Abstract
Few events have tested cities’ ability to feed their citizens with such ruthlessness as the current pandemic has. COVID19 has disrupted international and regional food supply chains, has leveled crops and shocked the ability of growers to harvest by limiting the supply of migrant labour. It has forced suppliers to dispose of thousands of tons of fresh product which suddenly had nowhere to go. It has turned upside down the balance between distribution channels, from restaurants and food service, like schools, to supermarkets. When all of this is over, we may never consume food the same way again. Think of the countless links: farm workers, processors, transporters, logistics operators, warehouse managers, exporters, importers, phytosanitary inspectors, retailers, restaurateurs, consumers. Take a piece out and it all falls apart. And when that systems stops, we stop eating. How vulnerable are millions of citizens across the world? Gulf States import between 80 and 90% of their food supply from international sources. Many regions and cities are equally dependent on some of their most basic commodities, such as wheat, corn or rice. In light of our new reality, Urban Green Deals must consider and plan into their instruments ways to account for and protect the food security of their citizens. In a post-COVID19 environment there will be no choice. As cities produce their own place-specific plans, about ensuring the well-being of citizens while profoundly changing the way we operate within the ecosystem, a sustainable urban and regional development vision must keep the resilience of our food systems and the safety of its supply at its core. The current pandemic has brought us a number of positive outcomes. We have become more aware: we are now more accustomed now to seeing empty shelves in the supermarkets and feeling the effects of food scarcity. Also, we are getting used to cooking at home daily, and reconnecting and spending a substantial amount of time preparing our meals. However, the food system shock affecting global supply presents some lasting consequences as well, for which cities need to plan ahead: 1) a passionate move by both policymakers and consumers, away from traditional supply chains, which bring us food from all over the world, and into regional and local-for-local food networks; and as a result of this, 2) the need to strengthen urban-rural linkages within our immediate micro-regions and a search for alternative food sources. Drawing on the experience of the author at the intersection of urban planning and food security, this paper looks at how Urban Green Deals could consider these effects and integrate new knowledge from other disciplines into designing better resilience and disaster prevention and mitigation strategies regarding food security. The paper will describe 3 relevant examples of knowledge that can contribute to a new role for food security in urban planning in a post-COVID19 reality: 1) Non-land dependent agriculture systems for food security, 2) Local-for-local value chain development, and 3) Planning for supply chain disruption through cold-chain network design and capacity.
