Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

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FieldworkBut food policy is rarely connected with other policy fields and if it is to becomemore influential it must become more integrated with other elements of urbanpolicy and planning.While the urban poor clearly experience all too intensely the effects of foodinsecurity and have limited means to overcome these effects, food insecurityaffects all urban residents to some extent. While relatively wealthy urbanresidents may be better able than their poorer neighbours to afford to buyhealthy and nutritious food they will nevertheless be similarly affected by majordisruptions to urban food supplies.Urban agriculture has the potential, therefore, to contribute to the adaptationsthat most cities are engaged as they strive to be more resilient in the face ofvarious existential threats, including climate change. As it represents a form oflocalised food production and consumption that requires fewer energy inputsthan more spatially extensive and energy intensive forms, urban agriculture alsohas the potential to help mitigate the factors causing climate change.While there are few studies to date that have attempted to quantify the potentialof urban agriculture to make cities more food secure, there are many whichcatalogue its social and community benefits. These include the development ofstronger social connections in urban communities, increased awareness of thebenefits of fresh fruit and vegetables and locally produced food in a healthy diet,greater appreciation of the sources of food and of the connections betweenprocesses of food preparation and food quality.Urban agriculture also has the potential to re-establish connections betweenfood and place that were once common in Australian cities, but which have to agreat extent withered over the last four decades. All of these social impacts maybe as significant as the nutritional benefits of urban agriculture.The increasingly complex systems of regulation that operate within Australiancities, especially those relating to land use planning, health and safety and theoperation of small businesses, often serve to thwart attempts to grow new formsof urban agriculture. While this may not be the intention of such regulatoryregimes, they can nevertheless inhibit unnecessarily these new enterprises.Urban agriculture represents, therefore, an important opportunity for cities toadapt in the face of climate change. It is unlikely that the major cities ofAustralia will ever become completely self-sufficient in food, but through greatersupport for urban agriculture they can become more food secure. This in turnwill contribute to the overall resilience of Australian cities and to theirsustainable growth in the future.\A prevailing view within government is that Australia is a food secure country inwhich climate change is significant mainly in relation to aggregate levels of foodproduction and to the changing viability of some major food production areas inAustralia. There is little or no concern with the resilience of food supply chainsto our growing urban populations.In 2005, VicHealth made a strategic commitment to promote food securityacross the state and supported a number of local councils in doing so throughUrban food security, urban resilience and climate change v
its Food for All project. This helped local councils integrate food securitymeasures into their other statutory planning responsibilities.Elsewhere, planning for local food security is minimal and more likely to be theproduct of efforts by local non-governmental organisations and charities. Theseinclude community gardening groups, permaculture organisations, schoolgardening initiatives, local producer organisations and traditional gardeningclubs.Many of those interviewed spoke of the need to join up local, small scaleinitiatives to help build more sustainable city-wide food systems,I’ve realised that the next step beyond an individual’s isolated food forest is tohave many of these linked up. To have a sense of community where peopleshare their produce. They all grow different produce, and share it betweenthemselves. That evens out any sort of fluctuations in species, weather, climateconditions and everything else. It creates a more resilient production system.(Melbourne backyard gardener)There is also a recognised need to improve the general awareness of food amongurban populations,There’s a real need for food literacy – we need a population that can be so muchbetter educated about where food comes from, how it’s grown, food chains andso on. (Food researcher)RecommendationsTo help improve the productivity and quality of food grown in cities, detailedlocal studies of soil quality, the impact of airborne pollutants, waterrequirements and crop yields could provide great benefit in developing moredetailed downscale projections of the impacts of climate change on foodgrowing potential, in particular cities and urban areas.If integrated and comprehensive plans for building urban resilience aredeveloped in Australia in similar ways to those now being implemented in othermature cities, then the potential of urban agriculture can be further enhanced.However, if urban agriculture is seen mainly as a marginal preoccupationamong a green or metropolitan middle class minority, then many of the currentbarriers to its expansion will remain and it will not be capable of making a moresignificant contribution to greater urban resilience.The results of this work can make a number of valuable contributions:to the development of the National Food Plan currently being prepared by theDepartment of Agriculture, Fisheries and Forestry, especially in relation to itsconcerns about climate change impacts, adaptation and mitigation;to national debate about urban food security and urban resilience; andto local debates about the development of more effective policy frameworks tosupport urban agriculture.Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change vi
Page 1 and 2: Synthesis and Integrative ResearchF
Page 3 and 4: Published by the National Climate C
Page 5 and 6: ABSTRACTFood security is increasing
Page 7: 1. a review of the literature: on n
Page 13 and 14: In response to the existential thre
Page 15 and 16: 2. OBJECTIVES OF THE RESEARCHFood i
Page 17 and 18: debates and to the more systematic
Page 19 and 20: organisation in the past few years.
Page 21 and 22: 4. RESULTSIn this section we presen
Page 23 and 24: increasing productivity. Thus, whil
Page 25 and 26: people and the origins of their foo
Page 27 and 28: urban food supply chains. Thus, whi
Page 29 and 30: This logistics system is dominated
Page 31 and 32: Like Hodgson et al., as per definit
Page 33 and 34: esilient, powerful by being locally
Page 35 and 36: volume or even its contribution to
Page 37: community food growing can have on
Page 40 and 41: generations this history has been f
Page 42 and 43: a stronger focus on addressing the
Page 44 and 45: The third key aspect is fairness -
Page 46 and 47: climate (which we live and work in
Page 48 and 49: agriculture. Eight percent is in ur
Page 50 and 51: This concept of the ‘spaces in be
Page 52 and 53: esearch scientist and chair of the
Page 54 and 55: As discussed above, protection of t
Page 56: 4.2.5 What is the extent and the im
Page 60 and 61:
no place under the panoply of pract
Page 62 and 63:
increased, the market dominance of
Page 64 and 65:
… the residents of S Park called
Page 66 and 67:
5. CONCLUSIONSThere is growing conc
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urban resilience. This inevitably c
Page 70 and 71:
In many respects these contrasting
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Many interviewees of both standpoin
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a given area. The rationale for thi
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mapping the location of sources of
Page 78 and 79:
Australian food policy debates refl
Page 80 and 81:
APPENDIX 1: URBAN FOOD SECURITY, UR
Page 82 and 83:
IntroductionGlobally, and in Austra
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Review methodsThis stage of the res
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despite many of the causes of food
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…by 2050… food production will
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2. How is food security (in general
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the food security of cities, but no
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While some see the density of devel
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when suppliers, distributors, and c
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a more prominent role in enhancing
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community gardens webpage on the Co
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comprehensive description of the ca
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In both the developed and developin
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Their review notes a significant in
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lines of supply from often rural pl
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1 IntroductionCities have always be
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Despite some attempts to curb urban
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the Gold Coast remains a city that
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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
Page 159 and 160:
Burns, C. I., A. (2007). Measuring
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Edwards, F., & Mercer, D. (2010). M
Page 163 and 164:
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.
Page 169 and 170:
Walker B., 2008, Resilience Thinkin
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