The farm next door
We all have plants in our homes, if only one, I know you do. Mine serves as an ornament, but there is a huge potential for urban grown crops. During the second world war European and North American cities relied mostly on gardens and locally produced food for survival. Today Urban areas occupy 2% of the world’s surface yet they use 75% of its resources.
During the last 50 years a rapid increase in urbanization has taken place all around the world. By 2050, 68% of the world’s population is going to live in urban areas. This growth is going to be largely concentrated in Asia and Africa. As people flock in into cities all kind of necessities arise: housing, food, electricity, water supply and drainage, among others.
The question of how to feed future cities is a particularly interesting one. Big populations require equally big amounts of food. The challenge lies in feeding the increasing amount of people whilst ensuring minimal impact on the environment. This can be achieved by eliminating the spatial distance between people and the agricultural land that supports them. “Divide between urban and rural is artificial and counter-productive and it is increasingly recognized that the two sectors are intimately connected in a larger system” says food systems researcher and policy analyst Arthur Getz Escudero.
Enter, Urban Farming.
Urban Farming or Urban Agriculture, can be simply defined as the act of growing or producing food in a city or heavily populated town or municipality. It is driven by the desire to reconnect food production and consumption and is different from community gardening and homesteading in that it assumes a level of commerce.
They are different types of Urban Agriculture:
In developed economies such as that of the United States, UK or Japan Urban Farming has been taken to a state of the art level. Techniques such as Aeroponics are been used to grow food, U Farms integrate data science and Machine Learning to monitor and maximize their amount of produce. In contrast, we cannot expect this to be the case in developing nations. Resources and technology might not allow for high-end practices. But, efficient, well-planned and incentivized urban farms can go a long way in ensuring food security for their cities population.
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Further reading:
Urban farms are growing among NYC skyscrapers
Sustainable Urbanization Policy Brief
Food, Agriculture and Cities. FAO food for the cities multi-disciplinary initiative position paper
