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Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

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esearch scientist <strong>and</strong> chair of the Resilience Alliance, Brian Lake, who defines<strong>resilience</strong> in terms of ‘the capacity of a system to undergo <strong>change</strong> <strong>and</strong> still retain itsbasic function <strong>and</strong> structure’. In this school of thought, a resilient system is seen toinclude features such as:ecological, social <strong>and</strong> economic diversity;tight feedback loops;working with natural cycles;‘well-developed social networks <strong>and</strong> leadership’, <strong>and</strong> high levels of trust;an emphasis on ‘learning, experimentation, locally-developed rules <strong>and</strong>embracing <strong>change</strong>’;‘institutions that include redundancy in their governance structures <strong>and</strong> a mix ofcommon <strong>and</strong> private property with overlapping access rights’.Incorporating this thinking into conceptualising a resilient <strong>food</strong> system as one that iscapable of adapting to a changing <strong>climate</strong> whilst achieving future <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong>, oneresearcher described such a system as one that is:Flexible, adaptable, <strong>and</strong> can respond to whatever happens in the future in termsof a changing <strong>climate</strong>, extreme weather events, <strong>and</strong> the price of oil going throughthe roof. We can make predictions about what’s going to happen <strong>and</strong> when, butwe don’t know, <strong>and</strong> in what combinations. So there are some things that justseem fairly sensible to do, because a number of these things might happen.[Doing those things] means that we’re more likely to be able to get fresh,reasonably affordable <strong>food</strong> to people, when they need it.So <strong>resilience</strong> is about planning <strong>and</strong> preparedness for a number of differentscenarios that may happen in the future, as well as the <strong>resilience</strong> in ensuring thata farmer is able to keep farming the l<strong>and</strong>. There’s no point protecting l<strong>and</strong> <strong>and</strong>water sources, if we’re not paying farmers enough to keep farming on the l<strong>and</strong> –there has to be fairness for farmers.It’s not helpful to think about the <strong>climate</strong> <strong>change</strong> issue separately from all theother emerging issues. We need to plan for a system that’s more resilient to all ofthem. And if you think about it that way, then there’s real synergies between thesteps that need to be taken to address <strong>climate</strong> <strong>change</strong>, <strong>and</strong> the steps that needto be taken to cope with oil price volatility, <strong>and</strong> the steps that need to be taken toensure fairness for farmers [Academic researcher].VEIL’s Future Scenarios work, discussed above, clearly fits into this systems approachof ‘planning <strong>and</strong> preparedness’ for an uncertain future. In Melbourne’s <strong>urban</strong> agriculture<strong>and</strong> community <strong>food</strong> movement, there is a strong current of opinion that is informed bythe view that the current globalised <strong>food</strong> system, because of its heavy dependence onfossil fuel inputs, <strong>and</strong> its high ecological footprint, is fundamentally non-resilient <strong>and</strong>vulnerable to some sort of systemic breakdown or even collapse. This is evident instatements such as the following:The industrialised <strong>food</strong> system is the main cause [of current <strong>and</strong> future <strong>food</strong>in<strong>security</strong>]. It’s the most destructive force on the planet. It is a major driver of<strong>climate</strong> <strong>change</strong>, generating up to 33% of all GHG emissions, <strong>and</strong> as much as<strong>Urban</strong> <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong>, <strong>urban</strong> <strong>resilience</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>climate</strong> <strong>change</strong> 43

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