Urban agriculture has become a big part of the conversation when it comes to sustainability and food security. As cities around the world continue to experience rapid growth and development, finding solutions for urban agriculture is more important than ever. Solutions for urban agriculture can provide an answer to many issues that come with living in the city, such as limited access to food, environmental degradation, and unequal distribution of resources.
What is Urban Farming?
Urban farming is just a fancy name given to indoor growing, usually within residential properties, but there are also commercial urban farming operations. In some cases, urban farming can also refer to food grown outside of an urban environment, but we will focus primarily on agriculture within urban areas here.
Companies like growin.ag are working hard to develop tools to facilitate urban farming. This is because there are many benefits associated with urban farming. Some of these benefits can save lives.
Increased Urbanization Leaves Limited Growing Space
The population is increasing. Cities are growing.
In some parts of the world, there should be more growing space available. This can lead to food shortages if food is not imported effectively, as we saw with some grain-based products last year.
Urbanization ensures that food continues to grow even when there is not enough farmland nearby.
Bringing Food to the Population
Food transportation is essential. However, food transportation increases food prices and pollutes the environment. Therefore, we need to look at ways that the transportation of food can be reduced as much as possible.
Urban agriculture reduces the need to transport food to cities. This lowers product prices (necessary these days) and reduces a large contribution to climate change.
Growing Food Despite the Climate; Circumstances
Growing food outdoors has become more challenging than ever.
Conditions are dire, and with climate change having a major impact on growing conditions, things will only get worse. There may come a time when the crops we planted in the past will not grow as efficiently as they used to.
Growing food indoors can help control conditions. With the right urban agriculture setup, a grower can affect the temperature of the plants, the quality of the soil, and even the amount of water the plant receives.
Logically, we can grow better food with the right equipment in urban agriculture. We can grow better equipped food to deal with the changing environment we live in.
Good urban agriculture can help provide food security for generations, especially if we continue to refine the techniques used.
Reduced Water Use
Water scarcity will increase with climate change, which is already severe.
Urban agriculture helps reduce water consumption. It benefits the environment. It also saves money for growers. Again, this helps to reduce the cost of food production.
A Cleaner Earth
Pollution damages agricultural land around the world. Small impurities enter our food, and there is little we can do about it.
Urban agriculture can help combat this to a degree.
No Pesticides
Since no pest can be found indoors, or at least not needed, then urban agriculture can reduce the need for pesticides. You can eliminate the use of pesticides.
This is something that will lead to better quality food. If there are no pesticides in the food, it is much safer to consume.
The lack of pests means that growers are less likely to lose their crops. This has a big impact on crop prices. If they don’t lose too many swatches of their plants, then they can keep the price low.
Final Thoughts
There are many reasons why urban agriculture is more critical than ever. This is something that benefits the environment. While large-scale operations likely have the most significant impact on the planet, even small-scale urban agriculture systems have a noticeable impact. Everything has to start over, right?
We expect urban agriculture to become even bigger in the next few years.
