Farming the City against Poverty

Economically productive, socially cohesive, and environmentally sustainable cities will need organically produced and fresh food and much greater urban-rural linkages for ensuring food security, healty diets and vibrant markets.

The first steps are already taking place with urban gardens and community initiatives all over the world. From communal gardens in Paris, San Fransisco and Shanghai to the rooftops of London and a campus garden in the outskirts of Stuttgart, sustainable organic food is now produced in places that no-one could have imagined a few years ago.

I visited a pilot rooftop gardening project in one of Rio’s thousands favelas together with Robert Jordan, Advocacy Manager of the International Federation of Organic Agricultural Movements (IFOAM). In this video interview, Jordan outlines the benefits and opportunities arising from urban agriculture. as well as IFOAM’s strategy on this topic in Rio+20.