Urban Food Crisis
Chapter from the book: Tekin, Ö. F. (ed.) 2023. City and Crisis.

Gizem Erdoğan Aydın
İzmir Democracy University

Synopsis

Cities are areas of food consumption due to their population. Food supply is also an important issue for urban dwellers who have to eat and who specialize in non-agricultural activities. The sustainability, accessibility and security of the food system interact directly with urban systems. For this reason, the growth of cities is placing great stress on rural areas and agricultural supply chains to meet urban food demand. On the other hand, cities provide expertise for the processing, storage and distribution of food products. Today, the inevitable increase in urban populations around the world is leading to a reassessment of the relationship between cities and agriculture, and hence food. Today's cities and their inhabitants frequently experience food security and access problems. For the first time in 1948, the United Nations (UN) Universal Declaration of Human Rights stated that the right to food is the most fundamental human right, and the 70s were the years when the concept of food crisis and urban food production was mentioned. Food crisis refers to the situation that arises when food supply or access is seriously disrupted due to an excessive increase in the balance of supply and demand in the demand side. There have been food crises throughout human history, but today there is a food crisis on a global scale and world food prices are rising in a sustained manner. This study is organized under three main headings. The first section aims to reveal the relationship between cities and food and thus agriculture, the second section aims to take a look at the causes and processes of the food crisis in cities, and the last section aims to reveal what basic actions can be taken to overcome food crises in cities.

How to cite this book

Erdoğan Aydın, G. (2023). Urban Food Crisis. In: Tekin, Ö. F. (ed.), City and Crisis. Özgür Publications. DOI: https://doi.org/10.58830/ozgur.pub269.c1090

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Published

October 10, 2023

DOI