Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

etain its basic function and structure’. A resilient system is seen to include featuressuch as:ecological, social and economic diversity;tight feedback loops;working with natural cycles;well-developed social networks and leadership, and high levels of trust;an emphasis on ‘learning, experimentation, locally-developed rules andembracing change’;institutions that include redundancy in their governance structures and a mixof common and private property with overlapping access rights; and,consideration of ‘all of nature’s un-priced services – such as carbon storage,water filtration and so on – in development proposals and assessments.In Melbourne’s urban agriculture and community food movement, there seems to be aview that the current globalised food system, because of its heavy dependence onfossil fuel inputs, and its high ecological footprint, is fundamentally non-resilient andvulnerable to systemic breakdowns or even collapse.A resilient food system, on the other hand, will, according to most interviewees,have a number of features that will enable it to cope with a variety of external andsystemic shocks (climate change, Peak Oil); and also be capable of deliveringfairness and social justice, for farmers and consumers.A resilient food system would work from food production to consumption, retailand waste, and how we deal with that. A functioning, coherent system, wouldprovide well for everybody in the population [Manager, NGO].Integrated planning frameworks were also mentioned:A resilient food system also means looking at retail and food service, so theoutlets for food are accessible to people, are in the right locations, that they areaffordable and provide a good mix of healthy options. It also means including thefood service industry, which means tackling the whole question of fast foodoutlets [Manager, NGO].Urban agriculture is seen by interviewees as having a key role to play in buildinggreater levels of urban resilience in general and climate resilience in particular. Acommon view is that localisation of food systems will be a key adaptation, together witha greater sense of shared and collective responsibility for the design of climate-readyurban food systems:Small and diverse will be the way to go. Food needs to be close to people; theywill notice its needs and respond to it. They will understand the necessaryadaptations that might be required, such as additional shade. There needs to begreater flexibility, greater understanding of local resources, and the taking ofdecisions collectively [Urban gardener and local food advocate].One of the emerging features of community-level urban agriculture in recent years hasbeen food swaps. A backyard gardener emphasised the essential role that strongcommunity relationships and networks have to play in terms of creating a resilienturban food system:Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change 132