– To protect fresh food supplies, here are the key steps to secure city foodbowls
City fringe foodbowls supply much of our fresh produce and can increase climate resilience by making better use of wastewater and organic waste. A new roadmap outlines how to protect these foodbowls.
– Feeding cities in the 21st century: why urban-fringe farming is vital for food resilience
You’re right, there are lots of other incredibly important areas of farmland both in Australia and overseas that play a role in keeping our cities fed, and we’d never argue otherwise. That said, we’ve…
– Feeding cities in the 21st century: why urban-fringe farming is vital for food resilience
To improve access to locally grown food and help prevent disruptions to supply chains caused by climate change, we need to support farming on the fringes of cities.
– The key to future food supply is sitting on our cities' doorsteps
Australia's city foodbowls are an important part of the nation's food supply, but they're under increasing pressure from growing populations.
– Melbourne wastes 200 kg of food per person a year: it's time to get serious
Feeding Melbourne generates over 900,000 tonnes of edible food waste every year, enough to feed more than 2 million people.
– It takes a lot of water to feed us, but recycled water could help
Hi John, there’s a substantial amount of water that gets treated at the plants which is not from residential use. Our figures are drawn from Melbourne Water’s annual reporting (available at http://www.melbournewater.com.au/aboutus/reportsandpublications/Annual-Report/Pages/annual-report.aspx…
– It takes a lot of water to feed us, but recycled water could help
Hi John, yes, that sounds like a topic I too would find interesting! But the focus of this article is on the use of recycled water (as provided by our current local infrastructure and technology) for growing…
– It takes a lot of water to feed us, but recycled water could help
Hi Catherine, it’s not entirely a technology issue. There are differences between salinity levels of water both going into and coming out of the Eastern and Western Treatment Plants, and salinity is not…
– It takes a lot of water to feed us, but recycled water could help
Thanks for your comment John. The potential of rainwater falling on cities is interesting, there is a good case study of a Victorian urban farm trialling stormwater use: http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pubmed/22053481We…
– It takes a lot of water to feed us, but recycled water could help
Australians eat a lot of water. Nearly 500 L is required to produce the food each of us eats every day.
– To feed growing cities we need to stop urban sprawl eating up our food supply
The more in-depth report ‘Melbourne’s Foodbowl: Now and at seven million’ which was behind the initial data release written about above has now been released and is available for download from the VEIL…
– When climate change hits our food supply, city foodbowls could come to the rescue
Yes, it’s a real problem. The Foodprint Melbourne project has been looking at the impact of the city’s urban sprawl on its foodbowl, you might find one of our recent articles on that topic interesting…
– When climate change hits our food supply, city foodbowls could come to the rescue
Hi Sue, I think you’ve hit the nail on the head about why it’s important to keep showing the value of retaining peri-urban production and potential for these areas: partly to raise the question of if we…
– When climate change hits our food supply, city foodbowls could come to the rescue
Thanks for your comment Peter. There’s an interesting discussion of the CO2 plant growth debate in Chapter 5 of the Climate Council’s ‘Feeding a Hungry Nation’ report, available at https://www.climatecouncil.org.au/foodsecurityreport2015While…
– When climate change hits our food supply, city foodbowls could come to the rescue
Australians may need to get used to coping with more disruptions to their food supply and rising food prices in a warming climate.
– To feed growing cities we need to stop urban sprawl eating up our food supply
Yes, you make a good point that our current supply chain for a great deal of food is still relatively cheap, and it’s unlikely to remain so. Future work in this project is aiming to model some of these…
– To feed growing cities we need to stop urban sprawl eating up our food supply
Thanks Georgina. Yes, it’s an ongoing challenge to get a fair price for farmers, which is the thing most needed to keep these really important areas in production. Your point about water is interesting…
– To feed growing cities we need to stop urban sprawl eating up our food supply
Melbourne's farms currently supply over 40% of the city's food. But a growing population and urban sprawl mean by 2050 they'll supply half as much.