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How Urban Agriculture Can Improve Food Security in Us Cities

posted by martyb on Wednesday February 13 2019, @08:47PM   Printer-friendly
from the Balconies-and-roofs dept.

Phoenix666 writes:

Phys.org:

Urban farming has grown by more than 30 percent in the United States in the past 30 years. Although it has been estimated that urban agriculture can meet 15 to 20 percent of global food demand, it remains to be seen what level of food self-sufficiency it can realistically ensure for cities.

One recent survey found that 51 countries do not have enough urban area to meet a recommended nutritional target of 300 grams per person per day of fresh vegetables. Moreover, it estimated, urban agriculture would require 30 percent of the total urban area of those countries to meet global demand for vegetables. Land tenure issues and urban sprawl could make it hard to free up this much land for food production.

Is urban farming a pipe dream, or can appropriating vacant lots for traditional farming or employing hydroponics make it work?

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  • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @12:48AM (2 children)

    by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @12:48AM (#800806)

    Has it stuck around all this time?

  • (Score: 2) by Thexalon on Thursday February 14 2019, @02:47AM (1 child)

    by Thexalon (636) on Thursday February 14 2019, @02:47AM (#800846)

    Yes. What did you expect it to do? It's not like lead is engaged in radioactive decay or something: The problem with lead poisoning is entirely due to chemistry, specifically being almost but not quite like iron, which means it doesn't do the same jobs as iron in the body and prevents iron from doing its job.

    --
    The only thing that stops a bad guy with a compiler is a good guy with a compiler.

    • (Score: 0) by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @06:25PM

      by Anonymous Coward on Thursday February 14 2019, @06:25PM (#801076)

      So it stuck around.

      > What did you expect it to do?

      Well, I expected it to stick around, as a heavy metal in soil. But then someone else posted:

      > There is no added lead in gas since 1995.

      So I thought, well! Maybe there's processes I don't know about which, in 25y, might leech or otherwise extract lead from topsoil.

      Can you see why I would keep asking, without assuming either way? I'm not a soil scientist, and wanted to know. And some troll, maybe?, tried to mislead by stating the 1995 date, which implies an answer (oh it's been decades! it's probably gone) which is untrue (according to you).

      The since-1995 comment was either an attempt to sow misinformation, or a total tangent? Lame.