Sustainable food systems: Building resilience for urban communities

Abstract

The current food system is dependent upon the prevailing industrial (rural) farming system that rests upon unlimited access to fossil fuel/energy, fresh water, land, plus relatively stable climates. In the twenty-first century, all of these resources are in steep decline and yet the demand for food is growing exponentially due to rising standards of living and growing urban populations. With the increasing affluence of consumers globally, along with the increase in population, the need for increases in food production continues to intensify. The possibilities for creating an ecologically sustainable, new urban food production system are limited only by our imaginations. If the focus is the growing of fresh food, locally/regionally, year round, the opportunities are huge. This paper explores the principles of sustainable food systems, and how these principles can be used to create a new, ecologically friendly, urban/periurban, knowledgebased, twenty-first century food production system. © 2012 WIT Press.