Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

2. OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCHFood insecurity is already a major problem in many parts of the world and it is beingexacerbated by climate change. As more of the world’s population lives in cities andurban areas, so the supply of food to urban populations is a major concern togovernments at all levels. Urban planners (broadly defined) are attempting to deal withchanging patterns of food retailing, the contribution of food to waste streams that mustbe managed, the cost and quality of food and its impact on public health and socialexclusion. They are also attempting to plan for greater resilience in cities in the face ofvarious threats, including those associated with climate change. Therefore, enhancingurban food security is not only an important aim in its own right, but also a significantpart of wider processes of building urban resilience in the face of climate change.It is increasingly recognised that the variety of practices that exist under the broadheading of ‘urban agriculture’ can contribute to achieving more secure food supplies forurban Australians. These practices range from backyard and rooftop gardening,through to community gardening and composting schemes, to the planting of ediblelandscapes and the establishment of new food retailing opportunities. Around manycities, peri-urban areas also offer significant opportunities for more localised foodproduction and processing. But there are also significant barriers to the developmentand wider application of these practices. While some of these barriers may bebiophysical and driven by climatic changes, many are social, economic and political.This project is designed to extend our knowledge of the current diversity of urbanagricultural practices in Australian cities, to identify the social, economic and politicalbarriers to urban agriculture and to explore the potential for extending its practice in thefuture, especially one increasingly affected by climate change. It draws on a systematicreview of current practice in Australia and beyond and supplements this with two casestudies of major Australian cities.We expect the results of this work will make a number of valuable contributions: to thedevelopment of the National Food Plan currently being prepared by the Department ofAgriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, especially in relation to its concerns about climatechange impacts, adaptation and mitigation; to national debate about urban foodsecurity and urban resilience; and to local debates about the development of moreeffective policy frameworks to support urban agriculture.Presentations of the research findings will continue to be made at various conferencesin Australia and internationally, and we hope to extend the research in the future toinclude more comparative analyses of urban food policy development in American andEuropean cities.Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change 6