Simona Hegi

Growing our own food may sound like a thing of the past. Especially in cities, having time and space to grow your own herbs or even vegetables is a luxury. Most people probably find the idea of growing their own food ridiculous, because we have everything we need in our supermarkets around the corner, but with the increasing food insecurity in big cities, gardening acts as a lifesaving tool. Can urban agriculture be a sustainable solution to problems, resulting from urbanization?

Figure 1: Urban gardening on a rooftop (Ryerson University, 2021)

Urbanization

Urbanization refers to the shift of the population from rural to urban areas. Living in a city can be culturally and economically beneficial since more opportunities are provided. According to Worldbank 55 percent of the world’s population lives in cities, with that tendency rising. This process of urbanization goes along with an increase of urban poverty, a polluted environment, growing food insecurity and malnutrition. These factors especially affect children, pregnant and lactating women. Big cities import food, but especially healthy food is too expensive for slum dwellers, resulting in malnutrition (Orsini, Kahane, Nono-Womdim, & Gianquinto, 2013). Half of our world’s population is facing food problems, 3.4 billion people suffer from hunger, malnutrition, or obesity (Third World Network Staff, 2015). There is no question that we should look at the problems of our food production system and the upcoming problems of urbanization. Action is required!

Problems of industrial agriculture

Ninety percent of the worlds 1.5 billion hectares of agriculture are dominated by industrial agriculture. About 33-40 percent of agro-industrial produced food is wasted and another 40 percent is fed to farm animals. While agriculture uses 12 percent of the land base and 70 percent of our water resources, it only contributes to 30 percent of the direct food production (Third World Network Staff, 2015). Finally, monocultures contribute to soil degradation and the decrease of biodiversity, while both healthy soils and biodiversity are fundamental for a sustainable agriculture.

Urban Agroecology

UA approaches sustainable development based on bottom-up and territorial processes to tackle local problems by the roots. The projects are based on co-creation of knowledge, combining science with the traditional, practical, and local knowledge of producers. In big cities, building rooftops can be used as gardens, but the accessibility is lesser than having a piece of land on the ground. Urban Agroecology can be done in many ways, but the goals of the projects remain similar: the key factor is growing food where the people live, so people with low economic resources get access to healthy food and a balanced diet. In addition to that, jobs are created, and the transport routes become shorter. And even more positive effects follow from urban gardening if it’s done the right way. The organization of the garden must have a concept because land alone will not grow vegetables. The community must know when or what they should do in the garden and would have to know what plants are weeds and what plants are important and should stay. Also, other problems can occur in the neighborhoods, for example to avoid vandalism the whole community must be involved, so people have a connection to the garden. The soil in the city is for sure full of substances, but as one can imagine there are also a lot of toxic ones getting disposed in the cities soil. Even if the city is not the organizational instance, the city should ensure the soil is examined and not toxic. The FAO defined goals for agroecological projects which relate to the three dimensions of sustainability; social, economic, and environmental (FAO, 2018). In 2005 already 30 percent of food consumed in cities was already grown in cities. The expanding trend of urban agroecology continues today. The usable land to grow food is estimated from 1-7 million hectares or 1.4 -11 percent of the urban area. The food we can possibly grow in cities through local workers is projected at 100 -180 million tons per year globally (Altieri & Nicholls, 2018). Thanks to Urban Agroecology, healthy food is an accessible good and more people can afford to have a more balanced diet.

Problems of urban agroecology

The problem of urban agriculture in polluted areas remains unexplored. The burden of toxic soils is an important factor that should be looked at, minimized, and prevented. Major challenges include contamination by pathogens from irrigations by polluted water, organic fertilizers such as manure or poor hygienic practices after harvesting the food. In urban agriculture excessive use of fertilizers and pesticides may be a problem(Orsini, Kahane, Nono-Womdim, & Gianquinto, 2013).

Discussion

In future city planning, the land to grow food should be counted in, but even in tight city structures there will always be space for a little greenery. With the upcoming megalopolis (over 10’000’000 inhabitants) the problems of urbanization will reach a new level in these big cities. For me the social and psychological advantages of UA play an important role for the people. For example, having social connections in the neighborhood and living as a community, is important to live a fulfilling life. Other than that, the relationship to food and diet can change. If you can watch your food grow and see all the different stages of the process, people may try to produce less food waste, because they know how much work is needed until the self-grown food lands on the plate. It also may reduce littering by minimizing environmental pollution in general. People will likely not throw their waste into their “own” garden. As in developing countries, UA has also huge benefits in Swiss cities. In more affluent cities UA is solving other problems (food waste, city scenery, better thermo-regulation, etc.). All projects that involve the community and the growth of organic food have great potential to be a sustainable solution to food problems in cities. With not only the help of science but also the knowledge of farmers great innovations can evolve. In my opinion UA has the potential to reach multiple SDGs.

References

Altieri, M. A., & Nicholls, C. I. (2018). Agroecología urbana: diseño de granjas urbanas ricas en biodiversidad, productivas y resilientes. Agro Sur, 46(2), 49–60. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.4206/agrosur.2018.v46n2-07

FAO. (2018). The 10 elements of agroecology. Fao, 15. Retrieved from http://www.fao.org/3/I9037EN/i9037en.pdf

Orsini, F., Kahane, R., Nono-Womdim, R., & Gianquinto, G. (2013). Urban agriculture in the developing world: A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development, 33(4), 695–720. Retrieved from https://doi.org/10.1007/s13593-013-0143-z

Third World Network Staff. (2015). Agroecology: Key Concepts, Principles and Practices. Third World Network and Sociedad Cientifica Latinoamericana de Agroecologica. Retrieved from http://agroeco.org/wp-content/uploads/2015/11/Agroecology-training-manual-TWN-SOCLA.pdf