TechTalks (27th November) – From the reliance on fossil-fuel-driven equipment to cultivate and transport crops to the dependence on nitrous oxide-emitting fertilizers, today’s farms pose a profound threat to the climate, accelerating and exacerbating the climate crisis.
But it doesn’t have to be this way. We can feed our family without ravaging the environment. The answer may well lie in smart urban agriculture.
What is smart urban agriculture?
Smart urban agriculture comes in many forms, but what unites its many manifestations is the commitment to more localized, technology-based, environmentally-friendly farming practices. The result is an approach to farming that harnesses the attributes of the local environment while at the same time unleashing the power of agricultural technology (ag-tech) to produce abundant, high-quality crops with minimal environmental impact.
An end to urban food deserts and food insecurity?
One of the most exciting benefits of smart urban agriculture is that the practice may well eliminate urban food deserts as we know them. This means that food producers no longer require access to vast quantities of arable land to generate yields sufficient to meet the needs of the modern food system.
Rather, through urban agriculture, ideal growing conditions can be created almost anywhere—from a patio or backyard amid a busy metropolis to your own indoor kitchen. In urban centers plagued by food deserts, the ability to grow your own fresh fruits and vegetables at home or in a community garden means that residents no longer have to turn to convenience stores and bodegas to purchase cheap, highly-processed foods.
Likewise, in developing nations, where food insecurity is often ubiquitous, community and home-based food production may help to significantly reduce or even eliminate life-threatening malnutrition.
Reducing carbon emissions
In addition to reducing the threat of urban food deserts and food insecurity, smart urban agriculture also promises to slash carbon emissions, particularly in comparison to traditional industrial farming. This is due to the effects on both crop cultivation and transport.
For instance, smart sensors connected to the Internet of Things (IoT) enables growers to continuously monitor soil condition, humidity levels, and other environmental factors that determine a crop’s growing conditions. Armed with this information, farmers can tailor their water and fertilizer usage to the crop’s exact needs. The result is significantly less waste, reduced run-off, and decreased fertilizer use, resulting in lower greenhouse emissions.
In addition, urban agriculture means that more food gets produced locally, resulting in far shorter transport. That means lower truck, train, and ship emissions produced during shipping.
Preventing supply chain disruptions
Producing food locally through urban agriculture doesn’t just mean that you’re producing fewer greenhouse emissions because of shorter shipping distances. It also means that you’re preventing disabling supply chain disruptions.
For instance, localizing the supply chain through smart urban agriculture makes it far easier to find affordable alternative suppliers and shippers should your regular partners fall through. In the worst-case scenario, vendors or consumers may even be able to access the product for themselves, straight from the local grower.
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