{"id":13867,"date":"2015-10-27T07:12:36","date_gmt":"2015-10-27T12:12:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=13867"},"modified":"2015-10-27T07:12:50","modified_gmt":"2015-10-27T12:12:50","slug":"to-feed-growing-cities-we-need-to-stop-urban-sprawl-eating-up-our-food-supply","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/?p=13867","title":{"rendered":"To feed growing cities we need to stop urban sprawl eating up our food supply"},"content":{"rendered":"
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To feed growing cities we need to stop urban sprawl eating up our food\u00a0supply<\/a><\/strong><\/h3>\n<\/div>\n<\/div>\n

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New season asparagus from farmland on Melbourne\u2019s city fringe.\u00a0Matthew Carey<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n

If you\u2019ve eaten any of the new season\u2019s asparagus recently, it probably came from Koo Wee Rup, a small town 60 kilometres to the south east of Melbourne. Koo Wee Rup produces\u00a0over 90% of Australia\u2019s asparagus<\/a>. The region has perfect conditions for asparagus growing, and\u00a0its ancient peaty soils have a reputation<\/a>\u00a0for producing some of the best asparagus in the world.<\/p>\n

Koo Wee Rup is just one of many food growing areas on the urban fringe of Australia\u2019s state capitals that make an important contribution to the nation\u2019s fresh food supply. The foodbowls on the fringe of cities like Sydney and Melbourne are\u00a0some of the most highly productive agricultural regions<\/a>\u00a0in Australia.<\/p>\n

But as these cities expand to accommodate rapidly growing populations, fertile farmland on the city fringe is at risk due to urban sprawl.<\/p>\n

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Melbourne Foodbowl at 7 million infographic<\/span>Foodprint Melbourne project<\/span><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n

Melbourne\u2019s foodprint<\/strong><\/p>\n

Early findings from a new study of food production on Melbourne\u2019s city fringe highlight the impact that continued urban sprawl could have on the supply of fresh, local foods in Australia\u2019s cities. The\u00a0Foodprint Melbourne<\/a>\u00a0project is investigating the capacity of Melbourne\u2019s city fringe foodbowl to feed the population of Greater Melbourne.<\/p>\n

The research explores the capacity of Melbourne\u2019s foodbowl to feed the current population of 4.4 million and the\u00a0predicted future population<\/a>\u00a0of around 7 million in 2050. The project also investigates the city\u2019s \u201cfoodprint\u201d \u2013 the amount of land, water and energy required to feed the city, as well as associated greenhouse gas emissions.<\/p>\n

Early project findings indicate that Melbourne\u2019s foodbowl currently has the capacity to supply a significant proportion of Greater Melbourne\u2019s food needs across a wide variety of foods, including poultry, eggs, red meat, dairy, fruit and vegetables. The city\u2019s foodbowl\u00a0can supply just over 40% of the food needed to feed Greater Melbourne<\/a>, including over 80% of the fresh vegetables consumed and around 13% of fruit.<\/p>\n

\u2026click on the above link to read the rest of the article…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

To feed growing cities we need to stop urban sprawl eating up our food\u00a0supply New season asparagus from farmland on Melbourne\u2019s city fringe.\u00a0Matthew Carey If you\u2019ve eaten any of the new season\u2019s asparagus recently, it probably came from Koo Wee Rup, a small town 60 kilometres to the south east of Melbourne. Koo Wee Rup […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"footnotes":""},"categories":[4,7],"tags":[1691,299,319,10280,928,10279,1160,8487,1631],"class_list":["post-13867","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-environment","category-survival-2","tag-cities","tag-farming","tag-food","tag-food-capacity","tag-food-supply","tag-footprint","tag-population-growth","tag-the-conversation","tag-urban-sprawl"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13867","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=13867"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13867\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13869,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13867\/revisions\/13869"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=13867"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=13867"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/olduvai.ca\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=13867"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}