CITY CASE STUDY LONDON
477
URBAN AGRICULTURE IN LONDON: RETHINKING OUR
FOOD ECONOMY
Tara Garnett
1.
Introduction
London’s food system exemplifies and symbolises its fundamental
unsustainability.
The city’s ecological footprint is 125 times its surface...
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CITY CASE STUDY LONDON
477
URBAN AGRICULTURE IN LONDON: RETHINKING OUR
FOOD ECONOMY
Tara Garnett
1.
Introduction
London’s food system exemplifies and symbolises its fundamental
unsustainability.
The city’s ecological footprint is 125 times its surface area,
requiring the equivalent of the entire productive area of Britain to sustain itself;
each year, Londoners eat 2,400,000 t of food (Girardet 1995).
Twenty-nine
percent of vegetables and 89% of fruits are imported (MAFF 1998); in 10 years
the amount of food transported along UK roads has increased by 22% and the
average distance travelled by 46% (DETR 1998g).
London creates 883,000 t of
organic waste a year (Murray 1998), of which households contribute 607,000 t
or 40% of their total waste.
The vast majority is landfilled, creating polluting
leachate and methane (Murray 1998).
This said, around 37% of the households
compost at least some waste (DETR 1998e), though how much is not clear.
The food industry contributes significant
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