Linus Dagerskog, Simeon Kenfack and Håkan Jönsson

In: UA Magazine no. 20 - Water for Urban Agriculture, pp. 41-43

Robert Gensch

In: UA Magazine no. 20 - Water for Urban Agriculture, pp. 38-40

Currently some estimated 854 million people worldwide are chronically hungry due to extreme poverty; and about 2 billion people lack food security intermittently due to varying degrees of poverty (FAO 2006). Despite the great efforts and promising attempts being made to decrease the number of people suffering from food insecurity, this numer still remains high worldwide and will most likely intensify in the coming decades, due to the growing world population. A great deal of this population growth will take place in cities, causing a substantial increase in the volume of urban waste products, the over-exploitation of rural resources and a significant increase in urban food demand. Developing countries are particularly affected by the rampant urbanisation tendencies and face great difficulties in coping with this development.

Sara Finley

In: UA Magazine no. 20 - Water for Urban Agriculture, p. 37

Urban food production is quickly gaining popularity in Canadian cities, where community gardens are thriving and backyard or balcony cultivation is widespread. However, the desire to produce local food must be compensated by responsible water us if the practice is to be sustainable. Garden watering can account for more than 40 percent of household water use during the summer months, and wasteful irrigation practices are often the norm in Canadian cities.