Environmental Studies Program
Date of this Version
Spring 2016
Document Type
Article
Citation
Environmental Studies Undergraduate Student Thesis, University of Nebraska–Lincoln, 2015
Abstract
As the world’s population grows and cities expand into mega cities, so does poverty and the need for better food security. Barthel and Isendhal “define food security broadly as the situation when people have physical and economic access to sufficient, safe, and nutritious food to meet their dietary needs." (2013) Along with this growth, urban farming is gaining more and more interest. The drive behind the interest is a desire to know where food comes from as well as, a way to rekindle a relationship with our history, the land, and our health. “A consumer base is building for local and quality foods." Lyson et al. (2008) The purpose of this research is to evaluate the implications of our changing food system and attempt to discover if urban farming practices are in fact, the future for food security in the mega cities to come. The two main research questions are: What are the implications of our relationship with urban farming? And how will urban farming transform the future of agriculture on a larger scale? This is done primarily by examining literature on urban farming, but also through working on small farms. One of the things that stood out the most in this research was poverty stricken areas. To see if this was also relevant in a place well known for plenty of rural farm country, I created a map to find out where community gardens were located in Omaha, Nebraska in comparison to the city's median income. Urban farming is prevalent even in a place with plenty of farm land surrounding its cities.
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Copyright © 2016 Tracey Adams