Food for Thought: Addressing Urban Food Security Risks through Urban Agriculture

Jorinda Steenkamp, Elizelle Juanee Cilliers, Sarel Stephanus Cilliers and Louis Lategan
Additional contact information
Jorinda Steenkamp: Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom 2531, South Africa
Elizelle Juanee Cilliers: Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom 2531, South Africa
Sarel Stephanus Cilliers: Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom 2531, South Africa
Louis Lategan: Unit for Environmental Sciences and Management, North-West University, Potchefstroom 2531, South Africa

Sustainability, 2021, vol. 13, issue 3, 1-29

Abstract: Food and nutrition security has been neglected in the planning field for reasons of a lack of connection between food and planning and the perception that agricultural activities have no place in the modernizing world. However, considering increasing climate change impacts and implications on industrialized agriculture, there is a clear need to establish shorter, more sustainable agricultural production practices and food supply chains. Urban agriculture is proposed as a potential method of intervention for planners to support sustainable food production and supply chains. The paper utilized a multiple-case study design to analyze four best practice examples of urban agriculture in the Global South to uncover its potential to address food security associated risks and contribute to sustainable development objectives. The results delivered evidence of the potential to harness the multifunctionality of urban agriculture to not only improve the food security of the most at-risk populations, but to also address other urban risks such as unemployment, community decline and food deserts. The recommendations for this paper relate to establishing a food security department, mapping and encouraging more sustainable food supply chains, creating land uses and zonings specific to urban agriculture and to utilize its multifunctionality to address other urban risks.

Keywords: spatial planning; food security; food supply chain; urban agriculture; sustainable development (search for similar items in EconPapers)
JEL-codes: O13 Q Q0 Q2 Q3 Q5 Q56 (search for similar items in EconPapers)
Date: 2021
References: View references in EconPapers View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (8)

Downloads: (external link)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1267/pdf (application/pdf)
https://www.mdpi.com/2071-1050/13/3/1267/ (text/html)

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:gam:jsusta:v:13:y:2021:i:3:p:1267-:d:487001

Access Statistics for this article

Sustainability is currently edited by Ms. Alexandra Wu

More articles in Sustainability from MDPI
Bibliographic data for series maintained by MDPI Indexing Manager ().