Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

when suppliers, distributors, and consumers have the opportunity for more directlocal relationships, as with urban and peri-urban agricultural endeavours thatprovide farm-fresh foods through community-supported agriculture, farmers’markets, restaurants, and educational and other institutions. (Brown, 2002, p. 10)However, while urban agriculture brings clear benefits, Smith et al., (forthcoming) arguethat these benefits are spread unevenly. In their extensive mapping of ‘communities offood production’ in Madison, Wisconsin they show that gardening for food is stronglycorrelated with home ownership and salary levels. Indeed areas of lower socioeconomicstatus which are therefore more likely to face food insecurity show lessintense levels of urban food cultivation.The economic significance of urban agriculture is widely recognised; in the UnitedStates it is believed to account for 40% of total food produced, and on 10% of the totalland given over to agriculture. More broadly, Armar-Klemesu (2000) estimates that1520% of the world’s food is produced in urban areas. More specifically, urbanfarmers are known to provide fresh produce at reasonable cost in the poorer parts ofAmerican cities where mainstream supermarkets often find it unprofitable to locate.de Zeeuw and Dubbeling (2009) note the specific dietary benefits of eating more freshfood and of countering ‘...the urban trend of eating more processed, high sodium foods’(de Zeeuw and Dubbeling, 2009, p. 14). They also refer to the growing phenomenon ofthe ‘the urbanization of poverty’ (p. 7) as more people move from rural areas to newand expanding cities and experience food insecurity. However, it is worth noting alsothat a strong argument is made that most rural to urban moves lead to higher livingstandards and less poverty (Glaeser, 2011).Their list of the benefits covers a wide range of factors:Urban agriculture improves access of the urban poor to fresh and nutritious foodnot just by making it available at close proximity to cities but also by reducing thecosts of food (since locally-produced food involves less intermediaries and lesstransport, cold storage, processing and packaging). Marketing chains in urbanagriculture are normally much shorter and more varied than in rural agriculture,reducing the costs of wholesalers and retailers in the total chain; transport costsare lower, while more products are sold fresh and unpackaged soon afterharvest, thus reducing related storage, packaging and cooling costs. (p. 16)The diversification of food sources within cities and reducing dependency on foodimports (whether from elsewhere in a large state like Queensland, inter-state orinternationally) are also taken to be beneficial for cities in general and for the mostvulnerable who live in cities. The opportunity to work in new urban agriculturalenterprises can provide a valuable safety net in times of economic crisis and naturaldisaster.Finally, de Zeeuw & Dubbeling identify the opportunity for urban agricultural activities tomake productive use of urban wastewater in irrigation as well as managing urbanstormwater in more sustainable ways. Keeping parts of cities permeable to rainwaterand free from conventional forms of development can also perform valuable floodmitigation and storage functions.The social and transformative capacity of urban agriculture is described by Havaligi(2009) as part of a ‘multi-pronged tool’ for climate change adaptation and mitigation:Urban Agriculture is important for its productive acreage but it is more importantfrom the perspective of transforming urban dwellers from being consumers intoa community of co-producers. By participating in UA, people can develop adeeper understanding for food and respect for the farmers who dedicate theirUrban food security, urban resilience and climate change 87