Once upon a time everybody ate local food. No one called it that back then, of course. People just hunted, gathered, tilled the soil, and grazed livestock—all, for the most part, relatively close to home. But then small agricultural settlements grew into towns, towns grew into cities, and eventually the city became a place where you moved to get away from farming. A turning point came in , when a study of food distribution systems in the midwestern US showed that produce travels 1, miles on average from farm to plate.
But just how compatible is the landscape of modern cities with large-scale food production? A smattering of studies, mostly in the United States, suggests that a lot of little vegetable plots can add up to something pretty major. Vacant lots are plentiful in Cleveland, a city that has been hit hard by both deindustrialization and the foreclosure crisis. But not all cities have so much slack. On a global scale, one-third of the urban footprint would be necessary to produce the vegetables consumed by urban dwellers.
In general, denser cities will have more difficulty achieving food self-sufficiency. Looking up can also improve the picture somewhat. The United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization has estimated that at least million people grow food in and around cities. Many of these people are poor, and growing a bit of supplemental produce can make a real difference to their economic and physical health.
In the Kibera slum of Nairobi, Kenya, families who engage in sack gardening, a space-efficient method in which vegetables such as kale and Swiss chard are planted in soil-filled sacks, eat a wider variety of vegetables compared to other families.
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About this article Cite this article Porter, J. Copy to clipboard. New York has introduced Meatless Monday in schools , committing to reduce city purchases of meat by 50pc. There are lots of great initiatives, but they are scattered. Individual actions have most impact as part of a comprehensive systems approach. Integrated food policies can cut emissions, improve environmental resilience, and counter malnutrition and diet-related diseases concentrated in vulnerable populations.
By , more than two-thirds of the global population will live in cities. What they eat, how their food is produced and how their waste is minimised will be crucial to future human and planetary sustainability. By choosing to make good food easier and cheaper, cities can help improve the health of people and the planet. They have a broad impact within and beyond their borders.
The choices that city authorities make on procurement, managing systems for food loss and waste, and designing and regulating the urban food environment all represent great opportunities for system change and massive investment. Their power can shape markets and influence private sector responses to the growing demand for sustainable and healthy food.
Chief executives of large and small-scale businesses around the globe tell us that they are ready to make change, but are calling for political leaders to create incentives and regulations promoting more sustainable production and healthier food. While national governments linger, cities excel. They attract innovators, change-makers and trendsetters. Urban neighborhoods are becoming test beds for future solutions.
Through the C40 network, ambitious targets, projects and ideas spread across continents, creating opportunities to scale new models and solutions across the globe. What they eat, how their food is produced and how their waste is minimized will be crucial to future human and planetary sustainability. Mayors have a unique and critical opportunity to use local knowledge and environmental and health science to make desperately needed changes.
City officials lead on a local level and have a remarkable global impact.
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