Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

driven agro-ecology (rather than corporate-driven agribusiness) as the mostappropriate mode of production to secure the right to food for vulnerable groups,especially in developing countries (United Nations, 2010). In addition, agro-ecologywas also identified by De Schutter as a mode of production that accrues benefits inrelation to increased productivity at the field level, the reduction of rural poverty,improved nutrition, climate change adaption and the better dissemination of agricultural‘best practices’.Food security in urban settingsAs mentioned in the introduction, more than half of the world’s population now lives incities. This urban population has, arguably, not only become increasingly disconnectedfrom the origins of food, but is also reliant on an increasingly globalised economy ofmonetary exchange to access food. Vulnerabilities are exacerbated when economicresources are low, and when food grown outside of the city is compromised due toclimatic variability and extreme weather events. Feeding growing city populationsrequires transporting food from outside of its perimeters, sometimes from agriculturalregions outside of the city, but increasingly from distant lands beyond the referentialframe of the recipient. Dixon (2011) refers to this disconnection between people andthe origins of their food as a metabolic rift, a disconnection and vulnerability that wasalso highlighted during this project’s fieldwork in Melbourne and the Gold Coast.Urban agriculture can also be seen as part of a food sovereignty movement, wherepeople take control of some of their calorific needs by producing food in their backyardsand community gardens and develop informal food distribution systems such as foodswaps, or gleaning. In this respect they are not only reacting to concerns about theavailability of food, but also to its inputs. There is evidence that urban citizens areincreasingly concerned about the health and environmental implications of an industrialfood system, its reliance on chemical inputs and the recent push toward GM food.In response to growing awareness of food vulnerability many urban citizens havebegun develop new approaches to local food production and distribution, exploringinnovative methods of urban agriculture and re-applying methods and practices thatwere once commonplace in cities. In some local jurisdictions this has been augmentedby local and regional state support which has resulted in new partnerships with localcommunity groups. In towns and cities appropriate planning policies can help re-insertfood growing into city life by extending the opportunities for groups in civil society toengage in food growing (Burke, 2009).There is great potential for urban agriculture to play a bigger part in dealing with foodinsecurity. Kortright and Wakefield (2011) report that globally, around 600 millionpeople are engaged informally in urban agriculture. With Havana seen as a model forurban food production with an estimated 90% of the fresh fruit and vegetablesconsumed in the city being grown in and around the city and despite differences in thesocial, political and economic context, this Cuban experience offers valuable lessonsfor urban food production in Australian citiesUrban food security, urban resilience and climate change 80