
Currently, food-related activities within the area includes the Cheung Sha Wan Wholesale Food Complex (Figure 42:1), the Temporary Wholesale Poultry Market (42:2), the VMO Wholesale Market (42:3) and its hydroponic research facility (42:4), the Cheung Sha Wan cooked food market (42:5), a disused abattoir (42:6), various food processing businesses and a number of restaurants. Whilst industrial land in Cheung Sha Wan is currently perceived by planners as a viable outlet for the expansion of residential developments, their proposal will effectively force a gradual decentralisation and extinction of food industries which are inherent to the local fabric and to a wider network of urban ecologies within Hong Kong. In conforming with the recommendations provided by Metroplan 1991 to revitalise old areas through the rearrangement of land use and replacement of obsolete buildings to strengthen district identity (Hong Kong Planning Department, 2003), the deployment of the urban food cluster in Cheung Sha Wan will in essence become an exercise in re-imaging a piece of existing Foodscape. The introduction of the cluster can be seen as a means of encouraging the regeneration of Cheung Sha Wan. This is not too dissimilar to the introduction of the City Growth Strategy (2001) and the Local Enterprise Partnership initiative (2011) in the UK in which they focus on maximising the potentials of distressed inner city areas (Centre for Economic and Social Inclusion, 2003; City Fringe Partnership, 2005). This is greatly in contrast to traditional regeneration strategies that focus on solving urban problems with cheap and short-term ďŹ xes which have been the main drivers of government interventions (Porter 1995). In the case of the urban food cluster, resources are focused on supporting the food industry in Cheung Sha Wan to boost local economic development based on a partnership between private sector and public sector agencies, creating opportunities and a new local identity (Cooke and Morgan, 2002; Bagwell, 2008).
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