From hunger and uncertainty to abundance - An experimental approach of urban food security.

Please visit my web page "Urban Tenets" at https://urbantenets.nl/

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We have heard that, teach them how to fish instead of giving them fish to eat; further instead lets say teach them aquaculture and may be also teach them low cost aquaponic technique of breeding fish and vegetables together. Help them also build and manage a community heirloom seed bank. And organic farming. May be, also teach them household or community scale food processing. This is one way of looking at community or urban food security; i.e. by imparting skills to help community become gradually self reliant in terms of food. This is not for the purpose of business, but for the purpose of survival, at least as may be the case for many communities.

Also thinking of those better off cities and communities still constantly battling with inflation and fluctuating food prices and uncertain supply of fresh produce, possibly sometimes relying too much on import of fresh vegetables and fruits, from other countries or region or distant farmlands. It may sometimes be a self imposed limitation. Now imagine a new greenfield city being planned, that by development control regulation, i.e. by law, mandates to have landscape plant, shrub, creeper and tree in this new city or community, belonging to only native edible type (and of course wild meadows and bees etc for pollination) i.e. only to have edible landscape (fruit, vegetable, nuts, orchard, herbs, and even many a times stems, leaves, roots, flowers of edible kind); also true for brownfield cities that as an experiments, may permits only planting edible landscape, past a cut off date, for next few years. Will this move make these new or old cities or districts self reliant in terms of food or resilient to some extent; will this be a replicable/ scalable food security measure; possibly yes. After all, having
only decorative, aesthetic trees, plants and shrubs in city was self imposed constraint only, while many such cities still continue to battle with either food scarcity or food unaffordability. After all keeping traditional custodians of agricultural fields away and outside of city boundaries must also be a self imposed constraint; instead can some or many of them be invited to help manage this very proposed citywide (only permissible) edible landscape within urban green and unused open spaces. This is one more way of looking at urban food security.

Author: Anoop Jha

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