Global urbanization and food production in direct competition for land : Leverage places to mitigate impacts on SDG2 and on the Earth System

• Global urbanization and food production are in direct competition for land. This paper carries outa 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 theEarth’s terrestrial land surface than the surface area lost to urban encroachment. Such relationshipsmay trigger further distancing effects and unfair social-ecological teleconnections. It risks also settingin motion amplifying effects within the Earth System. In combination, such multiple stressors set thescene for food riots in cities of the Global South. Our review identifies viable leverage points on whichto act in order to navigate urban expansion away from fertile croplands. We first elaborate on thepolitical 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 enablingrobust common properties rights for bottom-up actors and movements in urban and peri-urbanagriculture (UPA) as multi-level leverage places to intervene. To substantiate the ability of aligningglobal advisory policy with regional planning, we review both past and contemporary examples whereempowering local social-ecological UPA practices and circular economies have had a stimulatingeffect on urban resilience and helped preserve, restore, and maintain urban lands with healthy soils.

Subject headings

LANTBRUKSVETENSKAPER  -- Annan lantbruksvetenskap -- Miljö- och naturvårdsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

AGRICULTURAL SCIENCES  -- Other Agricultural Sciences -- Environmental Sciences related to Agriculture and Land-use (hsv//eng)

NATURVETENSKAP  -- Geovetenskap och miljövetenskap (hsv//swe)

NATURAL SCIENCES  -- Earth and Related Environmental Sciences (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Social och ekonomisk geografi (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Social and Economic Geography (hsv//eng)

HUMANIORA  -- Historia och arkeologi (hsv//swe)

HUMANITIES  -- History and Archaeology (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap -- Tvärvetenskapliga studier inom samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences -- Social Sciences Interdisciplinary (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Annan samhällsvetenskap (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Other Social Sciences (hsv//eng)

SAMHÄLLSVETENSKAP  -- Statsvetenskap -- Globaliseringsstudier (hsv//swe)

SOCIAL SCIENCES  -- Political Science -- Globalisation Studies (hsv//eng)

Keyword

cropland

economic globalization

food security

Global South

global sustainability

human resilience

social-ecological teleconnection

soil health

urban and peri-urban agriculture

urbanization

Hållbar stadsutveckling

Sustainable Urban Development

Publication and Content Type

ref (subject category)

art (subject category)