Feeding the City: Towards a New Research and Planning Agenda

Abstract

In an era when, for the first time in history, more than half of the human population is urbanized, cities in both developed and developing countries are facing enormous challenges in terms of food security. In this context, municipal governments in New York, Rome, Belo Horizonte, Toronto, London, Amsterdam and Dar es Salaam are devising integrated food policies and strategies that move beyond the traditional focus on urban agriculture. A brief analysis of these emerging initiatives highlights the need for a new research agenda on public food provisioning and policy-making at the urban level. Practically, the paper argues, this broadened research agenda is crucial to facilitate much needed processes of knowledge-building and knowledge-exchange within and between cities. Theoretically, as this paper concludes, more comparative and comprehensive studies of the emerging urban food strategies are necessary to fully capture the potential of fast-growing cities in creating or recreating more sustainable social, economic and environmental linkages with their surrounding regions.

Acknowledgements

This paper draws on data collected for an ESRC-sponsored research project on “Delivering Sustainability: The Creative Procurement of School Meals” (RCTO373) and on a research bid submitted in 2009 to ESRC/DfID on “Feeding the City: Markets, Linkages and Pro-Poor Planning in Sub-Saharan Africa”.

The author would like to thank Dr. Adrian Morley and Dr. Selyf Morgan (Cardiff University) for their useful comments on an early draft of the paper (the usual disclaimer applies). Many thanks to an anonymous referee for making me think about the “paramount” importance of distinguishing between attaining and retaining positive outcomes. Finally, special thanks to Kevin Morgan for the invitation to submit this paper to this special issue and for many years of exciting work together.