Urban Food Security

Dear Colleagues,

Food Security involves a complex set of issues:

1. The issue of the quantity of food available to certain segments of the population and to the populations of certain developing countries in urban areas goes back a considerable length of time.

2. On the other hand, it has become increasingly evident that there are major concerns about the quality of some foodstuffs that are available which can affect human health. To a large extent, this is linked to the increasingly dominant form of agriculture in developed countries that has been encouraged by many governments over the last 50 years—productivist or capitalist agriculture. While this form of agriculture has contributed substantially to providing food supplies, it has also become increasingly criticized for producing foodstuffs that are not healthy.

3. Modern or productivist or capitalist agriculture has also produced other negative externalities, such as contributing to water pollution of nearby rivers and lakes and also altering the physical environment for flora and fauna, as well as sometimes destroying heritage landscapes.

4. There is also the role of different types of food production within urban agglomerations and the issues of the volume of food produced, its quality in terms of human health and the various externalities that such food production can produce (both negative and positive).

This Special Issue of Urban Science on “Urban Food Security” welcomes articles that deal with these different aspects of Food Security. At the same time, the Special Issue also welcomes articles which present analyses of how different issues are being dealt with, such as through developing more sustainable foodstuffs from both the point of view of consumers (and human health) and the environment. From the perspective of the changing values of consumers, the Special Issue is also interested in how consumers and producers can work together to produce more sustainable foodstuffs.

Finally, food security can also be influenced by other stressors such as climate change and variability, a stressor with differential impacts on different countries and territories. The Special Issue also welcomes articles on these other stressors that can affect food security.

Dr. Christopher Bryant
Guest Editor

Manuscript Submission Information

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• urban food security;

• volume of food;

• quality of food and human health;

• challenges to improving food security;

• stressors affecting food security;

• policies and actions aimed at improving food security