Urban Food Security in a Crisis Prone World

Inhaltsverzeichnis

1. Frontmatter

2. Chapter 1. Crisis Prone World Urban Food–Water Nexus: An Introduction

   Atif A. Kubursi, Amani Alfarra, Nathaniel K. Newlands

   Abstract

   Globalization has brought the world tightly together, and computer and information technologies have compressed time and space. The COVID pandemic ravaged economies, disrupted global supply chains, claimed many lives, stressed the over-crowded health systems everywhere, and destroyed numerous livelihoods. At the same time, it uncovered weaknesses and allowed the world a glimpse of a few opportunities. Now more than ever collective and cooperative action is needed to defeat emergent and cascading global crises. We outline ways the global food system can be fundamentally redesigned and restructured to actively tackle climate change and biodiversity loss, promote human health, and reduce food insecurity, improve the resiliency of communities while reducing the overall costs of the system to society. This can be achieved by reconnecting communities with local food production, by changing the way we grow food, design food products, and handle by-products and waste. Through a nexus approach to redesign and restructuring, we can create a less wasteful system by promoting a circular economy for food that provides key benefits for society and the environment by improving nutritional health, reducing the ecological footprint, securing access, mitigating risks of supply defaults, and generating local incomes and jobs that support cities and local communities.

3. Chapter 2. Redesigning and Transforming Food Systems to Be More Resilient to Disruption and Disaster: Lessons Learned from COVID

   Nathaniel K. Newlands, Amani Alfarra

   Abstract

   The COVID global emergency provides an opportunity for redesign and transformation in the agricultural sector—whether in a rural, peri-urban, or urban environment—for building resilience and sustainability in the face of many systemic challenges. These include climate change and extreme weather events, biodiversity, pest and disease, water availability and quality, livelihoods, population, health, and urbanization. Ecosystem-based solutions (EbS) offer an integrated or nexus approach to enhancing the resilience and sustainability of agroecosystems, but require strong engagement and coordination of stakeholders to codesign, pilot, and evaluate strategies and actionable solutions to be effective. Digital agriculture can help with the design, evaluation, assessment, and implementation of EbS using big data, predictive analytics, and Internet-of-Things, to help manage agroecosystem resources more efficiently and effectively.

4. Chapter 3. Environmental Resilience and Agricultural Best Practices

   Robert Smith

   Abstract

   Lake Erie is increasingly stressed by hazardous and nuisance algal blooms (HNABs) that occur each summer due to excess phosphorous (P) loadings from urban and, especially, agricultural sources. Building on an earlier economic analysis of the direct impacts of these HNABs, this study estimates the full economic impacts on the Ontario economy using a regional economic impact model. The full economic impacts include indirect and induced impacts in addition to the direct impacts associated with the costs previously reported in the literature. Province-wide, 3024 person years of employment are predicted to be lost on average annually in the period 2020–2024 if nothing is done to control phosphorus loadings to the lake. Employment losses are reduced by 812 person years (to 2212) if policy action is taken to control loadings. The equivalent figures for GDP are $147,351,000 and $38,431,000, respectively.

5. Chapter 4. Peri-Urban Agriculture and Food Security in MENA Countries

   Alban Thomas

   Abstract

   We present an analysis of the potential contribution of urban (UA) and peri-urban (PUA) agricultural systems to food and nutritional security in Middle Eastern and North African countries. We provide empirical evidence regarding the structure of UA and PUA that may be in favour of food and nutritional security in the MENA region, using several sources of information. The latter include a recent foresight study on future food systems in the MENA region in 2050, a brief literature review on UA and PUA systems, and an empirical analysis based on global data for MENA countries. We find evidence that the proportion of UA and PUA contributes positively to the city’s capacity to feed its population, but there is no evidence of a size effect of peri-urban area (or its density), indicating that it may be more an intensive margin impact at play. Regarding the share of PUA in total peri-urban area, we find a positive and significant correlation with available food per head, while it is positive for food diversity, as well as a higher elasticity of animal-sourced protein contents of diet to GDP per capita in MENA countries on average. More data complemented with field surveys would be necessary to confirm our findings, but our empirical analysis covering all MENA countries confirms some assumptions found in the literature, regarding the positive contribution of UA and PUA systems for food and nutritional security at the country level.

6. Chapter 5. Self-Provisioning and Urban Agriculture in Canada

   Rod J. MacRae

   Abstract

   Self-provisioning is an important, but weakly valued, part of the Canadian food system. This chapter provides a brief overview of the state of self-provisioning in urban areas of Canada and then proposes, using a transition framework, a range of strategies to increase self-provisioning and domestic food security.

7. Chapter 6. Economic and Commercial Urban Farming

   Nabil Kamal

   Abstract

   The adoption of new technologies in vertical farming (VF) businesses is now quite common and motivated by a complex web of factors. It is more likely to expand given the high yield, out of season crops, and cost-effective savings of water and land. The impacts of this adoption are expected to disrupt our daily life as countries, organizations, farmers, and consumers. This novel technology addresses the issues of “Food Security,” “Supply Chain,” and “Food Safety,” all at once. VF technology is progressing into becoming a fully mature and reliable business. Developments in the fields of renewable energy, artificial lighting, robotics, and AI will contribute to this end and expand and deepen its uses and effectiveness.

8. Chapter 7. The Role of Livestock Production in Urban Food Systems: Urbanization and Urban Consumer Demand Trends for Livestock Products

   Emma C. Stephens, Karen Landman, Karen Schwartzkopf-Genswein, Daryoush Alipour, Ali Kiani, Monika A. Gorzelak, Roland Kröbel, Elham Rahmani, Mohammad Reza Marami Milani

   Abstract

   By 2050, two-thirds of the world’s population is expected to live in urban areas. As a result, global agri-food systems will face increasing pressures to supply growing urban consumers’ diets. Greater attention is being given to the potential for urban-based agricultural production to fulfill some of these demands. However, within these discussions, relatively little focus has been on the unique role of urban livestock agriculture and how it might also contribute to feeding the world’s cities. In this chapter, we describe three distinct urban livestock initiatives in Canada, Iran, and Germany and compare their features and objectives. We then draw upon these comparisons to identify important characteristics that are needed to support urban livestock systems and that can enable their development and contribution to urban food systems overall.

9. Chapter 8. Organizing Urban Farmers in a Post-COVID-19 Economic Recovery

   M. Donald Houessou, Ben G. J. S. Sonneveld, Augustin K. N. Aoudji, Amani Alfarra

   Abstract

   The COVID-19 pandemic hit the food supply chains hard, especially in urban areas where inhabitants mostly depend on market-based food systems. Despite the intended exemptions made for food transport reality shows different in that the imposed mobility restrictions by COVID-19 prevention measures interrupted both agricultural and food supply chains. The symptoms of the impact were most visible for individual and dominant organizational forms of urban farms who could not levy negotiation power to buy agricultural inputs and had to forego sales to their regular customers. Inversely, joint ventures of urban farmers that buy inputs and sell produce collectively were generally a success because their sale force fosters the requests to the official authorities for food transport and distribution. Therefore, COVID-19 mobility restrictions improved collaborations among urban farmers who experienced the clear benefits of cooperative structures on their livelihoods. Such positive effects should inform agricultural advices curriculum on farmers’ organization to improve the ways urban farmers cooperate in a post-COVID-19 recovery.

10. Chapter 9. Selecting Allotment Gardens in Urban and Peri-Urban Areas

    Ben G. J. S. Sonneveld, M. Donald Houessou, Augustin K. N. Aoudji, Amani Alfarra

    Abstract

    The downside of the current rapid urbanization is well known; cities grow faster than their minimum service levels can cope with. This is particularly manifested in urban food insecurity, predominantly in the lower wealth segments of the Global South countries, which demands far reaching policy interventions to empower the urban poor and to allow them to tackle these problems heads-on. The impoverished urbanized population, the world over, faces now even greater challenges under the COVID-19 mobility restrictions that disrupt food supply chains while those who lose their jobs in the informally organized sector do not qualify for income compensation. Urban agriculture seems a viable answer; it can be practiced at safe and infectious preventive distances, produces healthy and nutritious food, earns some extra income from surplus production, and can be located away from infection prone mass concentrations. Political support to implement allotment gardens is largely absent and continues to be sustained by information gaps on the allocation and suitability of potential sites.

    We address this knowledge gap by presenting the fundamental building blocks for a site allocation tool that optimizes the spatial planning of allotment gardens in urban and peri-urban areas while accounting for biophysical (soil, water) and socioeconomic (distance to markets and safe entrance for women) conditions as well as COVID-19 safety measures and will provide better life conditions. The tool underlying the model uses a wide array of fully georeferenced database of explanatory variables while a selected of subset expert judgments assess site suitability in qualitative ordered classes. Model outcomes are tested for consistency, reproducibility, and stability (robustness), while a correlation protocol with quantitative data makes qualitative judgments interpretable. The model is converted into a tool for an impact interventionist analysis and aims to foster sufficient production and consumption of food locally in urban settings.

11. Chapter 10. Tackling Ecological Overshoot: The Food System’s Ten “Impossible Imperatives”

    Mathis Wackernagel, Marta Antonelli, David Lin

    Abstract

    Global Footprint Network has identified ten “impossible imperatives” that shape the pressing challenges facing the global food system. These imperatives emphasize the simultaneous pressures the food systems are experiencing: the need to eliminate fossil fuel dependence while maintaining healthy and adequate food production for a still growing and increasingly urbanized population. Strategies include ensuring food equity, avoiding environmental degradation, and enhancing resource efficiency. Additionally, the food system must adapt to climate change, and embrace inevitable technological shifts, in a way that is economically viable. Given climate pressures, agriculture may also have to shift from being a greenhouse gas emitter to a sink. The most daunting challenge is addressing all these imperatives simultaneously, as partial solutions risk worsening other aspects of the crisis. Despite their seemingly impossible nature, the imperatives can be tackled with concerted effort. These challenges are not just about food security but are an essential element of humanity’s broader transition toward sustainability.

12. Chapter 11. COVID-19 and Food Security in MENA Countries

    Dina A. Mandour

    Abstract

    We examine the link between the pandemic and food security in the Middle East North Africa (MENA) region, highlighting the various channels through which COVID-19 impacts key pillars of food security: affordability, availability, and utilization. By estimating two equations with distinct indicators for food security and proxies for the effect of the pandemic, the study finds that higher confirmed COVID-19 cases and weaker national preparedness to handle the disease are significantly associated with increased food insecurity levels. The empirical assessment underscores the relative importance of the role of institutional and demographic prerequisites needed to handle the pandemic in explaining food insecurity variability across all countries, suggesting that these factors are more influential than the pandemic’s stringency per se. The findings indicate that the MENA region faces specific challenges that put it in a disadvantaged situation compared to other regions, including weak governance, high levels of corruption, and fragile health systems, making it particularly vulnerable. Consequently, the pandemic may act as a catalyst that would intensify the urgency to undertake radical reforms in food systems and to revisit several structural and institutional rigidities that have affected accessibility and utilization pillars in the MENA region.

13. Chapter 12. Aligning Urban Farming with Green City Aspirations

    John R. Groenewegen

    Abstract

    Demands of a green city include many goods and services, such as: (1) fresh produce, (2) reduced food miles, (3) lower overall environmental footprint of food consumed in the cities, (4) ability to return organic waste generated in the city back to the soil, (5) biodiversity of the urban fringe lands, (6) access to open spaces in the urban fringe, (7) agri-tourism and other rural experiences, and (8) recreational activities in the urban fringe. While there are many opportunities for farmers to satisfy food-related demands of green city residents, there are also challenges, as it competes with other land uses, such as open space for recreation and land required for necessary infrastructure to support the metropolis. Peri-urban agriculture can include field production of fruits and vegetables, greenhouse production, and vertical farms. Greenbelts around a metropolis, which restrict certain types of land use and/or restrict changes in zoning from agriculture to other uses, are needed to support expansion of peri-urban farming.

14. Chapter 13. Global Impacts of the Ukraine Invasion: A Resource Perspective

    Leo Wambersie, David Lin, Mathis Wackernagel

    Abstract

    Ukraine contains 2.7 global hectares of bio-capacity per person, of which, nearly two (1.9 global hectares per person) are cropland. This is about four times the world average. Ukraine, however, only uses one-third of its crops produced domestically, with cropland dominating Ukraine’s exports. When measured in Ecological Footprints, Europe is the largest consumer of goods from Ukraine, followed by the Middle East. For crops exported from Ukraine, the Middle East is a larger consumer than Europe. Here, we discuss potential implications the conflict in Ukraine may have on resource security around the world.

15. Chapter 14. Urban Food Sustainability and Multilateral Environmental Governance Frameworks: Directional and Operational Complexities and Opportunities

    Nidhi Nagabhatla, Gaurav Thapak, Sisir Bhandari

    Abstract

    The United Nations Economic Commission for Europe (UNECE) report, titled “People-Smart Sustainable Cities,” highlights the intricate connections between urban development, the 2030 Transformation Agenda, and the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) and other Multilateral Environmental Governance Agendas (MEAs) like the Sendai Framework. The MEA outlines directional guidance, insights, and perspectives for program, policy, and regional/international cooperation that can be adopted or adapted toward sustainable urban development plans and policies. Progress has been made in implementing these global agendas, but significant gaps remain, particularly regarding food security for growing urban populations. In our synthesis, we tried deconstructing urban food sustainability, linking it to SDG 11, and advocating for resilient and sustainable cities.

    This synthesis suggests that the urban plans and policies identify food security objectives and create concrete results-oriented activities plugged into multi-sectoral structures and interventions in the infrastructure, municipal, and community settings. We also emphasize the need for urban plans and policies to incorporate food security objectives within multi-sectoral frameworks. By using examples from various economies that demonstrate a commitment to integrating urban food sustainability into their obligations under the SDGs and the New Urban Agenda, this chapter stresses the importance of recognizing interlinkages within the water-food-energy nexus and adopting innovative, nature-based solutions such as community gardens and urban food spaces. Furthermore, by analyzing current challenges and opportunities, we argue for a comprehensive approach to urban and peri-urban sustainability solutions (UPS) involving citizens, governments, and stakeholders in codeveloping effective responses and argue that the UPS vision requires alignment with existing sustainability.

16. Chapter 15. Summary, Recommendations, and Roadmap for Global Food Security

    Amani Alfarra, Atif A. Kubursi, Nathaniel K. Newlands

    Abstract

    We synthesize the critical insights and recommendations emerging from this comprehensive volume, which addresses the multifaceted challenges to global food security in an increasingly crisis-prone world. We highlight the interconnected impacts of major global disruptions, such as the COVID-19 pandemic, the Ukraine conflict, and escalating climate change, on food systems, biodiversity, and urban sustainability. We underscore the urgent need for innovative, inclusive, and resilient approaches to agri-food systems that align with the Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs). Our key recommendations include advancing sustainable practices like Nature-based Solutions (NbS), circular agriculture, and digital transformation to strengthen urban and peri-urban food systems. Emphasis is placed on fostering local food production, reducing waste, enhancing resilience, and promoting equity in food access and nutrition. We advocate for multi-stakeholder collaboration and policy interventions to address systemic vulnerabilities, drive green transitions, and secure food supply chains amid increasing uncertainties. The integration of these strategies provides a roadmap for achieving sustainable food security for both urban and rural communities worldwide.