September 25, 2013
From Farm to Landscape: Avoiding the Pitfalls of Intensification
Joern Fischer
Leuphana University Lueneburg
Editor’s Note: Today’s guest author kicks off this month’s Landscapes Roundtable series with a discussion of key considerations on the topic of sustainable intensification. Intensification, and especially “sustainable intensification,” is now frequently being hailed as a potential solution to simultaneously address concerns about environmental protection ...
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September 23, 2013
Intensifying Production: Reaping Multiple Benefits On and Beyond the Farm
Theoretical model of sustainable intensification With a growing population, and increasingly dwindling natural resources and degrading ecosystems, there is increasing attention devoted to producing adequate and nutritious food while simultaneously maintaining environmental integrity. Often referred to as sustainable intensification, this notion that both productivity and long-t ...
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August 5, 2013
Looking Within and Beyond City Limits
Cities and their urban populations are rapidly growing, concentrating people and resource use geographically. Last Friday brought our second Landscapes Roundtable, this time focused on urban food systems, to a close. Over the course of the two weeks, the cast of experts took us from the broader perspective of reaching beyond city limits for sustainable […] ...
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August 2, 2013
A Systems Perspective for Urban Agriculture: Food Security, Livelihoods, and Sustainable Environment
Mary Njenga, University of Nairobi and World Agroforestry Centre
Nancy Karanja, University of Nairobi
Editor’s note: For the past two weeks, experts have focused on urban food systems and the importance of urban production, city-regional planning, and the connections beyond city limits. Today, Mary Njenga and Nancy Karanja bring this discussion to the specific case of Nairobi, Kenya, where urban agricultural production is contributing to food security and livelihoods in ...
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July 31, 2013
Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture for Resilient City-Regional Food Systems
Marielle Dubbeling, International network of Resource Centres on Urban Agriculture and Food Security (RUAF Foundation)
Editor’s note: Food security in urban settings is a critical issue at present and moving into the coming decades. And as we saw last week, there is a strong role for better ‘city-regional’ planning is building a more robust and sustainable food system. On Monday, Rafael Tuts pointed to examples of where this planning could contribute […] ...
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July 29, 2013
Urbanization, Food Security, and Role of City-Region Planning
Rafael Tuts, UN Human Settlements Program (UN-Habitat)
Editor’s note: Expanding on the background provided last week on urban planning and integration of food and agriculture into cities, Rafael Tuts discusses the need for more holistic planning approaches to building resilient cities. He is responsible for the implementation of the Cities and Climate Change Initiative (CCCI), which is currently active in Africa, Asia, [&hell ...
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July 26, 2013
Food and Urban (Socio-Natural) Metabolism
By Laura Shillington, Affiliated Assistant Professor, Department of Geography, Planning and Environment, Concordia University, Quebec, Canada Dr. Shillington focuses her work on sustainable urban spaces, and the human-environment-policy relationships at multiple scales. Following on Wednesday’s post introducing how food is often neglected within urban planning, today the auth ...
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July 24, 2013
Taking Root in Cities: An Urban Green Revolution
By Mark Redwood, Program Leader Climate Change and Water, International Development Research Centre, Ottawa, Canada Mark Redwood is an urban and environmental planner who specializes in water, sanitation, and urban agriculture. He kicks off our Roundtable topic of urban food systems with a discussion of one of the major shortfalls in addressing urban food security […] ...
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July 22, 2013
Growing Greener Cities
For the past couple of weeks, the Landscapes Blog has spent a little more time than usual ruminating on population and the ever-growing constraints of a finite planet. With the number of humans pushing past 7.2 billion this year and expected to hit 9.2 billion by 2050, the question of adequate space and resources is a legitimate one. […] ...
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May 20, 2013
Learning from Conflict
Thanks to our first Landscape Roundtable contributors, Saswati Bora, Elisabeth Kvitashvili, and Delia Catacutan, for sharing their perspectives on the topic of conflict, resource management and related impacts on food security. Each of the authors pointed out that the connections between resource management and conflict are complex and can take place at multiple scales. Al ...
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