Urbanization and food security
Access to affordable, healthy food is a challenge facing many urban residents worldwide. Outline this issue with respect to Auckland, and investigate one local 'alternative ' food initiative that attempts to address this problem.
In this essay I will give a brief overview of the relationship between urbanization and food security and the challenge created for many urbanites residing in Auckland who struggle to access affordable and healthy food on a daily basis. I will identify and explore one local initiative implemented to target and support the widespread issue of children going to school hungry. To enable the reader to better understand the relationship between urbanization and food security I will define theses terms to give a clearer understanding of how the two concepts interrelate.
Urbanization is defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency ‘as the concentration of human populations into discrete areas, leading to transformation of land for residential, commercial, industrial & transportation purposes. It can include densely populated centers, as well as their adjacent peri-urban or suburban fringes’ (EPA, 2012).
The speed and scale of global urban growth today is astounding. The United Nations projected that ‘half of the world’s population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008 (Handwerk, 2008). By 2050 it is predicted that 64% and 85.9% of the developing and developed world respectively will be urbanized’ (Sanders, 2012). According to Statistics NZ, ‘New Zealand continues to be a highly urbanized country,’ identifying Auckland as the fastest growing main urban area. Urban growth brings about both positive and negative influences on communities.
The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as existing when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life’ (WHO, 2014). Food security is often described as having both physical and economic access to food that
In this essay I will give a brief overview of the relationship between urbanization and food security and the challenge created for many urbanites residing in Auckland who struggle to access affordable and healthy food on a daily basis. I will identify and explore one local initiative implemented to target and support the widespread issue of children going to school hungry. To enable the reader to better understand the relationship between urbanization and food security I will define theses terms to give a clearer understanding of how the two concepts interrelate.
Urbanization is defined by the United States Environmental Protection Agency ‘as the concentration of human populations into discrete areas, leading to transformation of land for residential, commercial, industrial & transportation purposes. It can include densely populated centers, as well as their adjacent peri-urban or suburban fringes’ (EPA, 2012).
The speed and scale of global urban growth today is astounding. The United Nations projected that ‘half of the world’s population would live in urban areas at the end of 2008 (Handwerk, 2008). By 2050 it is predicted that 64% and 85.9% of the developing and developed world respectively will be urbanized’ (Sanders, 2012). According to Statistics NZ, ‘New Zealand continues to be a highly urbanized country,’ identifying Auckland as the fastest growing main urban area. Urban growth brings about both positive and negative influences on communities.
The World Food Summit of 1996 defined food security as existing when all people at all times have access to sufficient, safe, nutritious food to maintain a healthy and active life’ (WHO, 2014). Food security is often described as having both physical and economic access to food that
References: J. Michael Murphy, EdD, Massachusetts General Hospital and Harvard Medical School, 2007 https://kickstartbreakfast.co.nz, website accessed 31/03/2014 Wynd,D. 2005 Hard to swallow: foodbank use in New Zealand, http://www.cpag.org.nz/assets/Publications/HTS.pdf, Website accessed 25/03/2014 Wynd, D