Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

are to become more resilient in the face a variety of existential threats, includingclimate change. Insofar as it represents a form of localised food production andconsumption that requires fewer energy inputs than more spatially extensive andenergy intensive forms, it also has the potential to help mitigate the factors causingclimate change.To date few studies have attempted to quantify the potential of urban agriculture tomake cities more food secure, but there are many which describe and catalogue itssocial and community benefits. These include the development of stronger socialconnections in urban communities, increased awareness of the benefits of fresh fruitand vegetables and locally produced food in a healthy diet, greater appreciation of thesources of food and of the connections between processes of food preparation andfood quality. Urban agriculture also has the potential to re-establish connectionsbetween food and place that were once common in Australian cities, but which have toa great extent withered over the last four decades. All of these social impacts may beas significant as the nutritional benefits of eating more locally grown food.The increasingly complex systems of regulation that operate within Australian cities,especially those relating to land use planning, health and safety and the operation ofsmall businesses, often serve to thwart attempts to develop new forms of commercialurban agriculture as well as more community based and not for profit initiatives. Whilethis may not be the intention of such regulatory regimes, they nevertheless often inhibitunnecessarily these new enterprises.Projected state-wide and regional climate change impacts suggest that urban and periurbanagriculture may, because of their relatively secure access to fresh water, cometo assume an increasingly important role in supplying food to Australian cities in aclimate-constrained future. However, these same peri-urban areas have always beenand will continue to be the site of intense conflict between those wishing to preservevarious aspects of this environment, including food growing and amenity, and thosewho prefer this land to be available for the expansion of urban and suburbandevelopment. The capacity of local and regional planning regimes to manage theseconflicts successfully remains the subject of much debate.Urban agriculture represents therefore one of a number of important ways for cities toadapt in the face of climate change. It is highly unlikely that the major cities of Australiawill ever become completely self-sufficient in food, but through greater support forurban (and peri-urban) agriculture, they could become more food secure. This in turnwould contribute to building the overall resilience of Australian cities and to theirsustainable growth in the future.As the literature review revealed, there is no single and widely accepted definition ofwhat ‘food security’ means, either generally or more specifically in the urban context.With each interviewee we explored their understandings of food security and theseconfirmed this definitional disagreement apparent in the literature. Most of thosedirectly involved in urban agriculture took what was described above as critical/microperspective, while many of those engaged in more traditional forms of agriculture in theperi-urban fringes adopted a more traditional/macro standpoint.Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change 62