5. CONCLUSIONSThere is growing concern about the vulnerability of our cities to a number of factors,including peak oil, global economic crises <strong>and</strong> <strong>climate</strong> <strong>change</strong>. Each of these is likely tohave profound effects on the <strong>security</strong> of <strong>urban</strong> <strong>food</strong> supplies. Recent disasters,especially floods, have highlighted the fragility of <strong>food</strong> supply lines to Australian cities.Experience in the rapidly growing cities of the global south provides vivid illustrations ofthe damaging consequences for social order <strong>and</strong> civility if <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong> is seriouslycompromised in anything but the very short term.Most theoretical <strong>and</strong> conceptual work on <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong> derives from <strong>and</strong> in manyrespects is most applicable to developing countries <strong>and</strong> to cities in developingcountries. As Australia is not a developing country, the question is: do concepts of <strong>food</strong><strong>security</strong> from developing countries apply to Australia? And if these concepts areapplicable, can they be modified to take account of the particular circumstances of adeveloped country like Australia?This section summarises our findings <strong>and</strong> conclusions under three broad headings:meanings <strong>and</strong> conceptualisations of <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong>; the anticipated impacts of <strong>climate</strong><strong>change</strong> on <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong>; <strong>and</strong> the contribution of <strong>urban</strong> agriculture to building <strong>urban</strong><strong>resilience</strong>, before closing with a brief discussion of future possibilities.5.1 The concept of <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong>Most theoretical <strong>and</strong> conceptual work on <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong> derives from <strong>and</strong> in manyrespects is most applicable to developing countries <strong>and</strong> to cities in developingcountries. As Australia is not a developing country, the question is: do these generalconcepts of <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong> from developing countries apply readily to Australia? If theseconcepts are applicable, can they be modified to take account of the particularcircumstances of a developed country like Australia?There is growing global concern about the vulnerability of cities to a number ofexistential threats, including peak oil, global economic crises <strong>and</strong> <strong>climate</strong> <strong>change</strong>. Eachof these is likely to have profound effects on <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong> in general <strong>and</strong> on the<strong>security</strong> of <strong>food</strong> supplies to cities in particular. Recent disasters, especially floods <strong>and</strong>storms, have highlighted the fragility of <strong>food</strong> supply lines to Australian cities while therapidly growing cities of the global south provide vivid illustrations of the damagingconsequences for social order <strong>and</strong> civility if <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong> is seriously compromised inanything but the very short term.Food <strong>security</strong> is typically defined in terms of access to <strong>food</strong> as well as its affordability<strong>and</strong> availability while some also refer to the cultural acceptability of <strong>food</strong> <strong>and</strong> to theagency of institutions promoting greater <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong> (FAO, 2006; Ryerson Centre forStudies in Food Security, 2013). But other related concepts are also used increasinglyin policy <strong>and</strong> other debates as a result of criticism of the limited <strong>and</strong> absolutistconception of the FAO approach. Food sovereignty, for example, was introduced bythe International Peasant Farmers’ organisation La Via Campesina in 1996 as anecessary precursor for <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong> (Patel 2009) <strong>and</strong> while there is a diversity ofunderst<strong>and</strong>ings of <strong>food</strong> sovereignty, at the heart of most is a rights-based approach<strong>Urban</strong> <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong>, <strong>urban</strong> <strong>resilience</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>climate</strong> <strong>change</strong> 57
allied to strong notions of autonomy in local <strong>food</strong> systems. In the ground-breakingInternational Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science <strong>and</strong> Technology forDevelopment, <strong>food</strong> sovereignty is defined as ‘the right of peoples <strong>and</strong> sovereign statesto democratically determine their own agricultural <strong>and</strong> <strong>food</strong> policies’ (McIntyre, et al.,2009, p. 111). More than simply about access, <strong>food</strong> sovereignty seeks to maketransparent the power relationships inherent in agricultural <strong>and</strong> <strong>food</strong> systems as aprecursor to changing these into more equitable systems.As more of the world’s population lives in cities, so questions of <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>food</strong>sovereignty increasingly take on an <strong>urban</strong> dimension. While much debate is concernedwith how to produce enough <strong>food</strong> for a growing <strong>urban</strong> population <strong>and</strong> how to securelines of supply from rural places of production to <strong>urban</strong> places of consumption, greaterattention is now also being paid to the systems of production, processing <strong>and</strong>distribution of <strong>food</strong> within <strong>urban</strong> areas. Recent recognition of the extent of <strong>food</strong> wastage(Institution of Mechanical Engineers, 2013) illustrates that <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong> should not belimited, conceptually or practically, to the nature <strong>and</strong> volume of production but extendedto matters of distribution, access <strong>and</strong> control.The production of <strong>food</strong> within <strong>urban</strong> areas is an important component of <strong>urban</strong>agriculture, along with systems of <strong>food</strong> processing, distribution <strong>and</strong> sale. Themanagement of waste from these processes is another important element in this broadconception of <strong>urban</strong> agriculture. There is scope, therefore, for <strong>urban</strong> agriculture tomake an important contribution to strengthening <strong>urban</strong> <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong>. This can in turnhelp build <strong>urban</strong> <strong>resilience</strong> <strong>and</strong> promote more sustainable forms of <strong>urban</strong> life.<strong>Urban</strong> <strong>resilience</strong> has entered the lexicon of <strong>urban</strong> studies <strong>and</strong> indeed <strong>urban</strong> policy inrecent years <strong>and</strong> typically takes a broad view of the capacity of cities of respond to orrecover from external threats <strong>and</strong> shocks. Pickett et al.(2004) propose the metaphor of‘resilient cities’ as a means of linking the disciplines of ecology <strong>and</strong> planning into amore productive relationship to better underst<strong>and</strong> some of the major problemsconfronting contemporary cities <strong>and</strong> indeed to propose effective solutions to them.They propose also that the ‘old paradigm’ of ecology based on an equilibrium model isreplaced by a non-equilibrium paradigm which connects structure <strong>and</strong> function in sucha way that <strong>resilience</strong> becomes the ability of a system to adjust in the face of changingconditions rather than simply returning to its previous equilibrium condition after adist<strong>urban</strong>ce. In the context of <strong>urban</strong> <strong>resilience</strong> or the <strong>resilience</strong> of cities this ‘newparadigm’ is especially valuable as the uncritical pursuit of a past condition isunavoidably retrograde <strong>and</strong> almost certainly doomed to failure.In contrast, University College London’s Centre for <strong>Urban</strong> Sustainability <strong>and</strong> Resilienceadopts an engineering focussed view of <strong>resilience</strong> <strong>and</strong> describes it as:a newer concept [than sustainability] dealing with the issue of how to mitigate theeffects of environmental disasters <strong>and</strong> terrorism, incorporating seismic <strong>and</strong>volcanic hazard, flood risk, the spread <strong>and</strong> control of disease, <strong>security</strong> <strong>and</strong>situational awareness (UCL CUSR website: why <strong>urban</strong> sustainability <strong>and</strong><strong>resilience</strong>?).One of the key questions posed at the outset of this review concerns the capacity of<strong>urban</strong> agriculture to play a more prominent role in enhancing <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong> <strong>and</strong> hence<strong>Urban</strong> <strong>food</strong> <strong>security</strong>, <strong>urban</strong> <strong>resilience</strong> <strong>and</strong> <strong>climate</strong> <strong>change</strong> 58
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Synthesis and Integrative ResearchF
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Published by the National Climate C
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ABSTRACTFood security is increasing
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1. a review of the literature: on n
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its Food for All project. This help
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In response to the existential thre
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- Page 82 and 83: IntroductionGlobally, and in Austra
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ackyard/community gardenernot affil
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level in local government. VicHealt
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Figure 2: Impacts on Municipal Food
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security I recognise that the cost
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United States, he offered the follo
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This vision highlights the multi-fu
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An environmental education centre.
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Melbourne Food ForestA Melbourne ga
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stakeholder consultations, the repo
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can. We sense the changes. The earl
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half-desert environments. We’re g
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etain its basic function and struct
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government; and that trying to get
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the north and the west, where it wo
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Why do people buy so much food that
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urban agriculture (however broadly
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enefits and risks. Before we can co
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Another important and tangible role
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coast without any problems whatsoev
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BIBLIOGRAPHYAECOM (2011) Scoping St
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Burns, C. I., A. (2007). Measuring
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Edwards, F., & Mercer, D. (2010). M
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James, S. O’Neill, P. and Dimeski
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Millar, R., 2012, ‘Government shi
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Saltmarsh, N. M., J; Longhurst, N.
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Walker B., 2008, Resilience Thinkin