Urban agriculture as a promising way of food production in the cities

Irena Knetlová

Bachelor's thesis

Abstract:

In the past three decades world population has been growing steeply - according to estimates it is projected to reach 9.8 billion by 2050. Currently more than half of world’s population lives in cities, a proportion projected to increase by almost 70% by 2050. The distribution of population is quickly beginning to be concentrated around megacities. Since the 1990s the number of megacities has multiplied three times and it is expected to keep growing. The environmental impact of urban expansion reaches far beyond the urban areas themselves. Citizens of urban areas are mostly entirely dependent on food trade and food supply coming from outside their cities. In turn, the food supply system is highly dependent on oil consumption and transportation to the destination market and consumer. Transportation of food is connected with the term “food miles” which is used to describe the fact that food is often transported over long distances to markets where it is consumed. In order to satisfy consumer demand supermarkets offer a wide variety of food products which are often not grown seasonally nor locally. There has been a call for implementing urban agriculture in the urban planning of cities, counting on integrating urban agriculture, help make cities more resilient. Urban agriculture is a term which is defined as “the growing of plants and the raising of animals within and around cities.” It helps to diversify urban food sources and income opportunities, e.g. by maintaining open green spaces, enhancing vegetation cover and water infiltration and contributing to sustainable water and natural resource management. Urban agriculture has proven its importance especially in harsh times. One such example of urban agriculture are the Victory Gardens which served as an important source of food security during WWI and WWII and helped people to overcome challenging times. But history of urban agriculture practice goes much further into the past, with community gardens existing in Ancient Egypt or in Machu Picchu. Nowadays urban agriculture is practiced especially in the form of community gardens, home and backyard gardens. All UA forms contribute to food security and have the ability to improve social, health and financial well-being. The emerging form of urban agriculture which focuses more on large-scale production and has a greater ambition to contribute significantly to sustainable food production is vertical farming. It increasingly uses high-tech agricultural methods, such as hydroponics, aeroponics and aquaponics which can help obtain high yields whilst the technologically controlled environment helps maintain safe and ecological food production.

Keywords

Urban farming, urban gardening, community garden, subsistence

Language used: English

Date on which the thesis was submitted / produced: 20. 4. 2018

Thesis defence

• Supervisor: Ing. Josef Holec, Ph.D.

Czech University of Life Sciences Prague

Faculty of Agrobiology, Food and Natural Resources

Bachelor programme / field:
Agriculture and Food / Agriculture and Food