Food Production in Urban Environment

Food Production in Urban Environment

Food production in urban areas is an important alternative because it can guarantee food security and food sovereignty, soil permeability, mitigation the heat island effect, and, especially, allows the population to have access to fresh foods.
Besides these obvious reasons, it may be said that to produce food near the place of consumption is a way of reducing CO ² and other greenhouse gases. After all, the Ecuatorian banana which is on sale at your local supermarket, traveled over 11,000 km to reach it’s final destination.
Adding to this the need for road and airport infrastructure, transport losses and all energy used in the process, we have plenty of reasons to believe that growing food in urban settings is a good idea!

Two proposals for Food Production in Urban Environment.

A) Geo-referencing of fruit trees used in urban areas.

A collaborative work, where on the combined efforts of interested people and the unification of the various sections mapped contemplate the whole city. Location via GPS (virtually all mobile phones have one nowadays) of the fruit trees in the streets we stroll. According to the person’s knowledge, interest or time availability other relevant data such as seasonality, access to the fruits, can be included
This is an initiative that besides the opportunity to eat something freshly picked, proposes to bring people into the streets and to promote the valuation, better care and usage of collective goods.

2) Exchanging food produced in particular areas or patios.

Whoever has a fruit tree in the backyard knows that it is virtually impossible to consume all the production. Giving the excess to friends and neighbors is already a common practice. Imagine how nice it would be if one could exchange the surplus for other fruits that don’t grow in the yard? Or to get credit with a neighbor for a fruit of another season? Barter occur from registration in the social network. Those interested could post what they would be willing to change and what interests.
This would be an evolutionary process independent of moderator or manager, in which at a future time a table of equivalent values ​​could be established, if this is the trend.
This initiative aims to go beyond the possibility of consuming a wide variety of fresh fruits, but also encourages community life and social contact.

These two initiatives have the tool structure and dispersion through the blog:

- www.raizurbana.blogspot.com