TITLE:
Thinking on Growing Urbanization, Sustainability and Food Supply: The Need of Urban Agriculture
AUTHORS:
Florian C. Guenther
KEYWORDS:
Urbanization, Cities, Agriculture, Climate Change, Sustainability, Urban Agriculture
JOURNAL NAME:
Current Urban Studies,
Vol.7 No.3,
September
13,
2019
ABSTRACT: By
2050, it is projected that 68 per cent of
the world’s population will live in cities. At the same time, mankind is facing
the tasks to tackle climate change and to produce enough food for a growing
world population. Those trends claim to rethink how cities should be planned,
and how agriculture can become resilient and deliver sufficient crop yield in a
changing climate. This paper offers an insight into the idea of urban
agriculture as a solution for those challenges in an urban context, considering
the urbanization trend, the role of cities in climate change, and the issues of
limited space in urban areas and agricultural habits. It argues for an implementation of agriculture into urban
planning in relation to ecological agricultural practices. Pursuing ecological
practices like Conservation Agriculture improves the health of soils which
results in a higher crop yield.
Therefore, ecological practices in cities are a key to produce vegetables and
fruits for the urban demand and to reduce transport emissions. Furthermore,
with an extension of green spaces in urban areas through ecological cultivated
land, the urban heat island effect can be decreased, more carbon can be stored
in healthy soils, and water run-off can be improved which reduces the
likelihood of urban flood events.