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Urban Foods Systems Symposium In October Will Focus on Climate, Community, Security, Production And Distribution
All things food in and for urban areas will be in focus during the 3rd Urban Food Systems Symposium scheduled for virtual delivery on Wednesdays in October and hosted this year by Kansas State University and K-State Research and Extension
By urbanagnews
September 15, 2020
All things food in and for urban areas will be in focus during the 3rd Urban Food Systems Symposium scheduled for virtual delivery on Wednesdays in October and hosted this year by Kansas State University and K-State Research and Extension. 2020 Urban Food Systems Symposium online sessions will be offered from 10 a.m. to 3 p.m. CDT every Wednesday in October. If you’ve got an interest in any aspect of urban food systems there’s a session for you and you are encouraged to attend.
The format for each Wednesday session includes one or more live keynote speakers supplemented by breakout discussions, poster sessions, and live breaks with sponsors.
Before September 18, registration is only $100 ($50 if you are a student). After September 18, registration goes up to $125 and $75 for students. Here’s the really good part about registration – all registered attendees get access to the breakout session presentations starting in September. They also get access to all live and breakout discussions as they occur each Wednesday in October, and they will have 24/7 access to all recordings of presentations through April 2021.
The organizers have lined up a diverse group of breakout session presenters and topics. Check out the UFSS website for all the details on breakouts. Keynote topics, speakers, and dates are:
• Oct. 7 – Urban Agriculture and Food Systems – Building Climate-Resilient Urban and Regional Food Systems, Jess Halliday, associate of RUAF Global Partnership on Sustainable.
• Oct. 14 – Urban Agriculture, Climate Change and Food Security: Potential Solutions and Synergies, Chuck Rice, Kansas State University Distinguished Professor of Soil Microbiology.
• Oct. 21 – The Role of Urban Farming in Nutrition Security, Elizabeth Mitcham, director of the Horticulture Innovation Lab, University of California-Davis.
• Oct. 21 – Food Justice is More than Growing Food and Feeding People, Karen Washington, farmer and activist with Rise & Root Farm and Black Urban Growers.
• Oct. 28 – Fixes That Fail: Using Community-Based Systems Modeling to Diagnose Injustice in the Food System, Jill Clark, associate professor, John Glenn College of Public Affairs, The Ohio State University and Jennifer King, assistant director of training and community education, Department of Population and Quantitative Health Sciences, Mary Ann Swetland Center for Environmental Health, School of Medicine, Case Western Reserve University.
• Oct. 28 – The Hydra-Headed Food System: Imagining the Whole and Connecting the Dots, Mark Winne, food policy expert, former executive of the Hartford Food System.
Register online today at the Urban Food Systems Symposium website. Got questions? Send those to the organizing committee at ufss@ksu.edu.
Scaling Up Urban Farming Beyond COVID-19
More urban dwellers who usually rely on food that is sourced from farms away from the city are turning to urban farming now that COVID-19 has fractured and exposed how fragile the existing food supply chains are
by Esther Ngumbi | University of Illinois
9 June 2020
*Any views expressed in this opinion piece are those of the author and not of Thomson Reuters Foundation.
The world has seen an increase in urban farming amid the coronavirus and fragile food supply chains
Esther Ngumbi, Ph.D., is Assistant Professor in the Department of Entomology and African American Studies Department at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign. She is a Senior Food security fellow with the Aspen Institute New Voices
More urban dwellers who usually rely on food that is sourced from farms away from the city are turning to urban farming now that COVID-19 has fractured and exposed how fragile the existing food supply chains are. Google trends reports show that searches for “gardens” are up and enterprises that sell plants and seeds report a spike in the number of customers. Across America, people are planting more vegetables.
Around the world, other countries have seen a sharp increase in urban farming, from Jakarta, to Singapore to Australia. This is a move in the right direction and the reinvigorating of the urban farming movement should be supported and nurtured.
What does urban farming look like? According to the United States Department of Agriculture and Food and Agriculture Organization, urban agriculture can take many forms, from roof-top gardens to farming on abandoned buildings and parking lots to backyard and balcony gardening. In many African countries, it often entails sack and stack farming and traditional gardening in backyards, and in some places like South Africa, it also includes rooftop gardens and small farm gardens.
There are many benefits to urban farming including condensing the mileage of food from the farm to the market to improving personal health, ecosystems, and food insecurity while promoting sustainable livelihoods. Most importantly, during the pandemic, urban farming has helped families to cope with food insecurities.
The urban farming movement is especially welcome in Africa, a continent that is rapidly urbanizing, with cities that are crowded and costly. At 3.5 percent per year, Africa’s urban growth rate is the highest in the world, and that number is expected to keep increasing. Supporting urban farming across Africa would allow the continent to be ready for any future pandemics. Moreover, at the moment, urban cities in Africa rely on rural areas to meet their food demands, because most of the food consumed is bought in markets and from vendors who source their food directly from farmers that are based in rural areas.
How do we then tap into the renewed attention to urban farming by city dwellers?
Well, to develop effective support systems while further nurturing urban agriculture, there is the need to first and foremost accurately capture and map the current state of things. How many new community and city gardens and farms have been planted? Who is doing it? What challenges have they faced? What kind of food are they growing? How did they finance their venture? Who are they distributing the products to? How big is the space and land they are using?
Creating databases and dashboard maps of this information is vital to growing the urban farming movement. This can be done by sending surveys by organizations that are already practicing urban farming, city governments or educational institutions that are based near urban cities. Creating these inventories would also serve to inform urban city planners and policy makers and governments while connecting urban farmers with each other, to potential funders and to consumers.
Second, farming and agriculture is knowledge-intensive. Consequently, there is a need to establish support systems for these farmers. Urban dwellers need current knowledge about recent growing methods, innovative business models, and other best practices to ensure they make the most out of their urban farming enterprise. The good thing is that there are ample resources such as on the sites of USDA, and UN FAO.
Moreover, as urban farming grows, a community and network of support would be key. Urban farmers living in the same cities and regions can form partnerships to support each other.
As we nurture the movement, we must also encourage many more urban dwellers who have not yet ventured into urban farming to give it a try. From university webpages to private organizations to associations YouTube videos including guiding African cities urban dwellers on how to successfully create a bag garden.
Food supplies disruptions due to another pandemic or other causes are likely to happen. This new appreciation for urban farming fostered during COVID-19 lockdowns should keep growing. We must continue to tap onto urban agriculture to grow fresh, healthy, and nutritious food for urban city dwellers.
THEMES CLIMATE (AIR POLLUTION, GREEN TRANSPORT, ZERO CARBON INITIATIVES ETC)
Researchers Aim To Cut The Energy Footprint Of Indoor Farms
Indoor farms can grow vegetables close to cities, where there are lots of people to feed. Farming indoors can also extend the growing season in cold climates and protect crops from damage during extreme weather.
But growing food indoors is energy intensive, so it can produce a lot of carbon pollution.
“Lighting is a big factor,” says Erico Mattos of the Greenhouse Lighting and Systems Engineering Consortium. “You have the heating and cooling systems, ventilation systems, all the systems that you have to control. So it’s really important for us to reduce this energy demand.”
Mattos’s group is working to reduce the energy used in indoor farms and greenhouses.
“The challenge is, how can we still provide all these inputs that the plants require, the crops require to grow, but using energy with the most efficient way as possible?” he says.
Researchers are tackling the problem from multiple angles. For example, they’re designing high-efficiency LED lights and they’re experimenting with ways to optimize specific crops’ growth with customized lighting, ventilation, and humidity controls.
Mattos says these technologies and systems will help make greenhouses and indoor farms more cost-effective and better for the climate.
Lead Photo Credit: Terry Rice
Indoor Soilless Agriculture Could Supplement US Food Supply While Decreasing Environmental Impact of Food Production
WWF Report Examines the Environmental and Economic Viability of Scaling Indoor Agriculture Systems
WWF Report Examines the Environmental and Economic Viability of Scaling Indoor Agriculture Systems
WASHINGTON, DC – WEBWIRE
May 18, 2020
The Markets Institute at World Wildlife Fund (WWF) released an Innovation Analysis examining the environmental impact of various systems of indoor soilless farming. These systems include hydroponics, aquaponics, and aeroponics in greenhouse and vertical settings. At scale, this method of farming could have positive effects on the environment by decreasing pressures on land, biodiversity, natural habitat, and climate. However, the industry also faces hurdles that prevent it from moving beyond its current specialization in high-end leafy greens.
“Indoor soilless farming could have a significant impact on how we grow food in the future, in certain categories. Right now we are looking at whether or not it can be viable—both economically and environmentally—to grow more fruits and vegetables in these systems at a large scale,” said Julia Kurnik, director of innovation start-ups at WWF’s Markets Institute. “If we can address the challenges and make this happen, it could be a real game-changer for communities that do not have access to fresh fruits and vegetables for much of the year, or places that are food insecure.”
While these systems make efficient use of land and water, the energy footprint from lighting and cooling can depending on the local energy source, increase the overall environmental footprint. Indoor soilless farming is also considerably more expensive than traditional agriculture. However, there are several innovations under development that could significantly change the cost and environmental footprint to drastically alter the mid-to-long-term viability of the industry. These include progress in lighting, fiber optics, AI and machine learning, gene editing, renewable energy, co-location and co-generation, and waste and recycling.
The report details the next phase of the project, which aims to help solve the challenges identified in phase I. WWF will explore using stranded assets—large infrastructure investments such as power plants and postal hubs that have depreciated in value but will continue to be used in a limited capacity for 10-50 years—and build a robust coalition of local partners, including The Yield Lab Institute, to launch a pilot farming system in St. Louis.
“The Yield Lab Institute, working with World Wildlife Fund and the McDonnell Foundation, is proud to be a part of a distinguished, local team of community volunteers who are working to bring local, indoor and sustainable food production to the St. Louis area,” said Thad Simons, Co-Founder and Managing Director of The Yield Lab Institute. “It will also spark innovation among our ag-tech entrepreneurs and is intended to provide access to nutritious food to the underserved areas of our community.”