Urban agriculture: it’s not just about food, but also about job creation
Farming in cities has an important role to play in helping to create a better urban environment and in providing fresh, nutritious food for city dwellers. It also brings new jobs to cities. Converting balconies, roofs, courtyards or abandoned urban spaces into urban gardens means that jobs are created for urban farmers, architects, landscape designers, engineers and builders (Sprecht et al. 2014; Baratta 2019; Molga 2019).
Box 4.5 How much water do we eat?
If you eat meat, remember that you are also “eating” the water used to grow the crops which were fed to the animal the meat comes from (Mekonnen, and Hoekstra 2010; Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health 2019a). What if you don’t want to eat meat, but you still need protein? Many studies show how plant-based proteins can be as good as animal-based proteins (e.g. Harvard T.H. Chan School of Public Health 2019b). Some people already can see a meatless food industry, either producing plant-based products, laboratory-grown meat, sustainable seafood substitutes or insect protein (Reuters Plus 2018; CB Insights 2019).