A need for food and farming to evolve.

According to the UN Food and Agriculture Organization, our planet will need to produce 70% more food in 2050 than it did in 2006 in order to feed its growing population. In order to accomplish this feat sustainably, we must renegotiate the ways in which we farm and grow our food. Reconstructing our current, broken food system is one of the most urgent and imperative challenges we face in the modern era; however daunting that task may seem, there is incredible hope and opportunity for change through innovation.

By the year 2050, more than 70 percent of our population will live in urban areas. This explosion and growth of mega-cities worldwide is already turning out to be unsustainable and ecologically disastrous. Mega-cities currently take up just 2 percent of the Earth’s land surface but they already account for 75 percent of the world's food consumption, 60 percent of human water usage, and nearly 80 percent of all human produced carbon emissions. Our human population is not only growing in numbers but also rapidly concentrating in social agglomerates.

Today, most people living in mega-cities depend entirely on the globalized food system for their daily intake of fresh fruits and vegetables. Supermarket chains in the US stock produce grown in distant corners of the world. According to a recent study done by Organic Consumers Association, the average American meal has to travel between 1,500 and 3,000 miles before reaching the accessible shelves of disconnected privilege. This modern day mercantile marvel has become the everyday norm in many first world countries. Many consumers in this situation no longer have any idea where their food comes from; they don’t know how their food is grown, how it is transported, what chemicals are used in the process, and they certainly don’t know the farmers who grew it.

Furthermore, millions of people in other corners of the world have difficulty accessing fresh fruits and vegetables every day. In these underserved areas, grocery stores take two or more weeks to get produce from farm to stores. This gap in supply creates major food desert inequities in underserved communities, especially in minority communities.

Current industrial agricultural infrastructure was not designed to feed billions of urban dwellers and the ability to effectively and sustainably feed people in mega-cities is becoming increasingly difficult. Because of the bottleneck in the supply of fresh fruits and vegetables, the agricultural sector has become almost exclusively dependent on large corporations who serve as third party distributors of fresh produce. While the system works well enough for most consumers, it still suffers from the inherent weaknesses of centralized distribution channels and resource exploitation.

Seasoned farmers, young entrepreneurs and conscious consumers are coming together to reimagine what sustainable and humane local food systems will look like in the future. These passionate people are finding fresh ways to bring local and nutritious food back onto the table. Our Roots believes that the the localization of food systems is perhaps the most radical step we can take toward creating more sustainable and just communities around the world.

The world has the resources and technology to ensure long-term food security for all, in spite of many challenges and risks. The need to mobilize political will and build the necessary infrastructure to ensure that key decisions on investment and policies into sustainable urban food systems are taken and implemented effectively.