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Urban farming:
An alternative for tomorrow’s food security? |
March 18, 2013 |
From the hanging vegetable gardens that are greening the terraces of Tokyo buildings to the large pilot projects in Casablanca with “Urban Agriculture Casablanca”, urban farming is far from a mere passing trend, and addresses the crucial question of sustainable food security for the 9.8 billion people who will populate tomorrow’s planet: How can we incorporate agricultural development in tomorrow’s megacities?
There have been many seminars and information meetings addressing the topic in the past few years. Recently, the input of urban farming in tomorrow’s megacities was the focus of an international seminar held in Casablanca, Morocco, between February 27 and March 2. For its part, the FAO launched the “Food for the Cities” in 2001, an initiative whose objective is providing urban people with an access to healthy food, and promoting urban and suburban farming.
The rural exodus that affected Western nations and––albeit differently and more seriously––the less-developed countries (LDC), is a worrisome concern that attests to the decline of agriculture against climate hazards and epizootic risks exemplified by desertification or yet locust invasions, and against the structural hyper-volatility of agricultural markets. As they are less competitive and technologically less advanced, LDC farmers will inexorably swell the population of cities, which will become tomorrow’s megacities.
Confronted to urbanization and growing uncontrolled financialization, urban farming will not be enough to feed a population which, according to United Nations demographic estimates, will reach 9.8 million people in 2050, while in 2025 over half of the population in developing areas––or 3.5 billion people––will be clustered in cities.
To the North as well as to the South, the issue will not only focus on restoring a link between rural and urban areas and stem rural exodus, but also on promoting inter-regional agricultural strategies through pertinent international cooperation, and providing profitable prices to farmers. This is an a bold but required gamble for tomorrow’s food security… |
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