Our current urban food situation is very unsustainable. On average, food in the United States travels between 1,300 to 2,000 miles from the farm to your plate. It is estimated that we put 10 kcal of fossil fuel energy into our food system for every 1 kcal of energy we get out as food. Urban farming is a sustainable way to use land within cities while simultaneously providing local food.
City farms are spreading fast. City farms contributed to 15% of world food production in 1993, 33% in 2005, and are still growing today. City farms help fight against poverty and hunger around the world. More than half of the people living in developing countries now live in urban areas. Poor people find any land they can to farm on and are able to save money while growing food. In Bankok, 72% of all urban families are involved in some kind of urban farming. In Moscow, families that raise food tripled between 1972 and 1992. City farming is expanding to places like Africa, Latin America, and all over the world.
The United States is involved in city farming as well. Major U.S. cities involved in city farming include New York City, Philadelphia, Chicago, Austin, and Detroit. Chicago is known in America for having the most rooftop greenery. Detroit, Michigan is leading America in the urban farming movement. With Detroit’s failing auto industry and countless foreclosures, Detroit has been left with vast amounts of unused land and abandoned properties. The amount of vacant land in Detroit is estimated to be the size of San Francisco. Detroit was at a loss for what to do with that amount of land. Detroit chose urban farming as its solution and founded the National Urban Farming organization that many other cities, like Los Angeles, Minneapolis, and St. Louis, are apart of. Hantz Farms and University of Michigan have partnered together to promote the urban farming revolution in Detroit, clearing out vacant lots and replacing them with mini farms instead. Hantz farms not only plans to provide homegrown vegetables and fruits, but clean energy as well.
Cities cover only 2% of the Earth’s surface, but consume 75% of its resources. Urban farming makes for a cleaner environment, supplies local produce, and provides “green jobs.” If more and more cities turn to urban farming, city’s can become self-reliant and much more sustainable.
I was astonished to find out that the world's cities only take up 2% land area but 75% of resources. The urban farming initiative is a wonderful idea to take unwanted space and grow healthy foods for communities. This initiative provides jobs in these trying times and also affordable healthy foods. The most important thing that was not stressed as much in the main post is the decreased amount of fossil fuels being used and less carbon emissions. Locally grown foods decrease individuals carbon foot print and altogether the global footprint made by humankind. Using unwanted land in cities that are potentially eye sores and using them to feed hungry people while decreasng the use resources is a winning situation.
ReplyDeleteUrban farming is an amazing idea, as part of the many things that need to be done to improve cities, such as concentrating housing, improving transportation etc. In addition to providing a wonderful use to the wasted spaces that exist in all cities where abandoned buildings exist, it also provides social benefits to the residents by providing them with a park-like area, as well as bringing the community together to work as one for a common goal. A garden such as this also reduces carbon by adding plants to absorb carbon and produce oxygen - more oxygen in a city is always good! If a garden such as this also had a compost heap it could also help reduce waste in the city. Urban farming reminds me of the idea of Green Roofs where plants on rooftops absorb heat and sunlight and help conserve energy. Cities have plenty of rooftops that could be used to grow vegetables and fruits and would also help regulate the temperatures of the building and reduce energy consumption, saving the whole building money.
ReplyDeleteI find this absolutely fascinating -- I doubt most people realize how far their food travels and how much those travel costs are. I think urban farming also has huge health benefit implications. If the food is not traveling as much, there is a lesser need to freeze and pump the vegetables and fruits full of sugary preservatives. The restaurant business will also improve as well, depending on the costs of fresh local vs. prepackaged foods. Even so, the people turning a profit from urban farming will be making quite a bit of money. Fresh food is almost a luxury good in cities, and I suspect they can charge quite a bit for their products.
ReplyDelete-Lindsey Sutphin
Detroit is doing something right! If there is extra land in an area, especially a city,urban farming should be the way to go. I was also surprised that so much food is transported from such distances. Urban farming is a good way to start living sustainably. Living sustainably is something that should be emphasized more and more, and all of these new ideas for vertical gardening, and roof top gardening can lead to this!
ReplyDeleteAlong with providing local food and more efficient land use, it is important to note the impact urban farming can have on the low - income sector of urban populations. For the unemployed or low income earners, urban farming provides a venue to make a living at local produce markets, save money on grocery shopping, and eat healthier. Further reliance on local, urban food can act as a type of investment into the city. Local “marketers” serve a significant role in a city’s accessibility to local food due to their own urban farming. With increased sales at farmers markets, money is then reinvested into further growth of local food inside the limits of the city. This type of urban revival can increase urban appeal, therefore prompting other forms of urban reinvestment. Urban farming could be the key to successful revitalization of urban cores.
ReplyDeleteI agree that urban farming is very important and a great idea. We have many of them where I live in NJ (we are of course the Garden State), I have a garden in my backyard, one at each of the 3 schools that I went to growing up. It seems to me that the less space an area has the more valuable the green areas are to the local people. Take New York City for example, Central park, Hudson River Land Trust, and Highline Park(http://www.thehighline.org/)(Highline is built on an abandoned train overpass), are all immensely valuable. Gardens and urban farming are just a small part of all this.
ReplyDeleteI would like to point out though that these farms are not "the solution" to world hunger, or feeding everyone in all of our cities. There is simply not enough space. While they are a great supplement, they can not feed everyone.
When I was a freshman at Tech I attended a very interesting speaker for a non-profit organization called RUST which stands for Radical Urban Sustainability. It is absolutely amazing how much city space can be used to help reduce almost everything from green house gases, electricity, food imports, more green space. Literally everything can be done within a city if people are just willing to change their lifestyle and use grey space and turn it into green space. Hydroponics, Aquaculture, green roofs, Vacant lot conversion, In house composting (with little or no smell at all), collecting drinking water in rain barrels. this isn't rocket science just a tad bit of ingenuity and hard work. Although I am super glad to see other big cities taking the initiative to produce their own food. Check this site out it's crazy.
ReplyDeletehttp://lhdwriter.wordpress.com/2010/03/05/radical-urban-sustainability-whats-going-on/
-Donny Hayes
Our present agriculture system highlights this nation's and most others' dependency on oil. Urban farming is catching on, but not as quickly as it should because oil is still relatively cheap. This will not be the case for very long. In Cuba, after the trade embargo, the country faced a virtual depletion of oil supply overnight. This situation forced the residents to, among many other adjustments, begin to revamp their agriculture system to a more sustainable and local urban farming system. Almost every family has their own garden. An interesting video which documents the many more sustainable transitions that Cubans were forced to participate in, including urban agriculture, entitled "Full Power of Community" can be found at:
ReplyDeletehttp://www.livevideo.com/video/mercofspeech/CD893609A0CB495D9A9CF04AC9E4AEFF/power-of-community-how-cuba-.aspx