Unlocking Productive Urban Foodscapes

Abstract

Urban areas have long depended on rural areas to be fed, a dependence that has been exploited by the global food networks. The implications of this dependence are now prominent, with a worsening climate crisis, low productivity, prevalent hunger, malnutrition and a very unstable future, and we can no longer turn a blind eye. Intensive agriculture may be credited with increasing the agricultural output, but it has come with a price, that we pay with planet exploitation, farmer exploitation and resource exploitation. As cities fill up faster than ever, it is becoming essential for cities to find ways to feed themselves. Feeding cities, however, is not a small task. Certainly, there is a growing awareness to allow production of food in cities, but will these continue to be productive in the long run. And with urban space at a premium, whose slice of cake do we cut into? Urban land is contested, as more people fill into cities, we need to be smart about what we want from the land and infrastructure. [...]