Abstract: The traditional Australian family home in the suburbs boasted a vegetable garden and some productive fruit trees. Market gardens were once interspersed amongst some suburban areas and were located on the edges of the cities. The recent scale and form of metropolitan development has placed both forms of urban agriculture under growing pressure. Suburban lots became smaller and houses increased in size while the market gardener sold up and moved on. Urban agriculture is a major element of food production across much of the developing world however it is now on the rise in the western world both as a concept and in practice. Assisted by concerns and movements associated with concepts such as; ‘food miles’, grow local, ‘slow food’, farmers markets, food security, the social and community benefits of growing your own food, community gardens and the realization of the links between food and the local economy, urban agriculture is experiencing a strong revival. Should our metropolitan strategies and urban design practices be incorporating food as a core element? This paper recounts this apparent turn around and addresses whether this is a substantive change in urban planning and policy or just another trendy fad.