In China, since the first decades of this century, as a matter of public policy, the various governments have discouraged shipping food long distances and demanded that cities rely on food grown in the region of the city or within the city itself. E.g., Shanghai grows all of the vegetables consumed in the city within the city itself. The rest comes from a 100 kilometer radius circle around the city, and a lot of it comes to town by bicycle or handcart. 40% of the workers in Chinese cities are employed in agriculture.

urban food security in China

In Calcutta, 1/3 of the fish and vegetables consumed in the city are grown in the city. 40% of urban poor surveyed in third world countries say they would starve if it wasn't for food they grow themselves in the cities. 800 million people worldwide are in volved with urban agriculture, 2/3rds of the families in Moscow are growing food.

See also

food security

Farming in Los Angeles

small urban farmers

city farmers in Africa

cities learning to feed themselves

Got printable flyers for distribution during y2k disruptions?

-- robert waldrop (rmwj@soonernet.com), October 28, 1999

Answers

As our internal farming capability continues to fade away, and our ability to make our computer systems vast and seamless, we are forgetting what it takes to make us tic. Im sure that one of the major mistakes that will be recorded in history about Y2K, will be the trust that was put into a tool (computers) by the people who trusted that tool to deliever as basic a need as food to them from a great distance. Thats why I have always said the Kos-ken-nin rant of were ok, its the guys over there that have the problem is a bigger foot in the mouth then when he said the Master Utility List was old news. The guys over there can eat while we trying to figure-out how to repair a tool. For them it will be the bump in the road...---...

-- Les (yoyo@tolate.com), October 28, 1999.

"E.g., Shanghai grows all of the vegetables consumed in the city within the city itself."

This seems improbable. I lived in a Chinese city several decades ago, and I can tell you that I saw a whole lot of food being transported into it by road.

www.y2ksafeminnesota.com (some new stuff just went up on it last night)

-- MinnesotaSmith (y2ksafeminnesota@hotmail.com), October 28, 1999.