Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

economic aspects, of urban agriculture. This suggests that the wide range of activitiesexisting under the broad heading of urban agriculture tend to be seen, by the planningsystem at least, as a somewhat marginal activity rather than sitting ‘... right at the heartof debates concerning the sustainable city and those related to urban containmentversus expansionism’ (Howe, 2003:257).In Queensland, the first State Planning Policy published in 2012 related to the‘protection of Queensland’s Strategic Cropping Land’, although for the purposes of thisreview it is worth noting that this policy does not apply to any strategic cropping land inan urban area or within the urban footprint. Further relevant policies of state and localgovernments in Queensland and Victoria are described in the following section.While local regulations that originated in earlier times and epochs of cities may nowserve to inhibit the growth of urban agriculture, in some countries more supportivepolicy environments for urban agriculture are emerging as part of food securityinitiatives which integrate national, regional (state or provincial), and local governmentprograms.In Canada, cities as well as provinces are developing food security plans whichrecognise the contribution that local food systems can make. In their Metcalf FoodSolutions paper, Nasr et al. (2010) describe the infrastructure needed to scale up urbanagriculture in Toronto and identify five areas of action:increasing urban growers access to spaces for production;putting in place physical resources to support production;strengthening the local supply chain;sharing knowledge;creating new models of governance which will help attract investment finance.It is worth noting their conclusion that the supply of land is not a barrier to theexpansion of urban agriculture in Toronto, given the existence of undeveloped land,vacant land capable of temporary use and the unexploited potential of rooftops.In Brazil, the city of Belo Horizonte in the state of Minas Gerais has succeeded inestablishing a series of world renowned local initiatives to ‘beat hunger’, including saleof locally produced food in local markets at subsidised prices. However, one of the keypoints identified in the success of this work is the alignment of local and national goals.As Ladner (2011:241) puts it:… they could not have done it without the backing of their federal Plan AgainstHunger. The Plan aligned federal departments around food under the NationalCouncil on Food Security. The city took the same approach, centralising alldecisions about food security and making it a priority’.In summary, the literature suggests a number of barriers to expanding the scope andimpact of urban agriculture in Australian cities. Perhaps the most significant is thefoundational assumption that shapes largely the perceptions of many that cities are notproper places for production of food on anything except a minor domestic scale.Despite an extensive history of urban and peri-urban agriculture, in about twoUrban food security, urban resilience and climate change 30