Can a City Feed Itself?

In Paris and elsewhere, cities are exploring the economic and environmental benefits of building-based agriculture and racing to protect farmland at the urban edge.

By Peter Yeung
Bloomberg
July 6, 2023

Excerpt:

Still, the commercial potential of such efforts is likely to be limited. If scaled up worldwide, a 2018 analysis concluded that urban agriculture could produce up to 180 million metric tons of food a year, or around 10% of the global demand for legumes, roots and tubers, and vegetable crops. The Paris Urbanism Agency (APUR) estimates that it would be necessary to cultivate 11,000 hectares to produce enough fruit and vegetables for the population of Paris and a further 5,000 hectares for non-resident workers — 1.5 times the size of the city.

“Urban agriculture is not a total solution to feed an entire city,” says Pascal Hardy, founder of Agripolis, who estimates city farms could supply 5% to 10% of demand in Paris. “But if we can integrate food production, it could have a significant impact.”

Guido Santini, an expert in resilient agri-food systems in city regions at the UN FAO, touts a related form of urban farming — preserving or restoring agricultural activity in the critical peri-urban areas just outside cities.

“It’s not only about producing food, but it’s also a way to increase access to fresh, nutritious food, especially for poorer households,” he says. “In peri-urban areas and rural hinterlands, land is more available for that. It’s important for social aggregation and is a source of income and employment.”

With those goals in mind, France’s National Agency for Urban Renewal launched a project in 2020 known as Fertile Neighborhoods to build 100 urban farms across the country, with an emphasis on underprivileged communities. They include a site in Lille set among and serving a complex of 1,500 social housing units, a micro-farm aimed at creating employment in a district of Lorient where the median income is just €7,400 ($8,100), and a composting and flower-selling scheme on a former industrial wasteland in the Parisian suburb of Seine-Saint-Denis. Despite pandemic-related issues, 95 of the resulting 98 projects are ongoing, and an impact study is underway.

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