Urban population growth accompanied by the phenomenon of urbanization is a global issue. This raises challenges and problems in various aspects, including decline environmental quality due to reduced agricultural land/green spaces that are changing functions need for adequate food availability. As has been implemented cities world, urban farming activities were then developed as promising solut...

China is at a critical stage of transformation from traditional to modern agriculture and its agriculture and rural economic sector faces severe challenges of shortage of natural resources, environmental degradation, agricultural disasters, sluggish income growth of farmers and widening disparity between urban and rural areas. The fundamental solution to these problems lies with the advancement...

Soil erosion – the detachment and transportation of particles from soil aggregates by erosive agents (Stocking, 1984) – is regarded as one of South Africa’s most significant environmental problems (Meadows, 2003). In South Africa, roughly 6 million households derive all or some of their income from agriculture (South African Department of Agriculture, 2007). Roughly 25 % of the population is di...

The concept of food security has been on the international agenda as far back as 1948, when the Universal Declaration of Human Rights affirmed that “Everyone has the right to a standard of living adequate for the health and well-being of himself and his family, including food.....” Article 11 of the International Covenant on Economic, Social and Cultural Rights went further, in 1966, when it af...

Growing food in urban areas could solve a multitude of social and environmental problems. These potential benefits have resulted in an increased demand for urban agriculture (UA), though quantitative data is lacking on the feasibility of conversion to large-scale practices. This study uses multiple land use scenarios to determine different spaces that could be allocated to vegetable production ...

In an increasingly urbanized world, urban agriculture and community gardening are promoted as lever for sustainable development. Urban contributes to food security, provides health benefits the population, fosters social inclusion enhances perceived wellbeing. At same time, from a planning perspective, also valuable resource regeneration. However, depending on prevalent farming practices may ha...

The Inaugural Conference on "Healthy Agriculture, Healthy Nutrition, Healthy People" of the World Council on Genetics, Nutrition and Fitness for Health was held at Ancient Olympia, Greece on October 5–8, 2010. The focus of the Conference was on the evolutionary aspects of diet throughout the life cycle in terms of genetic predisposition, health, disease prevention and sedentary lifestyles; the ...