Fourth Plenary:

Food Security and Sustainable Livelihoods

With urbanization, climate change, and a decline in usable land for farming, small scale agriculture in an urban context might be our answer for future food security and sustainability. In particular, regenerative urban farming that shifts from a linear to a circular economy, and builds natural capital. Urban farms creates jobs within the local community, captures carbon, offers community engagement, and helps the environment as food travels a shorter distance. Why then has urban farms struggled to survive? As we change the way we produce food, the way we access it should also change correspondingly, ie: our business model. Since these urban farms are now within our community, perhaps consumers can buy direct, instead of going through a retailer? This will help to bring the cost price down, and help local produce to be competitive with its imported counterparts. Long-term sustainability for urban farming cannot lie in only grants, but also in generating sufficient local consumer demand. At the core of consumer demand is the price, so we must help urban farmers to be competitive. As we innovate with creative solutions to produce our vegetables and fishes, we must also innovate our business models and way of doing things. Simply creating the ability to grow vegetables, or to farm fishes locally, is not the complete answer. Supply must be met with demand. Looking at you, 30 by 30.