Urban farming: feeding the future?
Intensive farming in urban areas and the areas on the outskirts of our metropolitan areas and cities, holds much promise for delivering healthy and safe food to our cities in an economically efficient and environmentally friendly manner. Research on urban farms shows that not only do they provide local employment, but can serve as hubs of innovation in agricultural technology and logistics.
But urban farms also face challenges from regulation, standardisation, food testing and issues of land use and the hyper-commodification of urban real estate.
This panel was presented at the University of Sydney on Monday 26 February 2018, in partnership with Sydney Ideas and the Charles Perkins Centre "Healthy Food Systems Node".
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Speakers
Megan Battaglia is a current Master of Sustainability student at the University of Sydney. After graduating a BA in Sociology and Human Geography, Megan spent two years in Latin America working with a non-profit organisation in community education and engagement. Megan’s research interests include urban agriculture, Indigenous natural resource management and sustainable community development.
Associate Professor Lenore Newman is a writer and urban geographer. She holds a Canada Research Chair in Food Security and Environment, and is an Associate Professor of Geography and the Environment at the University of the Fraser Valley. studies culinary geographies, and researches food security, with a focus on farmland preservation, the dynamics of the rural-urban edge, and agri-urban landscapes.
Toby Whittington is CEO and founder of Green World Revolution (GWR), a not-for-profit environmental, social enterprise organisation. GWR is dedicated to growing jobs for the unemployed through the development of a thriving, sustainable urban agriculture industry and the creation of new urban food systems in Western Australia.
Professor Robyn Alders is a Principal Research Fellow, School of Life and Environmental Sciences and member of Sydney Institute of Agriculture and the Charles Perkins Centre at the University of Sydney. For over 20 years, she has worked closely with smallholder farmers in Africa and Asia as a veterinarian, researcher and colleague.
Header image: via Shutterstock.