Food for the Future

In recent times, urbanization is increasing at fast pace, with rural villagers migrating to the urban cities to look for a better life. Striepe (2012) states that more than half the world population stays in urban areas today, and that figure is rising every year. Therefore the potential of urban farming is very promising in terms of increasing world’s food supply.

 

Urban farming is basically making use of unused spaces in the cities to grow vegetation. This urban farming can not just help to reduce the problem of food shortage, the crops in the cities can also help to minimize the effects of carbon emissions in the city. One success story is in Cuba, where farmers cultivate 90,000 acres of vegetables in Havana alone. This area is equivalent to almost half the total area of Singapore.

 

With modern agriculture techniques such as hydroponics, there can be plantation of crops on rooftops of buildings.