Urban food security, urban resilience and climate change - weADAPT

lives to growing it. By networking with local farms in 150 mile radius cities canbecome resilient, powerful by being locally adapted to the regional food system.Cities can move towards zero waste goals by using UA to utilize the organicfertility generated by the city. The ‘waste’ will be captured and kept within theregional system in form of carrying capacity of the region. Urban Agriculture isalso an economic and social tool which in very simple ways will provideemployment opportunities, opportunities for social networking and workingtogether as a community. It will reduce the carbon footprint of city dwellers anddecrease their dependence on fossil fuels (Havaligi, 2009, p. 15, emphasisadded).Dietary benefits are recognised by Kortright & Wakefield (2011) in their study of ediblebackyards:The most significant impact of home food gardening on food security found wasits ability to enhance the accessibility and nutritional value of the diets of thegardeners interviewed. Although affordability of food was not a key issue, havinga garden allowed respondents a greater diversity of fresh and nutritious producethan they might purchase otherwise. This is an important benefit of foodgardening for all households, regardless of income level. The process ofeveryday engagement with food gardens also changed the gardeners’ approachto food. It is likely that all of the gardeners improved the sustainability andenvironmental impact of their diet, another key element of community foodsecurity, by growing at least some of their food at home, entirely outside theindustrial food system (Kortright & Wakefield, 2011, p. 51)However, these benefits are more individual than social:Food gardening is immediate and personal, forcing us to deal not only with whatand how much we eat but also where it comes from and what it means to us.Home food growing can contribute to community food security not only by helpingto address issues of nutrition and access but also by improving the sustainability,health, and well-being of individuals and families. The increased level of selfrelianceand of food system knowledge seen among research participants bothprovide important supports to community food security. However, theindividualised nature of much of the home gardening seen here suggests thathome gardening does not, in and of itself, contribute to community development(p. 51).The significance of the wider social and political aspects of urban agriculture isrecognised by Dixon et al. (2007) in their comparison of urban food systems ofMelbourne, Nairobi and Bangkok in terms of diet and healthy equity. They argue thatover-consumption is the inevitable outcome of a system where food consumers are farremoved both physically and culturally from the source of their food.In the post-industrial country context, unequal access to dietary diversity hasbeen characterized as a slow food–fast food binary. In this scenario, the wealthyconsume diverse diets of unprocessed and local foods sourced from specialistprovidores, city farmers markets, and wholefood cafes and restaurants, whereasthe majority rely on industrial and processed foods of varying nutritional qualitysourced from supermarkets, fast food chains, and cafes that use short-ordercooks to heat and serve mass-produced food. (Dixon et al., 2007, p. 1516)They also make a case for state intervention in ensuring that urban agriculture can playUrban food security, urban resilience and climate change 88