WHAT'S URBAN AGRICULTURE?
—— the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around urban areas instead of, traditionally, from rural areas.
HOW DOES URBAN AGRICULTURE WORK?
- urban farms
- gardening in vacant lots - community-based farms |
- backyard farming
- roof gardens - window farms and any other creative ways to farm in unused spaces in urban areas! |
WHY DOES IT MATTER?
With the world's population increasing rapidly and problems growing with the population, urban agriculture:
- utilizes unused spaces
- preserves bioregonal ecologies from transformed into cropland - fights hunger, malnutrition, and food injustice - alleviates poverty, as a majority of people involved in urban farming is the urban poor - improves environment of cities |
- educates communities about nature, agriculture, food production, and healthy eating
- reduces energy waste from packaging and transportation due to long distances - strengthens communities and more! |
WHAT DOES IT MEAN IN A GLOBAL DEVELOPMENT CONTEXT?
Urban agriculture can work in both the developed world and the developing world.