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Content

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The module shows how today’s food crisis forms part of a wider social/ecological crisis, an alienation between the city and the rural world.Ìý We study what sustainable urban food systems have been like in the past, where thing went wrong, and how a healthy approach could be restored.Ìý Drawing on experiences from Indigenous and traditional managed landscapes, we consider the outlines of sustainable techniques such as agroforestry and intercropping.Ìý The module emphasises that the key is not to disturb the soil, allow it to regenerate, not to try to simplify things too much but instead encouraged the features of complex systems which will then spontaneously generate corrective feedbacks and heal any imbalance.Ìý

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A major feature of the module is to address climate issues.Ìý Currently, the food sector is – compared with industry, etc. – lagging behind in decarbonisation.Ìý We show how this can be changed, notably by getting carbon into the soil, thus kick-starting a benign feedback loop between sequestration and enhanced fertility.Ìý The link between a healthy food system and biodiversity goals is also emphasised.

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As a way of healing the rift between society and nature, between the urban and rural worlds, we address pathways to rediscovering and reconstituting the city region, thus restoring an element of seasonality and localism in our food supply.Ìý Urban communities can play a key role in this respect, through developing models such as Community Supported Agriculture.

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While learning from Indigenous and traditional perspectives, which had the basics right, we also show how elements of modern technology – apps, open-source technology, farmer-based design of machinery – can be integrated, to make the model less labour-intensive and improve livelihoods.

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The module shows how grassroots social movements have always played, and continue to play, a fundamental role in exposing the inequalities and exploitation in regimes of food and landholding , and how such injustices could be overcome.Ìý This is particularly the case in the North-South dimension of food systems, which is deeply marked by a history of colonialism and inequitable relations in all issues – trading patterns, technology, knowledge etc. – related to food.

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Teaching delivery

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The module is taught in nine weekly lectures.Ìý Some supplementary activities are conducted through Moodle.

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Indicative lecture topics – based on module content in 2023/24, subject to possible changes.

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1. Introduction: symptoms of today’s food crisis, inspirations for a sustainable alternative

2. Where our food system went wrong: the control/reductionist paradigm, and its link with urbanisation and industry

3. The world-system context: colonisation, extractivism, corporate control and the geopolitics of food

4. Healing the imbalance: towards a nature-inspired philosophy of planning

5. Re-discovering and re-inventing the city region

6. The ecological vocation of food-system transformation: climate mitigation/adaptation and the rebuilding of biodiversity

7. Contemporary challenges to food security, and elements for a response: a case study of grain

8. Practical approaches to sustainable food production at different scales

9. Rebuilding community in an urban context: insurgent movements and struggles over land and space

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Module aims and objectives:

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The module focuses on training in a holistic systems-theory approach to understanding where problems lie, and where the critical areas of intervention can be identified to put them right.Ìý This approach notably addresses issues of urban planning and design, as it relates to issues of food, and more generally re-integrating the city with nature.

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Introductory reading:

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Biel R. 2016 Sustainable Food Systems – The Role of the City. London: ¹û¶³Ó°Ôº Press

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