Urban Agriculture for Sustainable City Development
During the capital expansion, urban development devoured farmland as industrial agriculture continued to expand. Small-scale and subsistence farming declined globally. Environmental elements might potentially speed up this process. For instance, sea level rise and climate change may result in less human habitation. More rural land may become useless as a result of severe climatic events and industrial farm contamination of the soil and water. As food production is separated from human habitat, the divide between urban and rural regions will expand if current trends continue. By the end of the twenty-first century, all people may reside in urban areas, turning rural areas into even more isolated places.
Recently, there has been a surge of interest in urban agriculture, which can be attributed in part to making the food production system more sustainable, resilient, and socially just. Urban agriculture is the process of "producing, processing, and distributing food and other goods in and around cities through intensive plant cultivation and animal husbandry." Although the term "urban agriculture" is relatively new, urban food production systems have a long history in the United States and abroad, providing communities with fresh food, jobs, and green space. Many cities, such as Portland, Oregon and Vancouver, British Columbia, have adopted policies to assist local agriculture, which support local farming and offer inhabitants an increasing supply of fresh fruit. Further, older industrial cities like Detroit have numerous ambitious ideas for large-scale manufacturing on the vacant land left over from decades of housing abandonment.
Because urban agriculture affects the three pillars of sustainability: economy, society, and the environment, it has a wide variety of potential advantages. Economic and food security have historically been two of the most prominent motives for engagement in urban agriculture. Urban agriculture provides a supply of nutritious food that might otherwise be unavailable; for example, a diverse selection of local fresh fruits, vegetables, and other items are available to urban customers. Furthermore, when consumers perceive that local food is fresher, of higher quality, and tastes better, their preferences are more likely to lead to healthier eating alternatives and lifestyles. Furthermore, it may supplement a household's income, reduce food expenses, and create jobs.
Urban agriculture is practiced for social reasons as well, like caring for disadvantaged communities and promoting social inclusion. Urban farming is a crucial tool for the integration of underprivileged individuals or vulnerable social groups (such as immigrants, abandoned women, jobless people, elderly people, and persons with disabilities, etc.), because it gives them better living conditions. A garden or rooftop farm, for instance, is a location where people congregate for mutual benefit, frequently boosting the shared social and cultural identity of city dwellers. Larger urban farms also take part in initiatives that aid underprivileged communities by providing job training and other educational opportunities.
Finally, urban agriculture may contribute significantly to a city's environmental sustainability. As a form of green space, urban farms and community food gardens within cities benefit the environment by preserving biodiversity, lowering the effects of urban heat islands, and minimizing the consequences of urban stormwater runoff. Additionally, since the producing regions are near the ultimate customers, urban farming helps to lessen the ecological effect of cities by recycling trash and lowering emissions for transit, packing, and storage.
In addition to the many advantages it offers, urban agriculture also faces certain difficulties, with soil pollution possibly being the most significant. Leaded gasoline emissions, trash disposal, and several other effluents in the toxic urban environment have produced potential soil pollutants like lead and other heavy metals for almost a century. The average lead content in the soil in Chicago, Illinois is 20 times higher than that in nearby rural soils, according to a random sample of 57 locations. In another research of 54 community gardens in New York City, it was discovered that 70% of the samples at least occasionally exceeded recommended health values.
For children in particular, vegetables cultivated in this soil may absorb heavy metals and pose health problems. However, the health concerns they pose to consumers are difficult to identify. The main reason is that most plant species have a low propensity for absorbing lead, and different plants absorb different levels of heavy metals. This does not necessarily imply that urban farming is riskier than it is advantageous. It is hard to say if these health concerns are any bigger than those brought on by industrial food contamination or pesticide residues on shop items in the absence of studies.
Urban farmers have two main options for handling polluted soil: repair the land or import healthy soil for use in raised beds. Since soil restoration is prohibitively expensive, importing dirt has been the most popular option by far. For instance, an urban farm was successfully established in Red Hook (Brooklyn) using imported soil on a sizable expanse of asphalt in a local park. Additionally, given the dearth of accessible, unpolluted, farmable land in metropolitan settings, more effort should be done to increase the productivity and profitability of the land.
A variety of urban agriculture applications continue to improve the sustainability, livability, and equity of metropolitan areas. However, there are still many unanswered problems about the interactions between urban food production systems and the intricate urban environment. With a future threatened by climate change, food instability, and resource scarcity, these problems take on much greater interest and significance.
