Urban Food Security and the Future of Cities

Mayors, City Managers and Urban Planners are usually concerned with the vulnerability and the sustainability of the development of their cities, as well as with the level of urban segregation and equity issues but often feel less concerned with urban food security.

They think of their city more in terms of housing, transport, infrastructure, security and social spaces and less in terms of food marketing systems.

Food security should be part of their preoccupations because:

• a city will be less vulnerable the more its inhabitants are able to adequately feed themselves;
• urban development will be more sustainable when public investments in market infrastructure and facilities make a real contribution to local economic and social development;
• if the food needs of low-income city districts are not adequately met, in terms of well-managed and efficient market infrastructure and services, the tendency towards segregation within the city will be strengthened;
• food access difficulties have been among the major causes of urban violence;
• the enhancement of equity within a city also requires that decision- makers be adequately informed and make the best use of available instruments and resources to support the development of complex food systems composed of individuals with different economic, social and political powers and objectives.

However, all their decisions affect, directly or indirectly, urban consumers’ food security and, therefore, the quality of urban life as well as the future of their cities.

Urban food security depends upon household’s available income for buying food and consumers’ consumption habits, as well as a variety of factors which contribute to the costs faced by urban consumers in accessing food and/or which limit stable supplies of a variety of good quality food in hygienic conditions.