Feeding Cities: Food Security and Ecosystem Support in an Urbanizing World

Abstract

In this chapter we take a complex systems approach to exploring the linkages among the phenomenon of urbanization, the changing value systems and world perspectives of urban dwellers, the sometimes distant connections to the food production systems that support cities, and the often invisible ecosystem services that support food production and in turn are affected by food production.After we explore the relationship between a range of ecosystem services and their relationship to food production, we present three cases of economically developed cities that secure their food from global sources. The wealthy urban populations in all our three case cities adhere to the highly commoditized systems of industrial production based on energy-and material-intensive external inputs for the bulk of their food provision. Fully integrated into the global market, trade enables these cities to both consume and produce what their consumers desire without regard to the local capacity of ecosystems in the regions around the cities. Although

Harmonising conflicts between science, regulation, perception and environmental impact: The case of soil conditioners from bioenergy

“…Declining natural capital within soils is resulting in greater dependence on artificial means to maintain adequate crop yield (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005;Ingram et al, 2010;Deutsch et al, 2013). N, P, K are typically depleted in developing nations, but are applied to excess in developed, causing depletion of micronutrients (Sheldrick et al, 2002).…”

“…N, P, K are typically depleted in developing nations, but are applied to excess in developed, causing depletion of micronutrients (Sheldrick et al, 2002). Loss of micronutrients reduces the efficacy of N, requiring greater applications and reduced profitability (Deutsch et al, 2013). Common practice is to continue cropping until symptoms of nutrient deficiency are apparent (Defra, 2010b), which is resulting in depletion of natural capital within soils.…”

“…Loss of carbon storage due to use of traditional fertilisers (Grace et al, 2012). Disturbance of the soil through tillage also releases large amounts of carbon to the atmosphere (Höper, 2002;Deutsch et al, 2013). Increasing average temperatures lead to greater decomposition of soil organic carbon (Batjes, 1996;Davidson and Janssens, 2006).…”

“…Fresh water Globally, 70% of water withdrawal is related to food production (Deutsch et al, 2013), with approximately 15-35% classed as unsustainable (Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, 2005).…”

“…Primary production Gross primary productivity (GPP) measures the rate of solar energy conversion into biomass. The energy balance left after GPP following the meeting of a plants metabolic requirements is classed as Net Primary Production (NPP), which is available to enter the food chain as biomass (Deutsch et al, 2013).…”