Andrew Comer and Kerwin Datu via The Global Urbanist
According to UN-HABITAT’s State of the World’s Cities 2008-2009, 510 new ‘small’ cities, 132 new ‘intermediate’ cities and 52 new ‘big’ cities emerged between 1990 and 2000, with a combined population of 254 million.
The Global Urbanist | How cities can embrace urban agriculture and weaken the grip of ‘big food
Many city governments around the world are encouraging agriculture in urban areas—so long as it stays small scale and doesn’t challenge the status quo. Mike Duff argues that cities must learn to embrace ‘urban ag’ social movements as a way to engage citizens in shaping their own cities, and encourage these movements to scale up to reduce the power of ‘big food’ businesses to subvert planning processes. The key challenge will be regulation—cities should create a new land use designation entitled ‘urban agricultural use’ to accommodate a healthy balance between urban lifestyles and urban farming. ‘
