The Agri-Food system in the urban agenda.
Urban Agriculture, an alternative strategy for dealing with the economic crisis and urban poverty.
Urban agriculture, a term widely used by international organizations such as the Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the UN, can be defined as the cultivation of crops and livestock into the urban fabric or on the outskirts of each city by its residents, aiming mainly to households final consumption of fresh and quality products. Moreover, urban agriculture provides a complementary strategy to reduce urban poverty and food insecurity while enhancing urban environmental management. In Greece, the recent social and economic deprivation of households apparently led several municipalities of the country to these initiatives. Within 30 years, Greece, once a country of positive trade balance currently is importing 40% of food consumed. It gets of urgent character for parts of the society the criticality of food sovereignty issue, as well as the initiatives related to the recovery of local communities upon the control of food, while challenging in parallel the merchandising of food by local cartels. Galloping urbanization accompanies the phenomenon of "urban poverty". Population growth is combined with rising poverty transfer from rural to urban areas. The proportion of poor people living in cities is expected to rise 40% by 2020 and 50% by 2035 (UNFPA).
"Poverty is not an accident. Poverty is a political choice for violent pauperization of population. The municipality is the receiver. Once state structures have collapsed, the municipality is the receiver of the impact."
Within such difficult conditions, municipality is called to confront the volume and the extension the phenomenon of poverty has due to the economic crisis, since it is closer to the citizens and their problems. Municipality produces social policy. State does not have social policy. It has no structures. It does not have anything. Therefore, municipalities need to cover the gaps of central power, ie to replace the Central Administration. The methodological tools and empirical findings that record the levels of socioeconomic development and confront urban poverty are presented in the contents of this blog. Municipal Food Parks are innovative projects designed based on the experience of Greek crisis.
Contents:
A) LOCAL FARMERS MARKET URBAN STRUCTURE
1. FARMERS MARKET CONTAINERIZED
B) SUBURBAN PRIMARY PRODUCTION STRUCTURE
CROP PRODUCTION
1. GREENHOUSE UNITS
2. BASIC UNITS OF COOPERATIVE PRODUCTION
LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION
3. VERTICAL CHICKEN FARM (egg production)
4. VERTICAL RABBIT FARM (meat production)
5. VERTICAL TURKEY FARM (meat production)
6. DAIRY COW FARM (milk production)
C) FOOD NETWORK SUPPORT
A) LOCAL FARMERS MARKET URBAN STRUCTURE
1. FARMERS MARKET CONTAINERIZED
B) SUBURBAN PRIMARY PRODUCTION STRUCTURE
CROP PRODUCTION
1. GREENHOUSE UNITS
2. BASIC UNITS OF COOPERATIVE PRODUCTION
LIVESTOCK PRODUCTION
3. VERTICAL CHICKEN FARM (egg production)
4. VERTICAL RABBIT FARM (meat production)
5. VERTICAL TURKEY FARM (meat production)
6. DAIRY COW FARM (milk production)
C) FOOD NETWORK SUPPORT
D) COOPERATING MUNICIPAL STRUCTURES
3. LOGISTICS