Food and the City: Urban Agriculture and the New Food Revolution

Description

This is the inspiring chronicle of a radical movement against the industrial food behemoth, and a reclaiming of communities to grow, distribute, and eat locally. When you're standing in the midst of a supermarket, it's hard to imagine that you're looking at a failing system. The abundance of food looks impressive but is really just a facade. In fact, there's often no more than a 3-day supply of food available for any given city due to complex, just-in-time national and international supply chains. The system is not only vulnerable, given the reality of food scares, natural disasters and economic upheavals, but also environmentally unsustainable in the long term. One answer is urban agriculture. "Food and the City" examines alternative food systems in cities around the globe that are shortening their supply chains and growing food within city limits. More than just a niche concern of a few activists, urban agriculture is becoming a global movement that cuts across the private and public sectors, economic classes, and cultures.

Jennifer Cockrall-King is a freelance journalist and food writer.

""All over the world I've watched urban dwellers begin to figure out that they can start growing food, too. It's one of the loveliest trends on earth, and Jennifer Cockrall-King does a fine job of capturing its tremendous growth." -BILL MCKIBBEN, Author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet "Today's industrial food systems are unsustainable and harmful to communities all over the world. This insightful book delves deeply into the problems and solutions that will come to define food in the years ahead." -CHEF MICHAEL SMITH, Author and Food Network (Canada) host "It seems that all the slick, trendy publications, sites, and bloggers have recently discovered the idea of urban agriculture. As Cockrall-King points out, this is not a new movement at all. Quietly, many communities have encouraged growing food in the city as a way both to produce delicious, unprocessed food and to help foster an environmental awareness and ethos. This book is full of great examples and resources for city dwellers. After reading it you'll want to round up your neighbors and start planting!" -JOHN ASH, James Beard Award-winning author and chef "At a time when most of us strive to reconnect with the source of our food, Cockrall-King delves straight to the root of our food systems, bringing to light the potential of small-scale urban agriculture to feed the masses. She makes a global issue seem manageable by citing actions of self-sufficiency--from community gardens to backyard bees, our collective steps toward sustainability are transforming our relationship with the food on our plates." -JULIE VAN ROSENDAA, Cookbook author, TV host, and blogger at www.dinnerwithjulie.com "Cockrall-King makes a compelling and inspiring case that small-scale, urban farming may be the key to fixing our broken industrialized food system." -BARRY ESTABROOK, Author of Tomatoland: How Modern Industrial Agriculture Destroyed Our Most Alluring Fruit