The Case for Urban Agriculture

Can growing food in urban environments help to nourish an increasingly hungry world without sacrificing the planet in the process? As more and more of us discover the joys of a green thumb, we investigate the case for imagining a different kind of growth and productivity in our cities.

Thought For Food

If you hadn’t heard – and who hasn’t? – the human population is growing at an incredible rate. By 2050, our numbers will have increased by almost one third compared to today’s levels, and, with every new person we welcome to Earth, the task of nourishing its inhabitants only grows.

In these thirty years, our humble planet will have to produce enough to feed 9 to 10 billion people, necessitating that we expand the current amount of food we produce by almost 50 per cent. It’s an enormous task – one that, unfortunately, the industrial food system to which we have become accustomed simply isn’t up to.

Advances in science and technology in the early 20th century revolutionised traditional farming practices and allowed us to feed an increasingly hungry world after WWII. For example, it’s estimated that almost half of today’s population would not be alive if it weren’t for the Haber-Bosch process – the method to create synthetic ammonia, a key ingredient in fertiliser, from hydrogen and nitrogen.

That said, our modern agricultural system has long since started to show its age. Aside from issues of food quality and the unequal distribution of profits between retailers and producers, the damaging effects of the conventional agricultural model on our environment have called into serious doubt the future viability of a business-as-usual approach to food.

The Hungry, Hungry City

With two-thirds of the world’s population projected to live in urban environments by 2050, cities are especially vulnerable to issues of food security. As most cities are dependent on purchasing their produce rather than growing it, rising populations are putting increasing pressure on food supply chains. This is exacerbated by the threat of climate change and the impacts of extreme weather events on food production and distribution. Fortunately, our cities – with their abundant assets, resources, and social capital – are also uniquely placed to address these issues, and many are already looking at new (and not so new) ideas to bring our food system into the 21st century.

Urban Agriculture: Can It Bear Fruit?

Urban agriculture is just one of these ideas. An umbrella term used to describe all types of food production in both urban and peri-urban environments. It includes everything from vertical farms and school gardens to community-supported agriculture.

But while urban agriculture has enjoyed somewhat of a renaissance in hipster DIY culture, the practice is as old as cities themselves. Examples of it have abounded in many communities in the Global South, where it represents both a hobby and a means of survival. In 20th century Europe, upticks in urban agriculture have been linked to periods of uncertainty throughout history, such as economic crises and social upheavals. Modern urban agriculture, particularly in the Global North, has also been driven by the desire for quality produce that can be sourced outside the globalised food market.

For its proponents, upscaling urban agriculture represents a viable, if not partial, solution to cities’ food security: feed urban populations by growing produce in the city itself, reducing the dependence on outside supply chains and cutting greenhouse gas emissions from transportation in the process. Simple, right? Or is it?

Separating the Wheat From the Chaff

Despite the enthusiasm for it as a solution to the issue of food security in cities, some contend that urban agriculture would only amount to small potatoes in the effort to feed a burgeoning urban population. One recent study suggests that, at a maximum, it could contribute just 1 to 3 per cent of annual global food production, which, given the limited yields, would only go so far to reduce the pressure on food supply chains and greenhouse gases from transportation.

The price of real estate in most cities also makes it difficult for urban agriculturalists to compete with developers for land and remain commercially viable: low-yielding, labour-intensive urban agriculture would struggle to match large farms on price as well as the returns that come with property speculation in urban areas.

But what if, in focusing solely on issues of production and profit, we’re missing the bigger picture?

How Do You Like Them Apples?

Upscaling urban agriculture would bring myriad other benefits to our cities beyond those we typically measure in terms of profit. Rooftop farms, for example, can play a similar role in cities as green spaces and roofs by reducing the energy needed to cool and heat buildings, mitigating the heat-island effect and avoiding stormwater run-off.

Urban agriculture can also absorb air pollution – an intractable problem in some of our biggest cities – and has the potential to draw insects, especially pollinators, back to urban environments. To put a figure on the environmental benefits alone, something we are only starting to do now, would take us into astronomical sums. One study estimates the value of ecosystem services from urban agriculture – through energy savings, nitrogen sequestration, and reducing stormwater run-off – to be $33 billion per year.

But a full picture of the benefits of urban agriculture must also take into account the social and psychological advantages that come with it. Studies show that, even before the COVID-19 pandemic, isolation and loneliness reached worrying levels in many places around the world, which has serious repercussions for human health and wellbeing. Urban agriculture in the form of community gardens provides invaluable spaces for residents to interact with each other and encourages greater neighbourhood engagement. Community gardens can also act as hubs, particularly in disadvantaged areas of many cities, where residents can access health and social services. In some places, the ability of the community to produce healthy food for themselves can even help to remediate issues of food justice.

The psychological and health benefits of green spaces are also backed by a wide variety of literature, with some studies showing that living in close proximity to grass and trees reduces the risk of health conditions like high blood pressure and cardiovascular disease and improves mental health.

The Challenge

The climate crisis underlines the urgent need for cities to re-examine the value we place on non-commodifiable goods and services like the natural world and health. Encouraging urban agriculture in our cities has many benefits beyond profit and financial growth. While this is a consideration for some areas – in the case of urban commercial farms, for example – we simply can’t rely on this motive alone to drive change.

Convincing councils and governments of this, however, is the real task. Plans to incentivise urban agriculture in cities – while potentially useful in some contexts – miss the point and can ultimately cause more harm than good. (In some cases, community gardens in disadvantaged neighbourhoods have been shown to increase gentrification and push out long-term residents.)

Instead, cities need to create the space – in both a policy and physical sense – for a wide variety of urban agriculture, providing information, advice and resources where they can. Just as no two people, neighbourhoods, or cities are exactly alike, every urban agriculture project or community garden will come with its own unique context, needs, and aims. This is particularly important in diverse communities or neighbourhoods in which there are longstanding issues of racial injustice.