Edible urbanism 5.0

Abstract

Urban and peri-urban agriculture can have negative effects (i.e., ecosystem disservices) to the city ecosystem. In the last two decades, urbanists and landscape planners have promoted urban agriculture and food systems with little attention to ecosystem disservices. At present, increased urbanisation, environmental degradation, population growth and changes in food systems require a novel concept that considers trade-offs between ecosystem services and disservices. Considering the Sustainable Development Goal 2 of ending hunger and all forms of malnutrition by 2030, as well as the food revolution 5.0 of feeding up to ten billion people, edible urbanism 5.0 is a supportive component in reaching these goals. In this comment, edible urbanism via an edible green infrastructure (EGI) approach is examined against current urbanistic concepts that have common food production systems in cities. Moreover, a discussion on issues and challenges of public policy and governance for the implementation of sustainable food systems is shown with findings that consider current industrial intensive farming as somewhat unsustainable. Edible urbanism integrates three main principles of sustainability by fulfilling food security, resilience and social inclusion. It links site-specific, best-practices by integrating EGI-based governance with modernised food production techniques. Example cities showing EGI- and sustainability-oriented food concepts are presented. Recommendations for future edible urbanism (as a part of the next food revolution) are established.