The COVID-19 pandemic has threatened global food security due to supply chain disruption and labor shortages. Meanwhile, as people are spending more time at home, we observe a thrive in urban farming as a means to increase resilience in the food supply in light of the pandemic.
Every year, more people are migrating to urban areas in search of economic opportunity, and a 68% rise by 2050 was forecasted by the United Nation back in 2018. Urban farming undeniably plays an integral part in strengthening food security as we head into probable overpopulation in the near future.
Photo by José Martín Ramírez Carrasco I Unsplash
In fact, urban farming has become a burgeoning trend over the past decade as a result of growing awareness towards the socio-economical, environmental, and ethical underpinnings of food production. In short, consumers are becoming more conscious of where their food comes from, and how they are made.
If anything, the pandemic crisis has only highlighted our dependence on the global supply chain as our primary food source. Evidently, people resorted to panic buying and empty shelves became a common sight when the Movement Control Order (MCO) was announced earlier this year. We also suffered from a dearth in food availability and price hike — a direct consequence of labor shortages and delayed importation.
Photo by Oriental Daily
Through urban farming, we maintain food security by having access to nutritious food close to the source of demand. Literature has emphasized the suitability of urban areas to grow horticultural crops, i.e., fruits and vegetables. Research by Nature Food found that using only 10% of a city’s urban space for farming is predicted to provide for 15% of the local population. However, in order to sustain a substantial part of the population, people have to engage in urban farming.
Luckily, flexible farming technologies such as hydroponics and aquaponics allow for urban farming in under-used or abandoned spaces. These methods do not require soil to grow plants and offer easier temperature and humidity control. Such technologies illustrate the high yielding potential for common products such as kale or bok choy.
Urban Farm Tech is at the forefront of developing aquaponic systems that are suitable for either large scale urban farming or household gardening.
The pandemic serves as an opportunity for us to reevaluate our reliance on the supply chain and the vulnerability of perceived food security in times of crisis. It urges us to take matters into our own hands, closing our gap between us and our food source through sustainable, tangible, and practical methods — urban farming.
Want to know how to get started with your own vegetable farm at home through urban farming? Simply reach out to us at francis@urbanfarmtech.net or give us a call at +6012 666 7474 and look for Francis.