Current responses

There is now a well recognised unevenness in the access and distribution of particularly fresh foodstuffs in urban areas (this is not to suppose there are not issues in the rural domain as well). The Joseph Rowntree Trust, among others, has identified what they have termed ‘food deserts’ in urban areas. These are districts which lack easy access to fresh food.

So, is this just a distribution issue?

In part, better distribution would help alleviate the situation but may require suppliers to take a reduced or longer term view of profit. Other issues loom large on the horizon.

Urban agriculture is about production as well as consumption.

Environmental change, notably through climate change, is likely to change agricultural patterns of production across the globe. The degree to which proposed changes happen remains more a matter of calculated reasoning than of known and guaranteed outcomes.

In Britain, there may well be an advantage in a small increase in average temperature of around the 1-2  degrees Centigrade. This  may the case elsewhere.

But the overriding expectation is of negative impact. Even if current understanding of climate change were to be proved wrong, and Urbanag certainly goes along with the overwhelming agreement that climate change is happening, other considerations weigh heavily on the side of arguments for increasing urban food production.

Global population increase in the context of an increasingly urbanised species puts greater demand on resources. Demand can be met in line with expected population increases, but it will come at both a higher cost of food supplies and a change to current production practices. If low incomes remain static in relative terms and food prices rise, the food deserts talked about are likely to grow rather than diminish.

Coupled to the expected increase in population and its demands on resources comes the change within populations. Increased economic activity, most graphically illustrated in China, not only brings changes to the physical environment but to people’s behaviour as well. These changes are having an impact on food pricing.

In the UK, urban agriculture has been almost entirely, with few exceptional examples, has been a matter of  individuals increasing their engagement with home grown food. Allotments – once neglected and overgrown – are now in short supply with many areas having waiting lists. Public and private gardens, once considered entirely for recreation and relaxation, are now seen – in part at least – as areas of production of foodstuff.

The joint and related concerns driving this renewed interest in food production are  largely about environmental degradation and health. The response has sometimes been expressed through community engagement and participation, but the production is seen as much as an individual goal as for any wider purpose.

Urbanag believes we must add to these efforts the issue of economic necessity on a community scale.