Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

ackyard food forest, discussed in more detail below, spoke on behalf of himself andhis fellow local permaculturalists in Melbourne in saying:Our focus is about people producing their own food. We’re about food security asgrowing food to keep people alive, not food security as producing food as acommodity for a consumerist society. [Food is] not a means of making money, it’sa means of keeping people alive. Our focus isn’t on yields and produce, at thecost of quality. Our focus is to produce yields and big harvests with the highest ofquality. We’re aiming at food that has high nutritional value, and long-term hasbenefits in terms of reducing government outlays on health.Another interviewee, from a social enterprise, alluded directly to the principles ofpermaculture in her conception of food security:It’s all very much a part of consciously living in a far more environmentallysustainable way, which takes into consideration environmental justice and socialjustice. It is about looking after the needs of people – the permaculture principles,care of people, care of earth, share of surplus – they’re kind of basic, but theywork [Manager, social enterprise].A clear example of the perceived benefits of self-reliance and becoming individuallymore food secure is presented by an organic grower and activist from the Gold Coast.Her experiences with the Brisbane floods were both dramatic and enriching:Well, for instance when we had the floods and people couldn’t get milk everyonewent nuts because they couldn’t get milk for what was it a day or two? And thenthe price of vegetables when through the roof. Well, yeah, those kinds of floodsaffected us too and you know some of the stuff in our garden fell over and diedas well but there were things there that we wouldn’t have starved, we might havegot a little bit hungry and baked beans might have been on the menu for a fewnights, but it would have been with some salad and parsley and grind up a greenpaw-paw for a nice Thai green paw-paw salad, you wouldn’t have just survived,you could have lived [Non-government organisation employee, Gold Coast].Adding another dimension to the debate, academic researchers were especiallyconcerned about the issues of environmental sustainability, intergenerational equity,climate change, resource resilience, and fairness. One offered this multi-dimensionalconceptualisation of food security:Food security is sufficient, equitably accessible and sustainable food.Sustainability in this context means food produced in such a way that doesn’tundermine the ability of future generations to meet their own food needs. That’sreally important, and isn’t talked about enough, especially in relation to water andland issues, on the peri-urban fringe.Secondly, that we’re meeting food needs into the future, taking into account theconditions we’re likely to face into the future. That’s to say, oil, land and water allbecoming more scarce, and the price of oil becoming more expensive. And theclimate change implications that I believe we’re going to face, and that we’realready starting to see …Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change 34