Cities cover just 2% of the planet’s surface but consume 75% of its resources. Any movement towards sustainability will need to focus on the resource-use challenges linked to production and manufacturing, a major part of which will be the role of food and agriculture. Until recently, the benefits of agriculture were considered to be part of the rural development realm. But research suggests that in the future they will be part of city life.
During the past three years, the Countryside and Community Research Institute at the University of Gloucestershire has been part of a pan-European partnership researching into good practice in food production and consumption in urban areas as part of a major EU funded food project, Supurbfood, an acronym for ‘Sustainable Urban and Periurban food provisioning’.