Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

security I recognise that the cost is very problematic, like a lot of people haveissues with being able to afford fresh fruit and vegetables, they’ve done someresearch interviewing older women and a lot of them are saying ‘well I can’t affordhealthy food, I’d like to buy more fresh fruit and vegies but it’s just too expensive’.But on the other hand, I know talking to the farmers at the farmers markets theyare having difficulties meeting their costs, so there seems to be a mismatch thereand I’m not sure, you know, what’s going to happen with that [Communitygardener, Gold Coast].A recurring theme in discussion of the drivers of food insecurity was the increasedmarket share of genetically modified foods and the consequent loss of traditional plantsand traditional ways of cultivating food species:I think it is terrible what happens with foods and seeds and so on. On Monsantoseeds in America is a classic where they put the genetically modified potatoes toprevent grubs from getting in and so on…I’m all against this genetically modifiedfoods because, to me, you don’t know what effect it’s going to have later on in lifeand so on… So, the heirloom ones are [important for food security, because] a lotof the stuff that you get these days are hybrid. In other words, they’ve been bredaround and they introduce a lot of other things with it, so, it’s not the purevegetable and not the pure seeds. So, by going back to the heirloom, you’ve gotstuff that was grown two or three hundred years ago … [Community gardener,Gold Coast]Finally, the built form dimension deals with questions of planning and infrastructure.Interviewees identified inadequate distribution mechanisms which could lead to theexistence and expansion of food deserts. Food deserts are understood as areas wherea significant proportion of households are not within walking distances of fresh foodoutlets. The phenomenon of ‘food desertification’ applies both to inner city areas aswell as to outer suburban areas of Melbourne and the Gold Coast, where the principalfresh food outlets are the large supermarkets locate mainly within shopping centres,which are mainly only accessible by car.Another feature of food deserted areas is the concentration of fast food restaurantsoffering cheap family meals, which become an attractive option for time-poor familiesliving in outer suburban areas that often also face long daily commutes to work in thecity. This in turn raises the wider question of urban sprawl, where new growth areas onthe peri-urban fringes are zoned without a long-term strategy for regional economicdevelopment and job creation. A senior manager in one of the ‘interface’ Melbournecouncils commented:[A]ll these issues are connected, and many come back to the jobs issue. Youhave 70% of the working population leaving, going off to work every daysomewhere else. It takes time to travel, you have two kids in the family, with 90minutes commute each way. The kids are in child care, the couple have a bigmortgage, they have two cars to run. They get home and they’re tired. The lastthing they want to do is cook a nutritional meal for their kids, when it’s so easy togo to Maccas or KFC or get a pizza. That’s the problem we face. Until we starttackling all of these issues, the suburbs are going to be the dumping ground forobese, diabetic unhealthy people [Local government employee, Melbourne].Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change 116