Rights statement: The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, The Anthropocene Review, 6 (1-2), 2019, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2019 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the The Anthropocene Review page: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/anr on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/
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Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
Research output: Contribution to Journal/Magazine › Journal article › peer-review
}
TY - JOUR
T1 - Global urbanization and food production in direct competition for land
T2 - Leverage places to mitigate impacts on SDG2 and on the Earth System
AU - Barthel, S.
AU - Isendahl, C.
AU - Vis, B.N.
AU - Drescher, A.
AU - Evans, D.L.
AU - van Timmeren, A.
N1 - The final, definitive version of this article has been published in the Journal, The Anthropocene Review, 6 (1-2), 2019, © SAGE Publications Ltd, 2019 by SAGE Publications Ltd at the The Anthropocene Review page: https://journals.sagepub.com/home/anr on SAGE Journals Online: http://journals.sagepub.com/
PY - 2019/6/23
Y1 - 2019/6/23
N2 - Global urbanization and food production are in direct competition for land. This paper carries out a critical review of how displacing crop production from urban and peri-urban land to other areas – because of issues related to soil quality – will demand a substantially larger proportion of the Earth’s terrestrial land surface than the surface area lost to urban encroachment. Such relationships may trigger further distancing effects and unfair social-ecological teleconnections. It risks also setting in motion amplifying effects within the Earth System. In combination, such multiple stressors set the scene for food riots in cities of the Global South. Our review identifies viable leverage points on which to act in order to navigate urban expansion away from fertile croplands. We first elaborate on the political complexities in declaring urban and peri-urban lands with fertile soils as one global commons. We find that the combination of an advisory global policy aligned with regional policies enabling robust common properties rights for bottom-up actors and movements in urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) as multi-level leverage places to intervene. To substantiate the ability of aligning global advisory policy with regional planning, we review both past and contemporary examples where empowering local social-ecological UPA practices and circular economies have had a stimulating effect on urban resilience and helped preserve, restore, and maintain urban lands with healthy soils.
AB - Global urbanization and food production are in direct competition for land. This paper carries out a critical review of how displacing crop production from urban and peri-urban land to other areas – because of issues related to soil quality – will demand a substantially larger proportion of the Earth’s terrestrial land surface than the surface area lost to urban encroachment. Such relationships may trigger further distancing effects and unfair social-ecological teleconnections. It risks also setting in motion amplifying effects within the Earth System. In combination, such multiple stressors set the scene for food riots in cities of the Global South. Our review identifies viable leverage points on which to act in order to navigate urban expansion away from fertile croplands. We first elaborate on the political complexities in declaring urban and peri-urban lands with fertile soils as one global commons. We find that the combination of an advisory global policy aligned with regional policies enabling robust common properties rights for bottom-up actors and movements in urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) as multi-level leverage places to intervene. To substantiate the ability of aligning global advisory policy with regional planning, we review both past and contemporary examples where empowering local social-ecological UPA practices and circular economies have had a stimulating effect on urban resilience and helped preserve, restore, and maintain urban lands with healthy soils.
KW - cropland
KW - economic globalization
KW - food security
KW - Global South
KW - global sustainability
KW - human resilience
KW - social-ecological teleconnection
KW - soil health
KW - urban and peri-urban agriculture
KW - urbanization
U2 - 10.1177/2053019619856672
DO - 10.1177/2053019619856672
M3 - Journal article
VL - 6
SP - 71
EP - 97
JO - The Anthropocene Review
JF - The Anthropocene Review
SN - 2053-0196
IS - 1-2
ER -