The Global City Magazine O Winter 1998 r^ - =1283 3G IGlobal Threats toFood~ IStreet Food in Delhi and : F _;a~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~F This issueof ED ITO R' S N OT E Urban Age is E D T O ' funded by the Danida 71' Danish Agency for International FfdI.tni of C ... di.. Ms,opipaoiii-_ Development, the I- tii ' o.adi.... Federation of Urhan F o 0 d f the .1 u tur.e (Canadian lities Pl_ anDaemenl erhaps one of the more sober- affects the ability of the urban poor to International ing results to emerge from this feed themselves. In the past, govern- DevelopmentAgency), the Dutch Ministry of Foreign Affairs, and I theWorld Bank. Developmental funding has been provided by the P Issue Of Urban Age Is the pauci- ments increased imports to fulfill UNDP-UNCHS(Habitat)-World Bank Urban Management ty of scholarship, research, analysis, growing food needs; for most devel- Programme and the World Bank. and understanding by policymakers, oping countries, this is no longer a EDITORIAL BOARD local governments and academics of viable option. Now currency devalua- Jeb Brugmann, International Council on Local Environmental Initiatives,Toronto, Canada urban food systems. tion and economic stabilization poli- James H. Carr, Fannie Mae Foundation,Washington, DC, USA If municipalities are to make deci- cies are forcing governments -to G. Shabbir Cheema, United Nations Development Programme, New York, USA sions concerning the processing, provi- restrict imports. It is cear, then, that Charles Correa, Bombay, India sion, distribu- cities must increase their food self- Zsuzsa Daniel, Research Institute, Ministry of Finance, tion, and market- reliance. Budapest, Hungary Mamadou Diop, Dakar Metropolitan Community Council, ing of food they The current industrial food system Dakar, Senegal X must have the relies on cheap food, imported from Nigel Harris, Development Planning Unit, University College, kn of i r g d c i r c London, England kmd of mforma- great distances. This has grave conse- Nadezhda Kosareva, Institute for Urban Economics, - tion that offers a quences for pollution, energy con- Moscow, Russia Charles Landry, Comedia, Stroud, England proper analysis of sumption, soil erosion, and the loss of Aprodicio Laquian, UBC Centre for Human Settlements, . urban food con- rural landscapes. Vancouver,Canada ditions. Without This issue asks how growing cities Akin Mabogunje, Ibadan, Nigeria Mohamad Machnouk, Eco News Beirut, Beirut, Lebanon such data they can increase domestic production and Lyndsay Neilson, Center for Developing Cities, University of are unable to make provisions for pre- distribution, looks at cities involved in Canberra,Austratia Bas M. van Noordenne, Dutth Ministry of Foreign Affrs, sent or future planning. agricultural production from Beijing The Hague,The Netherlands There must be a seismic shift, then, and Delhi to Lima and Harare, and Giovanni Padula, DI Mondo, NewYork, USA in our understanding of the position looks at how famine relates to food Pablo Trivelli, Santiago, Chile JaimeValenzuela, International Council on Local of food systems and practices in our supply Environmental Initiatives, Santiago, Chile calculations as urban specialists or We need to recognize that cities EmielWegelin, Institute of Housing and Urban Development Studies, Rotterdam,The Netherlands dwellers. Irene Tinker, our lead writer, feeding themselves is now more than EXECUTIVE COMMITTEE reminds us that food is not a uniquely ever an essential urban occupation. Arif Hasan, Karachi, Pakistan rural occupation. Nor, conversely are We would like to introduce in this Hilda Herzer, Centro Estudios Sociales yAmbientales, Buenos urban areas only for industry and issue a new contributor, Neal Peirce, Aires,Argentina Peter Swan, UHCHS Regional Programme for Community commerce. How to feed g:rowing cities who will be writing the American Development in Asia, Bangkok,Thailand is a crucial area of scholarship, with Urban Challenge. Peirce's philosophy REGIONAL PRODUCTION TEAMS policy ramifications for sectors as when writing about American cities Cairo: Randa Fouad, UMP Arab States Regional Information diverse as transport, the environment, and regions is that their success Advisor Wagdi Riad, Head of Environment Department, maternal and child health, and depends on unlocking the existing Al-Ahrcim Newspaper finance. resources of people in private corpo- Quito:Yves Cabannes and Peter Claesson, UMP Latin America and Caribbean Office Food security is an area of poten- rations, universities, non-profits, and EDITORIAL STAFF tial crisis that rarely receives much communities. They must work Editor I Margaret Bergen press attention. Briefly defined, it is together if they are to prosper in the Managing Editor I Nick Harrison the unimpeded provision of food. new world economy Designer I Mary Anne Mulligan Photo Editor I Ellen Calloway Accordmg to Kenneth Dahlberg, one Finally, we turn to you, our read- Copy Editor I Nita Congress of our contributors, the world's food ers. Please take a moment to fill out Circulation Manager I Patricia Moran security is threatened in four ways: our survey so that we can provide you UrbanAge is published four times a year and is available to developing through population explosion, global with the latest issues, ideas, and infor- country subscribers free of charge. Developed councry subscribers are charged US$20.00 annually. Editorial offices are at Room F4K-256,The warming, loss of biodiversity, and the mation of most interest to you. World Bank Group, 1818 H Street, NW, Washington, DC 20433, USA. Fax: 202-522-3223; e-mail: mbergen@worldbank.org globalization of inustce and poverty İ 1997 The International Bank for Reconstruction and Development,The Olivio Argenti of the Food and World Bank, 1818 H St-eet, NW,Washington, DC 20433, USA. Agriculture Organization in Rome i 6- kC. All rights reserved, writes about the intricate relationship _ Printed byAutomated Graphic Systems, Inc., on recycled between rapid urban growth and paper using soy-bused ink poverty, a relationship that adversely 2 URBAN AGE Winter 1998 URBAN AGE Winter 1998 f Volume 5, Number 3 | | | j |;;F EATU RE S 4 I Feeding the Megacities Shifts in the world's population mean that we need to Feeding the Megacities. Page 4. give greater attention to how cities feed themselves. By Irene Tinker 10 I ATale of Two Cities Two of the world's most crowded cities struggle to feed growing waves of rural immigrants. By Patralekha Chatterjee 14 I Nobody Need Starve Famine has less to do with a lack of food than it has to do with government policies. By Amartya Sen Threats to Food Security. Page 18. 18 I Farming Inside and Around Cities Not all food in the city comes from the farm. In fact, it has been common practice to grow food in cities since the first urban areas were formed. By LucJ.A. Mougeot 24 I The Global Threat to Food Security Few cities realize that much of their future food securi- ty is linked to their local food systems and surrounding foodsheds. American Urban Challenge. Page 25. By Kenneth A. Dahlberg Cover photo: DEPARTMENTS Maize is unloaded at a iZ 2 I Editor's Note I Margaret Bergen school near8 Llongwe, 8 b Guest Editorial I Olivio Argenti r equire an ever 25 I American Urban Challenge I Neal Peirce more complex 27 I Communities Speak IJanisJibrin food supply system to feed ~~~~29 I Newsline I Margaret Bergen systemi to feed _- their growing 30 I Books I Sylvia Sensiper populations. | >-;t . u 31 Urban Calendar 0EEDING 00EGACITIES A L WorldwcI dI Viewpoi,nt1 Ciisae stde sco mrilurban areas are considered centers of commerce and industry. Thus Cities are studied as commercial neither food experts nor urban scholars have considered urban food an appropriate topic for study. and maniufacturing centers, Innovation in agricultural extension has focused on large-scale farms and plantations. International agricultural research centers b ut the re IS lIttle accu rate for many years emphasized commercial grain crops. Although cur- rent programs encompass root crops and home gardens as well as information about their food agroforestry, the venue is still rural. Until a few vears ago, the Food and Agricu:Ltural Organization (FAO) interpreted its primary mis- systems and practices, particularly sion in terms of rural agriculture, although a decade ago its nutri- tion and food safety divisions began a series of studies on street in developing countries. food; more recent FAO projects include urban and peri-urban food production and forestry Even the International Fund for Agricultural Development, with its focus on poverty and the land- A mazing shifts in the world's population during this less, reports very few programs for poor in the cities. century require that we rethink many of our Urban studies have been similarly narrow in their focus. As an ________ assumptions about how we plan to feed city resi- interdisciplinary field, urban studies encompasses a variety of dis- dents. In 1900, only one person in eight lived in an ciplines, none of which include food. Geography and demography urban area; today half the world's people live in study urbanization and migration. Studies of political economy cities. Yet the development community and universities have been analyze the full range of employment and political integration pat- slow to turn the i-ocus of their research and programs on commu- terns. The structure of land markets and transportation networks nity development, agriculture, or environment in urban areas. This forms the core of much urban planning, which also includes an inattention is the result of the highly segmented nature of our expe- abundance of studies about informal housing. The study of food is rience and knowledge. Food production is perceived as rural, while strangely absent. This absence of accurate information about food systems and practices has particularly adverse consequences for municipalities Irene Tinker is a professor with the Departments of Women's Studies and in developing countries. These cities are all too often inclined to City and Regional Planning at the University of California at Berkeley, follow the complex, highly capitalized, and energy-consuming California. supermarket model of food distribution commonly found in more By Irene Tinker 4 URBANAGE Winter 1998 industrialized societies. Replication of institu- tions and systems from one country to another is fraught with unanticipated consequences. .,. | l . t Transplanting energy-intensive demand food systems to lower income countries must take into account existing infrastructure inadequa- cies, especially whether reliable electricity is available to maintain low temperatures for food storage, whether clean water can he obtained, and if waste disposal is sufficiently timely to ensure safe food-handling practices. As this method of food distribution grows. so will urban congestion and already dangerous levels of pollution. There is a corresponding require- ment to improve methods for recycling the plas- tic and paper that is used in packaging. Analysis of supermarket system costs not only needs to include energy flow and the ability to sustain the system, it also must consider impacts on urban residents in terms of food availability diets, and employment opportunities. Urban Planning Favors Elite Despite the predominance of poor people in cities of the developing wvorld, most planning favors the elite. Income statistics reinforce the presumption that city dwellers are better off than those living in rural areas. But urban poverty is underscored when income is adjust- ed to reflect the high costs of food in cities. A - ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~survey of the world's 100 largest metropolitan areas found that in 60 of the cities, families spend between one-third and one-half of their income on food. By contrast, residents of Washington, D.C. spent less than 10 percent of their income on food. Planners quote this low cost of food in the United States as a reason to replicate the supermarket model elsewvhere. As land prices soar and congestion increases, produce markets in central locations are often moved out to the periphery Such moves dislo- cate supply lines for small grocery shops and street vendors, while further increasing the costs of fresh foods as transportation costs are added to the prices that sellers ask. Remote locations also discourage mnany middle-class people from patronizing these markets, altering the types and quality of foods sold in much the same way that inferior produce is found in U.S. ~~~~'. ~~~~~~~~inner-city stores. These markets are replaced with gleaming supermarkets in upscale shop- ping centers. Affluent middle-class residents and the foreign community appear to be the co Supermarkets are replacing street vendors 0 in many cities. There can be unanticipated consequences to such a change. Winter 1998 URBAN AGE 5 major customers, particularly in the newer the market. Such data challenge the limited protest marches in several cities. Such Asian malls, although older outlets main- palette of potential solutions to feeding the actions have devastating effects not only on tain a broader customer base for limited cities, and argue for broadening the avail- the vendors, but on their customers. commodities. able alternatives. Street foods are central to the diet of Urban dwellers in the megacities of the many urban areas. Data from a compara- Food Malls Replace Outdoor Stalls world's southern -egions are continuously tive study of nine provincial cities indicate Outdoor food stalls are razed in adapting food systems to meet their needs. that nearly half the typical household food Singapore to be replaced with food malls Two areas have been the focus of extensive budget is spent on street foods in urban atop parking garages. In neighboring study: street foods and urban agriculture. areas of Nigeria and Thailand; in a rural Bangkok or Manila, where internationally Given the colonial restrictions still in force town in Bangladesh, this percentage was based fast-food outlets in most developing coun- still 16 percent. While the lower income abound, the middle class tries, both activities operate groups in this Bangladeshi town spent flock to McDonald's and on the edges of legality, nearly one-quarter of their budget on the Kentucky Friec Chicken opening up the producers to fast foods of the developing countries, franchises, but most local harassment and bribery by street food expenditures increased with dwellers are content to eat municipal officials. Issues of income in both Southeast Asia and street foods. food safety arise in both sec- Nigeria. In congested Bangkok, 23 percent Such approaches to sup- tors. And while farmers, of the housing stock consists of rooms plying food to the cities vendors, and their cus- only, without kitchens; but plugging in an might produce different out- tomers represent many electric rice cooker is easy in a single comes if the apparently cost- income levels, poor women room. Although inventive cooks can effective methods of packag- are a significant majority of apparently produce a meal in the cooker, ing, freezing, transporting, producers and vendors in 48 percent of the average household bud- and selling were most urban settings. get is spent on prepared food eaten out or viewed in full light of The income and food brought home. Lhe realistic costs of a land erics resulting froc their Street food sellers make a reasonable pollution and energo A Ice enterprise is crioical to income, especially compared to o nher alter- for delivering food to soar and the maintenance of natives available, particularly for women. In the market and for poor households, espe- the nine countries studied, the average recycling or disposing congestion cially to the two-fifths income of street food vendors was well of packaging. Such of these households above the declared-if seldom paid-mini- studies need to be increases headed by women. mum wage. In Thailand, over half the ven- undertaken, but in the I dors earned an income comparable to the meantime, the elite produce marl(ets Street Foods wages paid to military or police captains, and foreign communi- . Traditional food middle school teachers, and nurses. When ties will continue to in central markets in developing a successful vendor in Jakarta reported her patronize these high- countries, where both profits as Rps 10,000 per day in 1983, an cost solutions for the locations are fresh produce and pre- Indonesian official commented that if this provision of both fresh pared foods are sold, vendor worked 25 days a month, her salary and prepared food. often moved out have been studied would be equal to that of a director general. Most important is L extensively by anthro- information on how to the pologists, but their Family Enterprises these urbanites cur- L place in the urban food In all the countries, street food vending rently feed them- periphlery. system is not usually is a family enterprise, as the work is too selves. Indeed, as described. Rapid urban- heavy for one person alone. In both Seneg'al world production of ization has resulted in and Nigeria, the trade was found to be seg- staple crops continues extreme overcrowding regated by gender, but female kin and to lag behind increases in population, of these markets; vendors infiltrate into daughters assisted the women. Elsewhere, knowledge about small-scale food produc- adjacent alleys and roadways, dump trash family members engaged in preparing the tion in urban and peri-urban areas-and in gutters, and impede both foot and vehic- food, purchasing ingredients, and washing an understanding of the prepared food sec- ular traffic. Too often the government's utensils; in both Indonesia and the tor-become essential parts of any project response is to harass the vendors and Philippines, couples often plied their trade designed to feed the megacities. Recent destroy their stalls or carts. For example, together. WMomen vendors predominated research has been conducted at the micro since 1983, the military governments in in Nigeria and Thailand, anti outnumbered level, where people grow and process food Nigeria have waged a "war on indiscipline" men in Indonesia, the Philippines, Senegal, both for their own consumption and for against all vendors that has resulted in and Jamaica. In the more conservative cul- 6 URBAN AGE Winter 1998 UrRBAN AGE Urban Age invites readers to send Letters to the Editor as well as article submissions (query first) to: Margaret Bergen, Editor Urban Age Room 4K-256 The World Bank Group 1818 H Street, NW Washington, DC 20433 USA Fax: 202-522-3223 E-mail: mbergen@worldbank.org UJRBAN AGE READER SURVEY Please use this card to tell us about your- self. Urban Age needs to know more about you so that our staff can provide you with the most.accurate and timely information. Please send in the card even if you are already a subscriber. 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Women tend If the importance of street foods to urban children, particularly in the lower income to sell traditional foods that require little food and employment has been underesti- groups that make up some 80 percent of the investment in new equipment or proces- mated, urban agriculture has been ignored. city's population. Furthermore, urban farm- sors; they also work shorter hours than Perceived as an unfortunate and unsightly ing constituted the largest single nonmarket men because of household obligations. hold-over of rural practices, many munici- source of food for the urban population. Besides street palities retain colo- But what is urban? In this discussion of fdods, many women ., nial laws that pro- urban food systems, a nagging issue prepare meals direct- hibit the growing of remains unresolved-how to define ly for customers. crops or the raising urban" or "peri-urban." Municipal bound- Working women in of animals. Fruit aries seldom reflect land use. Urban densi- Bangkok take home .. trees and fish ponds ties often extend well beyond the incorpo- food in boxes; textile i are less often regu- rated city government boundaries. In some workers eat daily lu lated. Despite the countries, city size has expanded for politi- meals at the homes of Id. , v prevailing view of cal reasons, often engulfing existing villages kaniwallahs; office . . .1 a many planners that whose residents continue to farm in increas- workers in Jakarta 'cE green spaces along ingly constricted surroundings. Improved place orders a day rights-of-way, in transportation patterns tie even remote vil- ahead for meals to be parks, or in front of lages to the urban economy through both brought to their f residences should be kinship relationships and market necessi- desks; lunch is Street foods and reserved for trees ties. Urban dwellers frequently maintain catered in wor imenas and flowers, urban their own peri-urban farms, shuttling out homes for workers in catered meals dwellers plant food weekly or leaving some family members congested Latin Amer- are f crops and fruit trees; there to tend the crops during the season. ican cities. Largely ar freque L ny and raise goats, China long ago recognized the different unnoticed and cheaper than foods cows, poultry, fish, land uses in zones surrounding urban areas unstudied, these in- bees, rabbits, and created municipal boundaries the size visible street foods" prepared at home. snakes, and guinea of counties to allow urban areas to be self- constitute another pigs in urban and sufficient in food, a policy being undercut part of the informal peri-urban spaces. today by rapid urban expansion. prepared food sys- Obviously, food Perhaps, instead of attempting to define tems already well established in major grown and raised at home reduces expendi- what is urban and what is rural, it is more urban centers. tures. Equally important, food production critical to recognize a continuum of land Street foods and catered meals are fre- can be a potent source of income. As much use patterns for production and residence. quently cheaper than foods prepared at as 70 percent of all poultry eaten in Still, it is difficult to discuss and compare home, especially when time spent shop- Kampala, Uganda, is raised in the city types of urban farming or to link the prolif- ping and cooking is factored in. The prepa- Asian farmers long ago perfected ways to eration of street foods to urban densities ration of traditional dishes, such as millet raise fish commercially in urban ponds. without some agreement on terms. porridge in Senegal, is often extremely time Women in urban Egypt have for decades Without solid comparative studies such as consuming, so many people prefer to buy sold butter and cheese made from milk the street foods project, influencing policy these foods on the street. In Nigeria, as the drawn from cattle stabled in their homes. is more difficult. economic recession worsened and the cost River beds and vacant lots are filled with Even without more studies on urban of imported food increased, the middle vegetables in most cities. In Africa, food systems, there is enough evidence to class reported eating more traditional foods observers note that whenever there is eco- question the efficacy and wisdom of pursu- bought on the street to save time. Both food nomic failure or civil unrest, the greening ing the supermarket model as the primary and fuel costs are higher per capita when of cities as marketing systems falters and solution to feeding the cities of the 21st cooking for only a few people. food prices soar. century Alternative patterns for the pro- Traditional foods are often more nutri- Recognizing the importance of urban duction, distribution, and retailing of pro- tious than faster cooking, newer foods, such food production to family survival, many duce and of street foods respond to the as white bread, although efforts are under nongovernmental organizations have initi- needs of the poorer residents in terms of way to improve nutritional content by ated projects for the urban poor. Women both nutrition and income. A more judi- adding soy fLour or vitamins. The vendors' figure significantly in these activities, espe- cious combination of approaches is clearly families also benefit from eating unsold cially in Africa where they are culturally required. I Winter 1998 URBANAGE 7 GU EST ED I TO RI AL By Olivio Argenti Keeping Food Flowing into Cities he direct relationship between production zones and often more intensive properly managed, should be promoted poverty and rapid urban growth production systems. To contain the likely with appropriate incentives and support within many developing countries increase in marketing costs, linkages must programs as well as policies and infrastruc- and countries in transition (DTCs) is turn- be strengthened between consumption and ture. These types of facilities are often able ing the feeding of urban populations into a production areas. to satisfy the demand for processed food pressing problem. In fact, if food marketing In fact, from the time a crop is harvested that urban lifestyles demand. costs are not contained, the limited rise in until the moment it reaches the urban table All this requires investment, something urban inhabitants disposable incomes pre- as food, a series of inter- that is increasingly dif- dicted by forecasters will likely to be offset ventions (assembling, han- ficult tc provide when nearly completely by higher food prices. dling, processing, packag- urban rowth the public sector is In the past, DTCs have typically increased ing, transport, storage, 6 confronted by ever imports in response to growing food needs. wholesaling, and retailing) niodifies food- greater financial diffi- However, economic stabilization policies, add to the price paid by cultLies. Private invest- and in many cases currency devaluation, are consumers. If these inter- purchasing ment, :f it is to be forcing them to restrict imports. They must ventions are inefficient, forthcorning, will need increasingly rely on domestic production, the costs will not only be habits and stable political and which can in turn be stimulated by the higher than they need be economic environ- recapture of domestic markets. but there could be signifi- n'iakes existing ments If it is to see Urban growth has a number of direct cant product losses, which food production and and indirect consequences on food supply further increase costs. tnarket areas marketi:ng as profitable and distribution. All are relevant in any opportunities. assessment of urban food security For Direct State Action and Efficient and dy- example, urban growth increases the Since direct action by namic food marketing demand for marketed food but reduces the state institutions has in the iinfrastructure systems will facilitate availability of productive land. It modifies majority of cases proved greater integration of food-purchasing habits and makes existing ineffective (as in the case of inadequate, domestic producers market areas and infrastructure inadequate, the grain marketing boards . into the market. They both in rural and urban areas. of many sub-Saharan and both in rural will be better able to Urban growth also increases the price of Latin American countries, ' produce what the mar- available land, intensifies traffic, alters the for example), there is now and urban ket requires, will have location of consumers, and modifies food an urgent need to achieve an areas greater opportunities to consumption habits. Furthermore, it efficient and dynamic, pri- a sell their produce, and increases the distances consumers must vate-sector driven, distribu- will be better rewarded travel from their work sites and puts tion system. Farmers and for their efforts. Instead upward pressure on the costs of transport- traders must be provided with appropriate leg- of simply depleting available food supplies, ing and marketing foodstuffs. islative and regulatory frameworks, an ade- urban areas can provide incentives fGr As demand for food in cities rises, sup- quate and well managed market infrastr-ucture, increased production through better pro- ply and distribution systems have to pro- transport facilites, sources of credit, market ducer prices. Of course, lood producers vide inhabitants with increasing amounts information, investment incentives, and skills. need to learn to orient themselves ro of food that comes from ever more distant As cities in DTCs expand, the need for respond to market requirements and oppor- well planned and properly equipped retail tunities-something that marketing infor- Olivio Argenti is an agnicultural marketing and wholesale markets and storage facilities mation and extension services can teach. economist with the Marketing and Rural will increase. Their design must be inte- Improved food marketing systems help Finance Service (AGS.M) of FAO. He is the grated into urban development plans create new jobs, notably for women. coordinator of the FAO Food Supply and because of their need for space, water, elec- Improved efficiency need not mean the Distribution to Cities Program and editor in tricity, sewage, and cleaning services. destruction of the small-scale informal sec- chief of the Food into Cities journal and col- Possible implications should also be con- tor, which plays an important role in sup- lection. E-mail: oZivio.argenti@foao.org; Web: sidered for traffic, public health, and the plying low-cost food to poorer consumers. http://www.fao. org/wa icen t/fa o info/ environment. Small and medium-sized There is, of course, an element of contradic- agricult/ags/agsm/sada/sada.htm food processing enterprises, especially if tion between efficiency and social objectives 8 URBANAGE Winter 1998 in terms of employment, although varying levels A Program for the Improvement of economic development may well accommo- date different "mixtures" of informal and more Of Food Supply and Distribution Systems modern forms of production and distribution. To achieve this, it is important to recognize ood security for the poorest of urban consumers in DTCs can be enhanced the roles and responsibilities of actors in both by more dynamic and efficient food supply and distribution systems (FSDS). public and private development, particularly They improve the availability of food in terms of price, volume, variety, and municipalities and chambers of commerce and quality, and foster expanded national food production for urban needs. This agriculture. Private associations of traders and requires policies, strategies, and development programs that take into account consumers must be fostered, then enabled to food supply and distribution issues at urban, periurban and rural levels. engage in a constructive dialogue with central That is the objective of the FAO's Food Supply and Distribution to Cities inter- and local governments. regional program. This program constitutes a major contribution to follow-up and * implementation of the commitments made by FAO member-states at the 1996 Challenges forYears to Come World Food Summit in Rome, which gave priority to efficient marketing systems In years to come, decision makers will be and linkages between production and consumption areas, with the aim of increas- challenged to meet rapidly increasing urban ing access to food-and hence food security-in developing countries and DTCs. food demands while reducing dependence on The strategic axis of the program consists of wider circulation of information imports. They will need to foster the efficient, and documentation, national capacity building, inter-institutional dialogue and dynamic distribution of nutritious foodstuffs at collaboration, appropriate methodologies, and local and regional expertise. Its reasonable prices to the poorest sectors of urban direct beneficiaries include policy makers and FSDS actors from local authorities, populations. At the same time, they will be cre- central governments, chambers of commerce and agriculture, associations of con- ating jobs in the food marketing and distribu- sumers, traders, producers, transporters, NGOs, research institutes, financial insti- tion sector. To meet these challenges, there is a tutions, etc. The program will also benefit the poorest sections of urban society need to arrange a forum for discussion of the (through improved access to food), small and medium-scale traders (through a issues, and to ensure a flow of information to more dynamic and competitive trade system), and food producers (through better this table for the benefit of policy-makers. integration in the market). Detailed interdisciplinary analysis will be The first phase (1995-1997), represented by the Food Supply and Distribution needed to assess the implications of urban food to Francophone African Cities sub-regional program was funded by France, Italy, demands and the extension of city boundaries. and FAO. Several national and international organizations and universities also What will be the likely impact on food supplies contributed. This phase made it possible to define the research and knowledge and on the efficiency and dynamism with which about FSDS, to collect specific technical documentation, and to prepare the devel- food can be brought to and distributed within opment program of FSDS in Dakar, Senegal. urban areas? The answer should provide guidance for policies and strategies, and for development Products and Services Phase Two makes a package of products and services available to institutions and investment programs at urban, peri-urban, Phas Twomake a pckag ofprodcts nd srvics aailale t insitutons and rural levels, with clearly identified priorities and professionals in DTCs, including the Food into Cities journal and collection, and responsibilite. Sh proa wilfec the which provide free access to specialized electronic documentation; the Food into aretyonsituations,mdenify sefic prb , ~~~~~variety of urban situations, identify specific prob- Cities informal network, which facilitates collaboration and exchange of experi- lems and conflics, and suggest solutions. ence and assistance among researchers, professionals, and institutions; a method- Research and development organizations, as ology for the analysis of FSDS and the formulation of investment and development well as institutions at various administrative Lev- programs that can be adapted to local circumstances; and specialized Web sites. els, need to collaborate as they identify and sub- Subject to the availability of donor funding, the second phase will comprise five inde- sequently implement development programs pendent regional sub-programs: sub-Saharan Africa, North Africa and the Near East, and projects that span urban and rural areas. Asia and the Pacific, Latin America and the Caribbean, and Central and Eastem Europe. Particular attention needs to be paid to strength- . Sub-prograrms will be structured into independent regional and national components. ening local technical competence levels, espe- An inter-regional conference, Local Authonties and Urban Food Secunty in the XXlst cially where food distribution into urban space Century, is proposed to conclude the second phase. It will be attended by the mayors management must be integrated, and in the from DTCs. This conference will highlight roles that local authorities-who are often the preparation of rural development programs. forgotten partners in development-can play in improving urban food security It will The intemational financial community and also formnulate a plan of action to improve FSDS efficiency and promote collaboration private donors should continue to assist develop- and exchange among local authorities at South-South and North-South levels. . ~~~ment and investment programs that result from a For more information about these programs, contact: Coordinator, Food concerted approach and that are justified in terms Supply and Distribution to Cities Program, Marketing and Rural Finance Service of clearly identified food demand requirements. (AGSM), FAO, Viale delle Terme di Caracalla, 00100 Rome, Italy; e-mail: Demand conditions and marketing opportunities livio.Argenti@fao.org I determine production decisions and investment opportunities, not vice-versa. g Winter 1998 URBAN AGE 9 1~~*.~ N A f n,99~ zew economic growth is the powerful magnet that is iwD 021 the wXarld'... mosf --S WX >--attracting rural people in huge numbers to the Chinese capital of Beijing and to India's Delhi- cL t t C X, , .1".I.-es5 t 'o.-re | M already two of the planet's most crowded urban areas. At the same time, these countries are dismantling struggX t0ttk=˘na tX gXH W < their command economies, embracing the market, and reducing subsidies-making it hard for the new residents to establish roots *a.t4r5 ;r 5n Vand raise families. A popular joke in China begins with the questlon, "What's the most common bird in Beijing?" The answer of course is the "crane." M m] u S5 iS t >,> , 5 > a -5t . Jiz5 ::> t Construction work is proceeding at breakneck speed and dramati- cally changing Beijing's skyline. Elderly residents of this megacity of the coulRat.-U - 5v V t X5 12 million stare in wonder at the sleek, high-rise cityscape. Spanking new hotels, department stores, office complexes, and fast- food outlets are constantly mushrooming in this, the capital of the world's most populous country Behind Beijing's construction boom hangs another tale-one that is making the city's local authorities sit up and take notice. Most of those who work in construction sites in Beijing are migrants from the countryside. "Migrants flood into Beijing's main railway station at the rate of one thousand people an hour," writes John Naisbitt in his By Patralekha Chatterjee 1997 bestseller, Megatrends Asia. 10 URBAN AGE Winter 1998 China's population shift is not merely a talking point among outsiders. A 1994 survey set the number of transient workers in the city at 3.29 million. Despite stiff rules about resi- A dence permits, the tidal wave of new migrants to Beijing continues. Early in November 1997, the official China Daily newspaper reported that a fresh census had begun of those who were not permanent city residents. The picture is pretty much the same in the Indian capital, Delhi, which had a pop- ulation of 11.7 million in 1996. In India, the world's second most populous country, cities such as Delhi attract tens of thou- sands of impoverished villagers every year. There is no real estimate of the number of rickshaw pullers, porters, and construction workers who make up the bulk of Delhi's o formerly rural population. But every new shantytown is a further indication that the influx is growing. In both Beijing and Delhi, the new A boy waits for fruit at a street vendor's spot in Delhi. Neither Delhi nor Beijing can grow arrivals constitute a "floating population" any significant portion of its own food, and neither city has a policy for feeding residents that often has unique needs. For officials in who are not registered with the local government. both cities, this population is likely to pose policy challenges in the coming years. diets, they are demanding more variety and In Delhi, one has always had the option better quality in their food. Living along- to buy food from private shopkeepers. The Permanent Residents side them are increasing numbers of the government plays the role of the monitor to Bach city has its own way of defining urban poor, many recently retrenched from ensure the quality of the food. The Delhi permanent residents. In Beijing, it is some- state enterprises that were closed because government intervenes in the city's food one who has a "residence permit." In Delhi, of losses. Nearly 60 percent of their month- chain by providing a certain fixed amount it is someone who possesses a 'ration ly earnings go toward food. of grains and sugar to each ration card card-a document that entitles the holder Food is of vital concern in both countries, holder at a fixed price through PDS, and to purchase fixed amounts of grain and China and India have a history of food short- then allows the people to buy the rest from sugar at a low fixed price from the state- ages. For governments in both cities, feeding wherever they xvant. controlled public distribution system their populations has been a top priority in There are two problems with the system (FDS). Both ration cards and residence per- recent decades. But in both cities, as the scarci- in Delhi. At one end of the spectrum, there mits are difficult to procure, and neither ty situation has eased, the level and manner of are the people who cannot even afford the city currently has any policy for feeding the governmnent intervention in the food chain fixed price that the government charges. At swelling ranks of those who do not have have changed. In China, the share of products the other end, there are the people who do these pieces of paper. subject to state procurement is continuously not use PDS because they do not like the The floating population is just one of dechning, and more and more prices are sub- quality of food they can buy at the "ration the common trends binding Delhi and jected to the dynamics of the market. The shops" or "fair-price shops." In the middle Beijing. Neither can grow any significant 1996 World Development Report pointed out are the vast majority who use their ration percentage of its food requirements-there that "less than 20 percent of food products cards when they must, and curse the quali- is-no agricultural space, and both cities are were still sold at fixed official prices when the ty Many of them buy from private shop- close to deserts. last food controls were removed in 1992." In keepers for at least those months of the year In both cities, rapid income growth has India, the entire puhbc distriburion system is when the difference in price is less than 20 thrown up a new consumerist middle class, being revamped to make it more targeted. percent or so. Food habits are changing. In Beijing, meat A Chinese official and former Beijing According to Wang Jong, a journalist consumption is rising sharply Delhi resi- resident remembers the days in the 1970s with China Daily, the situation in Beijing dents are drinking more milk. As people in when he could have only so much sugar also combines free market and subsidized both cities improve the quality of their and no more. We had food coupons. It systems. "There is an income cap if you are fixed the amount we could buy per person. working in a Chinese company Many man- Patralekha Chatterjee is a New Delhi-based And that was it." Today, there are no food ufacturing companies give free meals, journalist who specializes in development coupons in Beijing, but every resident gets cooking oil, noodles, etc., to their employ- issues. an income subsidy to help buy food. ees. i Most Beijing residents today buy their Winter 1998 URBAN AGE II food from the open market because it is of by local governments will benefit from the should be the beneficiaries. Instead of the a better quality, added Wang. system. The safety net was first instituted in poverty line, the Delhi government wants to In India and in China, the government Shanghai in 1993 and has been subsequent- go by the people who live in recognized intervenes if prices of essential food items ly extended to 206 cities. Residents of Beijing slum clusters. These residents (380,000 peak. The Chinese government's strategic with a monthly income of under 210 yuan a families) have a different type of ration card role was evident in 1994, when the annual month (8.3 yuan = 1 U.S. dollar), indexed to today, one that enables them to buy more inflation rate in China was running at 25 per- the cost of living in the city, are eligible for from the ration shops. cent and food prices were soaring at 43 per- government relief funds and food, says Chen As for the poverty line, the Delhi gov- cent annually Today, spiraling inflation has Ping Jun, a Beijing-based journalist. ernment has pointed out that any family been controlled, and though food prices in Delhi does not have such a safety net. But with two earning members, each earning Beijing are high for the average Chinese, they there are indirect subsidies. The government the legal minimum wage of Rs 21,408 per are nowhere near the 1994 levels. The man and most private companies in Delhi pay a year (Rs 36.4 = 1 U.S. dollar), would be who is widely credited for having reined in part of a person's salary in the form of a above the line. The line stands at Rs 23,526 the skyrocketing food prices is vice premier "dearness allowance," which is adjusted per year in Delhi, higher than the national Zhu Rongji, nicknamed the Alan Greenspan according to the wholesale price index. Many poverty line of Rs 18,000. The local gov- of China by The Washington state and private organi- ernment says the city's slum dweller fami- Post. Zhu's approach was zations in Delhi also pay lies need help-even if many of these fam- double-barreled, as the Dietary their employees a "city ilies are above the poverty line-to ensure newspaper pointed out in L J compensatory allow- that every adult has a minimum intake of an August 1997 article. On changes ance." These allowances, 2,100 calories per day It has asked the fed- the one hand, Zhu used a however, do not apply to eral government to increase the amount of administrative price con- sweeCing the vast numbers who grain to be made availab]e under TPDS trols over some key food r work in the nonorga- while it starts a cityxide survey in an effort prices and boost-ed food urban Asia nized sector in Delhi. to identify the urban poor. subsidies. On the other The direct subsidies Another problem with TPDS is that it hand, he pursued poliries raise policy in the feeding of Delhi excludes the large floating population, peo- that have stabilized the cur- residents are, however, ple like rickshaw pullers and porters, who rency, inspired investors, questions. being reduced. Until have no fixed address and usually sleep on pushed domestic industry May 1997, the govern- pavements. The Delhi goveTnment is plan- to be more conmpetitive, ment distributed 85,000 ning soup kitchens for thenm, once TPDS is opened nevw retail and dis- metric tons of grain in full swing, similar to the soup kitchens tribution channels, and slightly lowered tar- every month through 3,195 ration shops in operation in government-run shelters iffs. In addition, the government released that dotted the city Since then, the amount and orphanages all over the city today food from its stockpiles to push prices down, has been reduced to 53,290 metric tons of and ordered local officials to strictly police wheat and rice to supply a little over three Dietary Changes price movements in their areas. million households that have ration cards. If the urban poor raise one set of policy The Delhi government has little say in the questions, the dietary changes sweeping Large Part of Family Costs matter, since it was a decision by the federal urban China and-to a lesser extent- The key point to note here is that food government to reduce the amount of grain India raise another. Each day, the average is a big percentage of household expendi- that would be made available. In an average urban resident in China consumes 387 tures, and a sharp rise in food prices can month, about 39,000 metric tons of grain grams of grain, 78.3 grams of meat and have grave implications for the Chinese are bought from the ration shops, according poultry, 36.1 grams of fish and shrimp, economy through increasing wage to K.S. Singh, deputy commissioner for food 24.2 grams of milk, and 76.1 grams of demands. But if rising food subsidies are and civil supplies in the Delhi government. eggs. Compared to five years ago, the con- accompanied by a reduction in other types As India pares dowr n its subsidy regime, sumption of most items has increased by of subsidies, especially support for nonvi- PDS is being revamped. The federal govern- 10 to 20 percent-except for grain, the lev- able state-owned enterprises, then the ment has announced the introduction of the els for which remain virtually unchanged. overall government deficit can stay at a targeted PDS (TPDS), under which only Rising meat consumption in Beijing and constant level, the article pointed out. people below the poverty line will be able to other Chinese cities will have a bearing on It is this overall approach to food that has buy from ration shops. The Delhi govern- China's grain economy "Per capita (direct) prompted Beijing to plan a new social secu- ment feels that the amount of grain that will consumption of grains has declined, and rty system aimed at ensuring a minimum be made available under TPDS is inade- consumption of higher quality fruits, veg- standard of living for the urban poor. The quate. The scheme is currently mired in a etables, and livestock products has proposed safety net is expected to be estab- debate about what constitutes poverty increased, particularly among urban con- lished throughout China by 1999. Before TPDS can be launched in the city, dif- sumers. In this process, grain use has Permanent urban residents with a personal ferences have to be ironed out between the increased primarily through indirect con- income below the minimum cost of living set Delhi and federal governments as to who sumption (conversion of grain to livestock 12 URBAN AGE Winter 1998 products), magnifying the importance of feed grains," notes At China's Table, a recent World Bank publication. Soot, Dust, and Other Spices As part of its plan to meet future food needs, the Beijing government in 1996 invit- f eijing and Delhi share the dubious distinction of being among the 10 worst ed overseas participation in 65 large agricul- cities in the world for "suspended particulate matter"-soot, dust, and fumes. tural projects on the outskirts of the city The In Beijing, the city government says street vendors are to blame for the carbon projects ranged from canning beef to breed- dioxide emissions and release of car- ing and processing red ants and spotted deer. cinogens, and has decided to crack The Beijing municipal government also down on outdoor food stalls selling offers incentives to farmers to grow vegeta- roasted, fried, or grilled food. The I ' bls in greenhouses in the environs of the Beijing Municipal Environmental city, so that the residents of Beijing can get Protection Bureau's latest regulations . ''y ;-r fresh vegetables, even in winter. could spell doom for food stalls sell- & - Officials in Delhi do not have similar ing everything from spicy noodles to . plans. A secretary to the chief minister said, fried sheep testicles and sparrows-on- "It is clear Delhi cannot feed itself. So it is best a-stick that have been catering to that we do not waste our money trying to Beijing appetites for years. achieve the impossible. Instead, what we are "Every time you order a mutton doing is to provide a proper safety net for the skewer from a roadside stall, you inhale large amounts of potentially harmful waste poorest citizens of Delhi, ensuring that their air," said the Bureau in justifying the new regulations. "If enforced," countered the food needs are met at a subsidized price." Hong Kong Standard in an editorial, "the policy could rob thousands of proprietors of much-needed jobs, and deprive Beijingers of some of the tastiest vittles in town." Increased Consumption Hardest hit by the new policy could be the ubiquitous mutton kebab sellers, mostly If increasing consumption of meat is a Uygur minorities from Xinjiang province. The city government says 90 percent of the sign of growing affluence in Beijing, a rise barbecuers do not have permits. in consumption of milk and milk prod- ucts is Delhi's way of demonstrating Annual Clampdown income growth, since a large percentage of But the hawkers are not unduly alarmed. In the run-up to every national day, its residents are vegetarians. October 1, the Beijing city government announces a clampdown on outdoor food Even in the area of milk supply, the role stalls. But Beijing's street food sellers, many of whom are new migrants or laid-off state of the government is on the decline. The workers, manage to evade the dragnets and remain in business. Delhi Milk Scheme, an undertaking of the In Delhi, the government is equally solicitous about street vendors, especially those local government, sells milk at subsidized who sell chaat, an assortment of fruits, numerous exotic spices, little cakes of fried prices. But it has been running such heavy flour, yogurt seasoned with mint, tamarind paste, and as much dust as the wind wish- losses that it cannot increase capacity, and es to blow over everything. Gastronomes say you have not lived until you have eaten today can only supply about 11 percent of the city's chaat. Every' summer, as the air gets dustier and swarms of flies get thicker, the 3.1 million liters of milk consumed in the government of Delhi puts a notice in all newspapers asking people not to eat cut Delhi every day Mother Dairy, a unit of the fruits and vegetables on the streets. Few pay attention. National Dairy Development Board, sup- But even street food vendors are changing with the times. Walk around any office plies 30 percent of the milk requirements district in the Indian capital during the lunch hour, and you will find brisk business in of the city from its 513 outlets in the city that most popular of cooked street food-flat Indian bread with a curry of Bengal gram. S.,C. Bhasin, marketing manager of Mother Traditionally, you would get it on a plate fashioned out of a wide leaf. Nowadays, every- Dairy, says that large private suppliers body uses aluminum foil. The dust is a constant factor. To many it adds an indispens- account for about 16 percent of the milk able flavor, something that makes street food what it is. E consumed in Delhi, while the rest is sup- plied by small businesses which usually own just a few cows and sell milk house- consumption is reaching a plateau in the China and India are undergoing funda- to-house. Most of their customers are from city's richest neighborhoods, as people mental changes. Longer term policy the poorer parts of town, because the milk- become more cholesterol conscious. changes will make consumers in both the men are usually willing to sell on credit. Mother Dairy has responded to the cities almost entirely dependent on the Good hygiene is often lacking, and there is changing situation by opening more market for their food needs. But the gov- little government regulation. shops in the poorer parts of the city ernments in both countries will be play- According to Bhasin, Delhi's milk con- Rhasin expects that the improved hygiene ing a great role in quality assurance, as sumption is going up 8 percent a year, and better quality offered by the larger consumers become more demanding, and mostly in middle-class and lower middle- firms will move people away from the in times of crisis-if food prices hit the class neighborhoods. Interestingly, milk smaller suppliers. The food economies in skies. 2 Winter 1998 URBAN AGE 13 By mai-ty Sen Famirne is less aIDout the availalbility of -food and niore about how governments manaue it. 14 URBAN AGE Winter 1998 Nobody Need Starve ow do famines relate supply declines. Indeed, in different coun- with-and to some extent been caused by-a '* 'i.-' to food supply? Some tries in the world, many large famines have sharp decline in food supply in a particular see the connection taken place despite moderate-to-good food region. Indeed, the Irish famine, or the star- as almost definition- availability, and without any appreciable vation" (as Mr. Malone preferred to describe it al. Famine is, in this decline in food output or supply And some, to Violet, his English daughter-in-law), was view, synonymous like the Bangladesh famine of 1974, have actually accompanied by a large fall in Irish with a country being short of food. When actually occurred in years of peak food food production, related to a series of potato Mr. Malone, the rich Irish-American in availability. A famine develops when a siz- blights. Since the economies of Ireland and Shaw's "Man and Superman," refers to the able number of Britain were integrat- Irish famine of the 1840s, he refuses to people-who often ed, we could still say describe it as one. He explains that "when a belong to a particular A that there was no country is full o' food and exporting it, there occupation group- A fami in e great decline in food can be no famine." There is some distinctive lose the economic production for the use of language here. Malone mentions that means of acquiring d evelops economy as a whole; his father "died of starvation in the black food. This can result the Insh, if they had 47." Since more than a million other from unemployment, w hen people the economic means, Irishmen did the same in the 1840s, it is or from a sharp drop could buy food from hard not to see a "famine" there, as the term in earnings compared l ose LtI e England. They did is understood. with food prices, n w ' not buy it-because Malone's definitional point about even when there is no eco mi c they did not have the famines really raises a different and fall in food output or e ns f means. extremely important causal question: Why supply. And con- , ' The question did the Irish starve, given the fact that versely, there have acquiring food. that arises is this: Ireland had food enough to export some to also been many cases Why was Ireland, England? That question remains tragically of severe decline in with so little food, relevant. No recorded famine has killed a food production and exporting food to higher proportion of the population than availability which have not resulted in a England, which had so much? The answer the Irish famine. This applies to the much famine. Food can be purchased from lies in the way the market worked. Market- publicized recent famines in Somalia, abroad if the economic means exist, and based movements of food are related to Ethiopia, and Sudan, and even to the terri- also the available food supply, even when demand and purchasing power, and the ble starvation in China during 1958-61, short, can be so distributed as to avoid English could offer higher prices than the where the absolute number killed was extreme destitution. Giving a destitute per- economically devastated Irish consumer much larger (perhaps between 23 and 30 son an income, perhaps through employ- could manage. It was not surprising that million), but where the fatality as a propor- ment in a temporary public project, is a ship after ship sailed down the Shannon tion of the total population was still smaller quick way of giving potential famine vic- bound for England laden with wheat, oats, than in the privation that overwhelmed tims the ability to compete with others in cattle, pigs, eggs, and butter. Such Ireland 150 years ago. Recent empirical buying food. "counter movements" of food out of work has demolished the view that famines So there is no fixed relation between food famine-stricken areas have been observed and starvation can occur only when food and famine. Famines can occur with or with- in modern famines as well: for example, in out substantial declines in food output. To the Ethiopian famine of 1973, food was Amartya Sen is the Lamont University recognize this does not require us to deny moved out of the famine-affected province Professor at Harvard University. that some famines have happened along of Wollo to the more prosperous pur- Winter 1998 URBAN AGE 15 chasers in Addis Ababa and elsewhere. It is not surprising that in the gruesome thing much about the famine. Also, pace Those who starve because they cannot history of famines there is hardly any case Churchill, had not the famine victims afford to buy food have no means of keep- in which a famine has occurred in a coun- brought this cataclysm on themselves? A ing within their borders the food that is try that is independent and democratic, British-owned newspaper, the Statesman there. regardless of whether it is rich or poor. In of Calcutta, which was particularly influ- Were the English rulers responsible for India, famines continued to occur right up ential in London, toed the official line for the famine? Was Malone right to think "Me to independence. The last British Indian a long time, but after six months of father was starved dead?" The British gov- famine, the Bengal famine of 1943 in which famine, it broke ranks under the coura- emnment did not set out deliberately to between two and three million people died, geous editorship of Ian Stephens and starve the Irish. Britain did not blockade happened only four years before the British began publishing reports on the extent Ireland, or foment the potato blights, or withdrew. And then, with independence, both of the disaster and of the govern- undertake public policies aimed at weaken- famines abruptly stopped. With a democra- ment's culpability It was only then that ing the Irish economy But we know from tic political system in a self-governed terri- the British government at last paid atten- studies of famines and tory, a relatively free tion and asked the Rajs officials to expand averted famines across news media and active relief operations. The policy of noninter- the world that they are opposition parties that vention ceased to be politically viable easy to prevent when the Fam ines are eager to jump on once one of the strongest voices of the Raj government decides to the government for its was itself in revolt. act. It is not hard to rarely occur failure to prevent star- regenerate the normal / vation, the govern- General Causes purchasing power of the ln co u ntri es ment is under extreme The absence of food that causes hunger new destitutes by meth- t pressure to take quick and illness and makes millions perish can ods, including public tfat are and effective action reflect, at once, economic destitution, employment, that have whenever famines political subservience and cultural denigra- been used successfully i n d e pen d e nt threaten. tion. That combination has to be borne in in many parts of the The irresponsibility mind in understanding the causation of world. This way of stop- and that results in famine famines which continue to ravage many ping famines by replac- can be further fueled poor countries in the world. ing lost incomes does dem ocraLic. by cultural alienation. In analyzing what causes famines, it is not even need an inordi- The estrangement of important to take into account not just the nate share of the nation- the rulers from the rise and fall of food procluction, but the al income since the vic- ruled did, of course, general prevalence of poverty in the coun- tims are normally poor in the first place, and take a very special form in the case of the try or region, and to examine its causes. the share of the population affected is rela- Irish famines, given the long tradition of The roots of the Irish famines have to be tively small. The proportion affected in English skepticism towards the Irish. sought in the general weakness of the Irish Ireland was large on that island itself, but it The roots of the Irish famines can, in economy-not just in the difficulties with was still a relatively small share of the popu- this sense, be traced far back-even per- food production. Groups that are not only lation of the United Kingdom, of which haps to the sixteenth century, to such writ- very poor but also especially vulnerable to Ireland was then a political and economic ings as Spencer's Faerie Queene. The temp- economic changes (to shifts in, for exam- part. tation to blame the victim, plentifully pre- ple, relative prices or employment) are of sent in the Faerie Queene itself, survived particular importance. It is the general Political Alienation through the famines of the 1840s. defenselessness of the valnerable poor, So the real question is: Why were these Winston Churchills famous remark combined with additional misfortunes cre- steps not taken in Ireland? More generally, about the 1943 Bengal famine-that it was ated by economic variation, that produces why isn't every famine stopped by the caused by the tendency of the people to the victims of drastic starvation. Social divi- respective government, since it is so easily breed like rabbits-belongs to this general sions are central to famines, and the eco- halted? This is where political tradition of blaming the colonial subject. nomic analyses of the causation of famines alienation-of the governors from the gov- This attitude had a crucial role in delaying have to identify the factors that lead to the erned-is important. The direct penalties famine relief. As a nine-year-old boy, I wit- specific destitution of particular sections of of a famine are borne by one group of peo- nessed this famine myself; and I remember the generally deprived. ple and political decisions are taken by the sight of unbelievably emaciated people While the economic progress of any another. The rulers never starve. But when dying in the streets from April onwards, country depends on its public policies, a government is accountable to the local but very few government relief centers particularly on its ability to promote eco- populace, it too has good reasons to do its opened until late October. nomic expansion and distributional equity, best to eradicate famines. Democracy, via The lack of democracy and the censor- the government has a special role in pro- electoral politics, passes on the price of ing of Indian newspapers weakened the tecting the vulnerable when something famines to the rulers as well. political incentive of the Raj to do any- goes wrong and a lot of people lose the 16 URBANAGE Winter 1998 means of commanding food in the market. Whether the government works towards regenerating the lost purchasing power of the destitute depends on political incen- tives to intervene and help. This is where URBAN AGE democracy and political independence come into their own. The ruling groups have to pay the price of their negligence C V (\II O when they can be forcefully criticized by NEED LSv IYOUR HELP opposition parties and the news media, and when they have to face elections on a systematic basis. As a subscriber to Urban Age, you are part of a very special international community. No Opposition The Chinese government could keep its You are one of the professionals who is working to solve urban failed policies of the Great Leap Forward unchanged through the 1958-61 famine, problems and to make cities better places to live.You are in gov- while many millions died each year, ernment, academia, commerce, community organizations, archi- because it had no opposition parties to tecture, and art-all the areas that make city life exciting and face, and no criticism from the govern- rewarding. ment-controlled media. When things are going well enough, the corrective power of docrac mayl enough,the badlmissed bur oUrban Age needs to know you very well so that we can write democracy may not be badly missed, but when something goes seriously wrong about what you want to read.We want every issue to stimulate (through design or bungling), democracy and challenge you, to show you how to do your job better, and can deliver things that no other system can. to help you face a future that is full of promise and peril. Even in the famine stricken continent of Africa, the lack of famines in democratic Tell us a little about your job, your interests, your opinions.That Botswana and Zimbabwe contrasts with the persistent famine experience of way we can serve you better. Ethiopia, Sudan, Somalia, Mozambique and the Sahel countries. Of course, even a The card on this page contains a few simple questions. Please non-democratic country can be lucky and answer them and mail the card to our Washington publishing not experience the economic circum- office.We need to hear from all of our 36,000 readers in 108 stances that lead to famine; and a sympa- countries around the world. thetic dictator may, should a famine occur intervene just as effectively as a popularly elected government. But, in general, Urban Age is the only magazine in the world that writes exclu- democracy guarantees protection in a way sively about urban issues in the developing world. Help us to that no form of authoritarian rule can, make this the best magazine possible by completing the card whether it is an old-fashioned colonial and sending it to us. administration, or a modern political or military dictatorship. Famines are. in fact, extremely easy to W ithout you-our readers- prevent. It is amazing that they actually we would not exist. take place, because they require a severe . if indifference on the part of the government. Here political asymmetry joins hands with social and cultural alienation. The sense of distance between the ruler and the ruled between "us" and them"-is a crucial fea- ture of famines. It is as true in Sudan and Somalia today as it was in Ireland and India _ in the last century XI 11^J1 This articlefirst appeared in the Winter 1995 issue of Granta magazine. Winter 1998 URBANAGE 17 Farmi-ng Arud Cities . N H. ,.= a W . -. .~~~~~~~~~~a "I cVAIMM.1-hroughout most of at teuson of city planners and our history, across managers. Since the late contrasting cul- 1950s, he Chinese have incor- tures and climates, po a ed food production into we have been ther cint planning. Asian producing some of our food citystates such as Hong IKong within or on the edge of our . and Singapore have evolved cities. Urban agriculture highly organized production- (UA)- the growing or raising, consumption systemsr UA is processing and diStributing of ail expanding in other Asian food and other products metropolises. In newly inde- through the intensive plant pendent Africani countries, cultivation and animl barus- governments have advocated bandry in (intra-urban) and prjet greater food self-reliance for around (penr-urban) cities-is city populations. Since the late as old as cities ourselves. 1970s, urban coTnmunity gar- Ancient civilizations built disconnect dening and urban waste use massive earth works and whater vtagL e J. . tha MUno usi into peni-urban farming are delivery systems within and resurging in North American around their cities. One of the primary uses ly a very recent development in urbare his- and European cities. was to grow trees, shrubs, vegetables, fruits, tor. Most likely the practice began with Today, it is estimated that roughly 800 mil- and other plants for human and animal the' European arnaissance and spread to lion people are engaged in UA worldwide. consumption, and to produce forage, wood former European colonies. It is by no Proponents of UA believe it cani be incorpo- and fuel, shade, and fencing. The areas sur- means universal, rated into comprehensive strategies for food rounding cities were also dedicated to rais- Surveys and projects in cities with hialf a security, reducing poverty, increasing employ- ing livestock for food, materials, transport, million or more people show UA to be prac- ment, and managing land and waste produCts. - trade, sacrifice, assets, and status. These ticed on a much smaller scale and to be agricultural areas were not disconnected more dispersed than most rural agriculture. Many Causes from the urban economy The advantage that UA enjoys is that it taps The growth of UA in LDCs results from The divorce of agriculture, of food pro- into economies of agglomeration that are factors that affect both market supply of duction, from our urban economies is real- unparalleled in most rural areas. On the and demand for food in cities. The need to other hand, it suffers from greater econom- obtain hard currency through exports often Luic J.A. Mougeot has, since 1995, led the ic and ecological pressure than is the case dictates a country's crop choices, agricultur- Cities Feeding People Programn of Canada's with most rural agriculture, and requires al credit programs and incentives, research, International Development Research Centre, more intensive and better controlled pro- and distr-ibution networks. Controlled food where he is a senior program specialist. duction to stay competitive and safe. pricing has favored urban wage-earners and E-mrail: JJMougeottlidrc.ca In recent years, UA has regained the discouraged rural production. Subsidies are 18 URBAN AGE Winter 1998 less frequent today but their removal often plots they do not own, with little if any promoted among urban producers, and exacerbates price fluctuations. High trans- support or protection. They tend to come undeveloped public arable land has been action costs may discourage producers from from smaller towns, and a majority are not assigned to organized groups for fixed pen- supplying formal or critical markets, and recent arrivals. In a 1994 survey of three ods of time. Urban agriculture has been tol- institutional frameworks different sectors of erated as an interim or permanent land use may not be in place for Nairobi, over 60 in public housing schemes (Zimbabwe), markets to operate effec- percent of 177 and bylaws have been revised to authorize tively Products formerly v interviewees had specific production systems in residential common to local diets moved to the city areas (Uganda). New capital cities, as in are now being diverted  before 1985. Ivory Coast and Tanzania, have been to more attractive export Although women designed to include UA. Countries have markets for longer pen- predominate in institutionalized programs and agencies to ods of the year. Civil and most surveys, gen- exploit flexible zoning, offer purpose-spe- natural disasters may dis- der ratios vary cific leaseholds (Argentina), promote UA for rupt food production greatly from city to national school catering programs (Costa and interfere with supply city, depending on Rica), endorse organized groups of urban lines to cities. cultural context, farmers for credit and technical assistance Urban families may < production system (Nigeria). Public utilities have leased out not be able to buy the ' and economic cli- land, have partnered up with producers, or food they need because mate. Men are the have become producers themselves. of currency valuations, majority of market weakened purchasing As much as 70 vegetable growers International Support power, wage cuts, in Addis Ababa Bilateral and multilateral development retrenched public ser- percent of all (1991), Santiago agencies are promoting UA more actively vice, reduced opportuni- eaten (1997), Accra since the late 1980s. Bilaterals include ties for employment, and poultry eaten in (1997). American, British, Canadian, Danish, Dutch, the elimination of subsi- German, Swedish and Swiss agencies. The dies. In 1990, house- Pampai a, All Sizes World Bank recently funded projects recom- holds in nearly half of the s rasdUrban agricul- mending inclusion of UA as legitimate land largest cities in LDCs IS raised ture uses areas of usage in new city master plans, and commis- were spending, on aver- th t all sizes, from sioned an assessment for comprehensive age, 50-80 percent of Inl the Lty. spaces as small as Bank support to UA in sub-Saharan Africa. their income on food. windowsills and Many agencies and international NGOs par- Percentages are higher rooftops to recre- ticipated in the formation of a Support for low-income house- ational grounds, Group on Urban Agriculture (SGUA) in holds. Even so, their diets often do not meet rights-of-way or suburban estates. Plots 1996 to coordinate future support delivery daily minimum nutritional needs. Rapid may extend to thousands of square meters in a variety of programs. urbanization and growing urban poverty along transportation corridors, particularly Little literature so far has overtly risen will complicate the demand side of the in suburban wedge areas. Urban farmers against UA; the debate likely will heat up urban food market for decades to come. may use different spaces in a complemen- as UA grows and affects interests tangibly In any given city, UA may vary in scale tary way Year-round home gardens often Local opposition to UA is usually stronger and diversity, depending on poverty levels, serve as nurseries for rain-fed, off-plot at the outset, then shifts to tolerance, selec- .household size, layout of the city, access to fields (Lusaka), while a field may carry tive support, and issue management. Using undeveloped land, city government atti- vegetables in the dry season and grain public open spaces for UA is usually more tudes, and climate and culture. crops in the rainy season (Brazzaville). an issue than when private residential space Although many people do urban farm- Working several fields at different locations only is involved. Animal husbandry on ing, some do it on a bigger scale than others. ensures stability in the face of theft or evic- public or private land is more opposed than A California-based wine maker imports tion from any given plot (Nairobi). is plant cultivation, and growing food Chilean grapes from the Santiago region. A Urban agriculture often spreads despite plants raises more worries than growing Dominican Republic mental institution in the intentions of public planners and tech- other types of plants, such as ornamentals. downtown Santo Domingo grows and sells nocrats. Colonial bylaws and international The arguments against UA tend to fall into hydroponic lettuce to nearby supermarkets standards are often unenforceable or inap- three categories: and ornamental plants to high-income propriate to local conditions. The interpre- I Urban planning-Agriculture should neighbors. tation and application of laws and norms be confined to rural areas: it can interfere However, most urban farmers are have had to compromise with survival with more productive uses. low-income men and women who grow options available to the growing urban I Public health-Nuisances, safety haz- food largely for self-consumption, on small poor. Information campaigns have been ards, pollution, contamination, and the Winter 1998 URBANAGE 19 harboring and spread of diseases arise Agriculture provided the highest self-employ- International Livestock Research Institute from unregulated production, carried out ment earnings in small-scale enterpnses in found that dairy production is affordable in at the wrong places or in the wrong way Nairobi, and the third highest earnings in all Kenya even by resource or technology-poor This is particularly true of animal hus- of urban Kenya. Cultivated open spaces with- farmers. bandry, but also applies to risks posed by in the city limits of Harare have doubled Rigorous analyzes on the nutritional UA foodstuffs grown with polluted inputs between 1990 and 1994 to more than 8,000 impacts of UA are still few but show posi- or handled inappropriately hectares. The city of Dakar saw its market tive results. Low and very low-income farm- I Environmental conservation- vegetable paddies grow from 1000 to 2506 ing households (FHs) were compared with Visual untidiness, soil erosion, destruction hectares between 1980 and 1990, supplying their non-farming counterparts (NFHs) in of vegetation, siltation, depletion, and 18 percent of the countrys vegetables. Kampala, Nairobi, and Harare. Using differ- agrochemical pollution of water all form ent methodologies, all studies found that the basis for opposition by nearby resi- Production Reached $4 Million FHs achieved greater food security This was dents and businesses. Donald Freeman estimated that in Nairobi particularly true of the nutritional status, as People engaged in some form of UA for open-space farmers' 1987 annual production shown by caloric and protein intake, stunt- some part of the year vary between 15 and 70 alone reached $4 million. In Dar, some ten ing and wasting measurements. In Harare percent of households in cities surveyed in thousand UA enterprises averaged a net prof- and Gweru, the FHs sub-samples enjoyed Africa, Russia, and eastern Europe. Urban it 1.6 times equal to the minimum salary in more nutritious breakfasts, and more of the agriculture is the largest land user (23 percent 1991. Cost-benefit analyzes of market veg- FHs consumed protein-rich food over of city region; 34,000 hectares tuming out ca. etable crops in Lome and Bissau have shown longer periods of the year. Children, espe- 100,000 tons of food annually in 1988) and that net incomes largely depend on low-input cially girls, aged five years and younger in the second largest employer (20 percent of practices, and that profit margins are higher sampled FHs had higher growth rates than those employed) in Dar-es-Salaam. where there are fewer middlemen. The did children in sampled NFHs. Selected Readings on Urban Agriculture Bowyer-Bower, T.A.S. and George Tengbeh, "The environmental Mwangi, Alice Mboganie, "The Role of Urban Agriculture for implications of (illegal) urban agriculture in Harare, Zimbabwe," Food Security in Low Income Areas in Nairobi. Food and Working Paper No. 4 of ODA Research Project R5946. Presented Nutrition Studies," Programme Report No. 54. Ministry of to the Workshop on the Environmental, Social and Economic Planning and National Development, Nairobi, and African Impacts of (Illegal) Urban Agriculture in Harare, Zimbabwe, 1995. Studies Centre, Leiden, 1995. Egziabher, Axumite G., Diana Lee-Smith, Daniel G. Maxwell, Niang, Seydou, "Utilisation des eaux usees domestiques en Pyar A. Memon, Luc J.A. Mougeot, Camillus Sawio, Cities maraichage periurbain a Dakar (Senegal)," Secheresse 3/7: Feeding People: An Examination of Urban Agriculture in East Africa. 217-223, 1996. Intemational Development Research Centre, Ottawa, 1994. Schilter, Christine, L'agriculture urbaine a Lome: approches Khouri, Nadim, John M. Kalbermatten and Carl R. Bartone, agronomiques et socio economiques, Karthala, Paris, 1991. "Reuse of Wastewater in Agriculture: A Guide for Planners," Water and Sanitation Report 6, UNDP-World Bank Water and Scientific American, special issue on ancient cities, 1993. Sanitation Program. The World Bank, Washington, D.C., 1994. Jacobs, Jane, The Economy of Cities. Random House, New York, 1969. Maxwell, Daniel G., "Alternative Food Security Strategy: A Household Analysis of Urban Agriculture in Kampala." World Smit, Jac, Annu Ratta and Joe Nasr, Urban Agriculture: Food, Jobs Development 23110: 1669-1681, 1995. and Sustainable Cities. United Nations Development Program, Publication Series for Habitat II, Volume One. UNDP, New York, Midmore, David, "Social, economic and environmental con- 1996. straints and opportunities in peri-urban vegetable production systems and related technological interventions," Vegetable Smit, Jac, Annu Ratta and Janis Bernstein."Urban Agriculture: Production in Pen-urban Areas in the Tropics and Subtropics Food- An Opportunity for Environmentally Sustainable Development Income and Quality of Life, 1995. pp. 64-87. in Sub-Saharan Africa," Building Blocks for AFRICA 2025 Paper No. 11, Post-UNCED Series, Environmentally Sustainable Moustier, Paule, "Organization in the Brazzaville Vegetable Market," Division, Africa Technical Department, The World Bank, Doctoral thesis. University of London, Wye College, 1996. Washington, D.C., 1996. k 20 URBAN AGE Winter 1998 Human and environmental health with resistance in western risks posed by UA mispractices do preoc- cultures (Chinese cities have cupy public officials. Risks stem from: long been collecting human inappropriate handling of agrochemicals wastes and applying by producers, the use of unsorted or "night-soil" to peri-urban insufficiently treated solid and liquid crops). organic wastes to vulnerable crops, and Epidemiological and crop selection or location without due microbiological standards for regard to ambient pollution in the air, using wastewater in agricul- , soil, or water. In LDCs, the risks posed by ture and aquiculture are UA products need to be compared with achievable with simple, inex- those posed by food grown in rural loca- pensive treatment. Most pub- tions less accessible to control and stored lic health problems arise from and shipped inadequately Urban agricul- making the wrong farming ture producers and consumers must uses of different types of receive more information, advice and wastewater. Untreated sludge, training, because more urban people will mixed with fly ash, can be engage in food-growing and more cities applied to non-edible trees will try to better use their solid and liquid and grasses as a good soil wastes to curb ambient pollution and amendment (more cost-effec- optimize freshwater use. tive than imported chemical Attention must be given to health risks fertilizers in Onssa, India). from the handling and application of manure from vector-carrying animals. Excessive use of The Future of UA nitrate-rich manure for intensive cropping can A paper that was com- _ also contaminate groundwater. With regard to missioned by the Inter- C m human wastes, indoor composting toilets are national Development now available in many countries, and more Research Centre to The affordable equivalents are being developed. Urban Agriculture Network points to sev- lower-density urban expansion will increase Large-scaled farming with safely composted eral trends likely to transform UA well into land opportunities for UA. This will contin- human waste is now possible but often meets the twenty-first century For instance, ue to outrun rural agriculture in certain crop lines, as improved UA technologies spread | HARARE ! ^ to other UA production systems. More OpenARp national and local governments will support I I \ \ in | | UA worldwide. Urban waste will be more Cultivation commonly applied as an input, as home and community-based waste treatment outper- forms massive and non-selective disposal systems. Information and communication technologies will provide small producers and processors with prompt and reliable information, access to credit, and the ability IC 'l . y , /8 ...................... |to organize into virtual corporations. Community and civic organizations will increasingly support UA. Food markets in many of the world's countries will carry an increasing share of products grown or in cities. | Informal food markets will behave like today's 1994 formal ones, and formal and informal markets E will be better interrelated. Urban planning will N more widely incorporate UA as another use of Ssla UP0A," IA land in urban space-economies. For decades wiu to come, the low-income type of UA will con- tinue to expand in LDCs, diversifying and _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _ _in l___________ regulariig supply, and making fresh, nutri- L - tious perishables affordable to larger sectors of In Harare, Zimbabwe, open space in cultivation grew from 4,822 to 8,392 hectares between 1990 and 1994. urban populations. i, Winter 1998 URBANAGE 21 AMERICAN URBAN CHALLENGE By Neal R. Peirce Business Takes a New Look at Inner Cities Business investment centers, and other public works while But could this activity be doubled or doing little to help the lives of real people quadrupled by some smart strategic action? in America's inner in struggling neighborhoods. Yes, says the Social Compact, a nationwide coalition of corporate leaders looking for cities is on the rise. Small Steps ways to increase private investment in But as business takes a fresh look at urban lower income neighborhoods. Chicago wil A re Americas cities about to receive America, small steps of progress can be be the proving ground for Social Compact's a massive dose of business invest- acknowledged. Local community develop- new set of market indicators, designed to A zment-the country's traditional ment corporations, operating largely inde- show how savvy corporations have already elixir for guaranteed growth and prosperi- pendently of government but helped along by learned to sell profitably in the inner city- ty? Possibly, yes. their national level financial intermediaries- and how others might do just as well. The reason may be that the global econo- the Local Initiatives Support Corporation my, with its opportunities for smart corpora- (LISC), the Enterprise Foundation, and the Pure Capitalism tions to exploit a variety of new "niche" mar- Neighborhood Reinvestment Corporation- The idea is pure capitalism: find markets kets, is driving home the point that cities, have brought close to and make them work. especially inner cities, represent a great 150,000 units of high- There are already some missed marketing opportunity American quality, affordable low- - . fascinating examples. corporate leaders are accustomed to flying income housing on line. Chicago's Harris Bank has around the world to learn about the latest Indeed, these national . found that customers from specialized markets and how to penetrate intermediaries recently X low-income neighbor- them with goods and services. Now there is made a dramatic and hoods turn out to be more a growing realization that potentially nch unprecedented joint com- loyal and buy more prod- markets are lying right at their doorsteps. mitment: to raise and ucts, from checking ser- This represents a major and difficult shift spend $13 billion more in > vices to savings accounts, in attitude after a half-century of societal the next four years- than their suburban coun- indifference to inner-city neighborhoods, as enough to generate terparts. The Midwest's investment flowed to the suburbs. Even 193,800 affordable homes leading telecommunica- where old neighborhoods keep up a facade and apartments in 2,475 tions firm, Ameritech, has of respectability, a grim price has been paid communities. Almost started to market prepaid in dwindling populations and lost econom- invariably, serious contri- long-distance cards heavi- ic activity St. Louis, Missouri, has seen its butions and tax credit Iv in Hispanic Chicago population drop by a half-million from investments by national neighborhoods because 1950 to the present-from 857,000 to a and local business leader- the cards proved to be so mere 356,000. A demographic hemorrhage ship have made these popular in Mexico. of that scale indicates serious and long-term steps possible. Allstate Insurance has a Neighborhood problems. Inner-city retailing has begun to revive Partnership model that works with low- to There is also a consensus in the United too. In 1994, LISC launched a National moderate-income neighborhoods to fix haz. States that existing government aid pro- Retail Initiative with $24 million from cor- ards and talk candidly with homeowners grams have been more palliative than trans- porations that ranged from Prudential about deficiencies. Born in P'hiladelphia in forming. None of the programs-from the Insurance and Metropolitan Life to J.P the early 1990s, the effort has spawned thou' much-maligned urban renewal to Morgan and the General Electric (Capital sands of new policies and turned big Allstate Washington's Urban Development Action Corp. By 1999, that effort will have losses into solid profits across some 20 cities. Grants or its long-lived Community brought close to 15 supermarkets to severe- The Social Compact argues that govern- Development Block Grant program-have ly under-served inner-city neighborhoods. ment statistics on low-income neighbor- successfully reversed the decline of inner The 1990s have seen a clear upswing in hoods-which often show lower family cities. Too often, the money has simply corporate interest in inner-city markets, incomes, more teenage pregnancies, worse subsidized convention centers, commercial with branch operations spreading into crime statistics, and higher infant mortality- tough neighborhoods from Harlem to leave an overwhelmingly negative impression Neal R. Peirce is an urban affairs columnist Detroit and Kansas City, led by such firms for investors. So it is developing a new set of with the Washington Post Writers Group and as NationsBank, Safeway supermarkets and market indicators to show how the income in co-author of the book Citistates. Rite Aid pharmacies. more dense inner-city areas often generates 22 URBANAGE Winter 1998 substantially more spending power per square 10,000 borrowers since 1973-all with a Housing Development Corporation. The goal mile than in affluent suburbs. failure rate of under 1 percent.) is to help minority entrepreneurs obtain the The argument is that there are many Remember, says Weissbourd, that the equity they need to become retail franchisers of unrecognized strengths in inner-city neigh- main problem of poor neighborhoods is not national firms, or even qualify as cooperative borhoods: pockets of rising home owner- just lack of money It is isolation from the owners in national hardware chains such as ship, active (often ethnically based) shop- economic mainstreams of their regions- Ace and True Value. ping cores, and new from banks to retailers, Using the hardware firms as examples, small businesses such suppliers to manufactur- Bernstein says neighborhood people can as the remarkable num- ers. Any new investment become local owners of a national distribution bers of computer and The idea is pure from the outside-be it a cooperative and pay their workers well above design firms now l find franchise restaurant, the minimum wage for the skills needed to springing up in urban capitalsm: findh bank outlet, quality food answer customers' quesrions and demonstrate neighborhoods. What's markets and market, or hardware products. Franchising and cooperative rela- more, it turns out that store-helps reverse the tionships, he notes, provide training and offer poor people spend a lot make them decline. Suddenly, resi- the advantage of known brand names. They more money than gov- dents and workers can save entrepreneurs the steep learning curve of ernment statistics ever work. get what they want local- mastenng a business from scratch. catch. Most of it may be ly and no longer have to Much community development work, in the unreported cash spend time and money while valuable, is much too slow to provide economy, ranging from traveling elsewhere. full economic benefits for neighborhoods, home repair to auto maintenance. Estimates There may just be a fascinating conflu- says Bernstein. It is time, he suggests, to of the costs for these services run into the ence of interests here. As Weissbourd notes, develop benchmarks of performance that hundreds of billions of dollars a year. every business needs to focus on its special- will inspire inner cities to seek the kind of Even mainstream American economists ties, its "competitive intelligence,' for the replicable, rapid deployment that has tradi- have begun to recognize the potential, global economy of high technology and cus- tionally driven much of the U.S. economy among them Harvard University's Michael tomization. When that hard-nosed business This new kind of development game Porter, world-famed author of The skill reveals new markets that can help city will clearly require many players, including Competitive Advantage of Nations. Inner neighborhoods prosper, everybody benefits. city governments obliged to provide quali- cities are the only large U.S. market not yet But neighborhoods need to define their ty infrastructure and strong security ser- saturated with retail stores, argues Porter. interests and needs too. An organization like vices, as well as to clear sites for develop- Their central and dense locations should Shorebank may know its neighborhood ment. Crime prevention and community also give them a competitive edge in devel- inside and out, and can consult with main- policing, coordinated with neighborhood oping such businesses as printing, distribu- line corporations on ways to invest, do busi- organizations, will be a must. tion, and food processing. ness, hire workers, and grow in the inner city. Yet community development corpora- Vital Transition Link with Business tions-noxv 2,500 strong across the United But there are already neighborhoods in The real objective, Porter says, is to link States-can go well beyond the scope of tra- America's inner cities that have made the vital inner cities with the business clusters of their ditional banking practices to expand their transition. Take Little Village, an old Slavic metropolitan economic regions. Through his frontiers from housing and commercial neighborhood on Chicago's West Side. Its Initiative for a Competitive Inner City, he is space to studying business opportunities, close to some of that city's worst urban devas- trying to recruit business schools to help assembling land parcels, training employees, tation. But it's become the Hispanic heart of firms write business plans, develop vendor and trying to elicit interest from mainline the Midwest. Aided by Neighborhood relationships, and prosper financially capital and corporate entities. Housing, home values in Little Village have But is there a danger that outside corpo- Communities need to be smart, to draw on tripled since 1979. This neighborhood has a rate investors are simply milking inner distinctions that will work to attract business retail base of 1,400 registered businesses and cities for large profits, all the wvhile plan- investment, says Scott Bernstein of the $1.4 billion in yearly payrolls-second only ning to leave workers and their neighbor- Chicago-based Center for Neighborhood to the North Michigan Avenue area. hoods little better off than before? Technology National retail chains that just tap It's important to note what's not expect- Not really, replies Robert Weissbourd, local money and hire a few clerks-but send ed of government in a new era of inner city executive vice president of Shorebank, a their profits elsewhere-are one type of busi- revival: new programs, interventions, rules, Chicago institution famed for registering ness. Making an effort to help residents or regulations. What's evolving, in fact, is a profits even while rejuvenating depressed become entrepreneurs and foster their own set of expectations that's clearly a world South Side communities. (Shorebank has enterprises is quite another. An initiative called apart from government subsidies, welfare, invested well over a half-billion dollars to "Connections for Community Ownership" has and social service dependency Using this finance the rehabilitation of 17,000 hous- been launched by Bemstein's organization in approach, the solution to many problems ing units and $400 million in small busi- partnership with Chicago United (a leading in the inner city is more business. Succeed ness and home improvement loans to business organization) and the Hispanic or fail, it is quintessentially American. ix Winter 1998 URBAN AGE 23 The Global Threat tFood Security By Kenneth A. Dahlberg T ! _ he food security of today's This was nicely done in a 1929 textbook, cars has restructured urban-rural relations and tomorrow's cities is How Great Cities Are Fed, by WP Hedden, and landscapes, and has greatly increased increasingly threatened in a chief of the Bureau of Commerce of the Port local air pollution as well as global carbon number of ways. While of New York Authority It discussed the dioxide emissions. cities throughout history larger watersheds and foodsheds upon Second, there is global warming-an gave a very high priority to ensuring their which New York was dependent as well as issue beset by uncertainty and confusion. food security, few cities today worry the many transportation, distribution, mar- How much sea levels might rise-especially about it or realize that keting, health, and waste given that so many cities ancL megacities are much of their future issues involved in feed- on the coast-is a crucial question. In food food security is linked ing that great city It con- security terms, many leaders focus on global to their local food sys- Four emerging cluded with a chapter on averages rather than local realities. The rems and surrounding "Public Control of the prime concern of every farnier is with the foodsheds. global threats Food Supply" Updating specific amount and timing of rain, dryness, Cities have been Hedden's approach by heat, and frosts on the farm, not with his or lulled by the internation- have including global threats her region's average weather. Similarly while alization of food and the and the potential of local a few regions may benefit from global warm- reduced visibility of significant food systems will help ing, the latest projections suggest African hunger. Traditional implications us regain perspective on agriculture is the most vulnerable, while scourges of famine and L this important issue. many agricultural areas in the temperate mass hunger have been for thefood zones will suffer from more frequent storms, largely replaced by J J Global Threats droughts, and floods as well as temperature undernourishment and security of Four emerging global extremes. Each city needs to ask how much disease. In addition, o threats have significant local and regional agricultural changes will since few cities have a cities, implications for the affect their food security food department, there food security of cities, Third, the loss of biodiversity is perhaps exists neither an aware- especially megacities. the greatest long-term threat to global sus- ness of the importance to First, there are three dif- tainability Losses caused by population their food security of local food systems ferent types of incipient population explo- explosions, climate change, deforestation, and foodsheds nor the data to analyze and sions: human, livestock, and cars. The overfishing, and overgrazing ultimately map them. threats of increasing human numbers and mean the loss of the wellsprings of life. We urbanization are clear. Less often consid- are reducing and destroying renewable ered is the explosion since World War 11 of resource systems and the biodiversity pre- Kenneth A. Dahlberg is professor of Political livestock numbers-today some 38 percent cisely when we need to expand their regen- Science and Environmental Studies as Western of the world's grain crop is fed to livestock. erative capacity to convert solar energy into Michigan University, Kalamazoo. He is a long- The corresponding increase in meat-inten- food and fiber. We are also losing cultural time student of sustainable agriculture and sive diets has also brought significant diversity and indigenous knowledge of regenerative food systems. His e-mail address health problems and costs-often concen- local habitats, forests, fisheries, and food is: dahlberg@wmich.edu trated in cities. The population explosion of sources. 24 URBAN AGE Winter 1998 Finally, cities are threatened gases, losses of diversity, and ,by the globalization of injustice injustices and poverty outlined and poverty Whatever one above. By so doing, cities can understands the sources of this _ Fr'' help reduce global stresses while to be, the weak and the poor increasing local sustainability (including poor cities and states) Whats needed to increase are becoming more -vulnerable . , local food self-reliance? A first than ever to powerful economic :< .and cm-cial step is to seek to forces and structures. Poor peo- understand and assess one's owvn pie are dependent upon distant food system and supporting and unreliable export and finan- foodsheds. As noted earlier, few, cial markets, while prices of if any cities have a department imports can rapidly escalate due of food. Providing food is amor- to market manipulations, olh- phous and simply assumed to gopolistic pricing, and/or natur- be something that "happens." al causes such as drought. . Thus, food-related conceptual- Significantly, after declining for . nization, analysis, data gathering, some 50 years, average grain ' research, and planning are large- prices over the last three years ly absent in official circles. have increased 12 percent a year 'tstureWhat, then, are local food sys- for wheat, 9 percent for rice, and si" but tems? The local part starts at the 16 percent for maize. Few cities household level, then expands have any system for assessing Uiqz to the neighborhood, municipal, the potential impact of such s and regional levels. At each changes-or even an apprecia- a level, there are different cycles, tion of the need to do so. g issues, problems, and possibili- There have been a number of t ties. The food part includes all international conferences held long- syst jusoet tha t ofpens," but stores its various social, symbolic, and treaties negotiateural nd s praoviing, food iso rit ju s ome ding that pen. inv es heakth, power, access, and equity response to these global threats. pn gd g e cor dination, dimensions (components that These meetings bring into ques- get minimal consideration in tion the sustainability of currenit industrial insurance policy against disasters and eco- agriculture). The systems part includes not systems and their search for more sustain- nomic and social shocks," but can also be just the production aspects of food (agricul- able development is based on: a source of more sustainable development. ture, farmland preservation, farmers mar- IaA shift from linear to systems thinking Using sustainable techniques to localize the kets, household and community gardens, I The use of much longer term time hori- production, processing, and recycling of and small livestock), but processing issues; zons showing how systems evolve and food can reduce xater and air pollution as distribution issues (transportation, ware- adapt over multiple generations well as save significant energy According housing); access issues (physical and eco- I A shift in basic evaluative criteria from to a calculation in thelces, the U.S. food nomic barriers to food, availabilty of food production/productivity to the long- system required I0 calories of energy to put stores, cafes, and street food, as well as anti- term health of natural and social systems one food calorie on a dinner plate. hunger and feeding programs); food use Many of these shifts are nicely captured Food Security strategies need to have issues (health and nutrition, cooking and in the Wodld Health Organization's Healthy both external and internal components. food preservation, food safety and han- Cities and Communities Program. Externally, there is a need to "htink locally dling); food recycling (gleaning, food act globally" That is, after assessing all the banks, food pantries, and soup kitchens); Needed Local Responses contextual specifics of its local food system and waste-stream issu es (composting, The magnitude of these emerging global and foodsheds, including how they are garbage fed to animals, etc.). threats suggests that cities, especially the threatened by likely price increases for ener- And what about foodsheds? Foodsheds world's rnegacities, need to mount mjor gy and food, each city needs to act to get are part geographic and part economic. efforts to develop their own food security regional, national, and international sup- Our current industrial food system has strategies. Even though they will remain port for its local needs. Internally cities tended to overemphasize the economic largely dependent upon national and inter- need to recognize both the unsustainability aspectsfl-whereby seemingly cheaper food national systems and structures for their of current industrial food systems and the can be imported from great distances. food as well as their food security for a long need to localize their sustainable develop- However, as direct crop subsidies and hid- time to come, cities can-and should- ment efforts. "Think-ing globally" in this den energy subsidies are phased out, and consciously pursue a greater degree of food regard, they need to "act locally" to reduce environmental and social externalities are self-reliance. This offers not only a local the population explosions, greenhouse internalized, it will be of great economic Winter 1998 URBAN AGE 25 advantage to cities to build bridges with I Providing a cushion of self-reliance gaps, bottlenecks, and ineffiliencies exist. their surrounding regions to provide a against transport strikes, major storms There are rarely any studies available on much higher percentage of their food local- and disasters, and rising food prices the local food system or economy Doing ly through sustainable agricultural resulting from oligopolies and/or rising such research is complicated by the fact approaches. These can also help avoid the fossil fuel prices and their multiplier that little national or local data are collect- externalities of industrial agriculture, such effeCts ed in terms of food systems. In as the loss of crop germplasm diversity; the I Providing continuing employment for Philadelphia, a food taskforce commis- large amounts of carbon dioxide required local farmers, horticulturists, and food sioned a study that showed roughly 20 to for long-distance shipping; the pollution of workers 25 percent of the surface and groundwater; the loss of soils I Preserving and enhanc- regional economy was through erosion and salinization; as well as ing at the household level devoted to agricultural, the loss of rural landscapes, communities, basic food gathering, It typically horticultural, and food- culture, and small farms. The health costs producing, processing, related activities-a fact of water pollution and pesticide exposures cooking, and preserva- takes four or of which local planners to farm workers and urban consumers can tion skills were unaware. also be reduced. I Empowering house- five years to Besides the educa- holds and neighbor- tional challenges, pro- Domestic Production hoods and making them learn how the ponents of local food Besides cultivating their surrounding more self-reliant by mak- systems face serious foodsheds, cities can grow more of their ing more land, work, and various political opposition own food through what is termed "urban employment available 1 r from groups with vested agriculture" although it is important not to throughout the local elements of interests in todays ener- overstress this potential. Large cities can- food system a local food gy-inefficient industrial not and will not be able to feed them- I Freeing up more foodfood system. Long-dis- selves, Also, rather than urban agriculture, local money for local system tance food producers, it is better to talk about allotments and development both by . processors, shippers, household and community gardens increasing the energy operate wholesalers, distribu- because this language better captures the and resource efficiency of tors, and retailers will important informal, noncommodity, local food systems and resist efforts to promote social, and empowerment dimensions by recycling and/or com- more local growing, involved. Rather than a specialized pro- posting organic wastes rather than putting processing, and marketing of food. duction activity, growing food in cities them in expensive landfills Politicians are under pressure to deal with needs to be seen as an integral part of deal- I Creating a healthier, more diverse, and current crises and have little time to think ing with hunger, family and neighborhood pleasant environment for inhabitants and about how to build for a sustainable empowerment, economic development, their children by cleaning up air, water, future. Planners and developers typically and the general "greening" of a city Such and soil systems and by creating more do not want land dedicated to gardens or greening can improve air and water quali- green spaces-while at the same time green space, and so on. fiowever, pres- ty as well as the general aesthetics of a reducing health costs and pollution sures for change will continue to mount city cleanup costs and local food systems will need to be How can cities move toward more sus- I Reducing the dependence of poor peo- developed if cities are to have any real food tainable local food systems? Perhaps the ple on emergency hunger and feeding pro- security main challenge is one of awareness and grams by moving toward hunger preven- Wle are only now beginning to become vision. The awareness that most academics, tion programs aware of the importance of food in local planners, and city officials have of food sys- and regional environments and economies. tems and foodsheds today is comparable to Challenges Emerging global threats require us to their awareness of environmental issues 30 Pursuing these goals effectively develop strategies for greater local food years ago-something just starting to involves meeting important challenges. security and self-reliance, a central part of become visible on their radar screens. As Since food systems have little visibility, which is creating sustainable local food sys- usual, various innovative nonprofit groups and since understanding them goes against tems and foodsheds. When included in a and a few cities not only have a good the grain of specialization, a great deal of larger vision of creating sustainable and awareness, but a broad vision of a more public education will be needed. In the healthy cities, this will simultaneously help sustainable urban future, which includes various cities and counties where local empower and increase the health and eco- the following goals: food policy councils and/or coalitions have nomic well-being of families and neighbor- I Providing both long-term food securi- been established, it typically takes four or hoods; reduce many local environmental ty and better health for all local residents five years of work for members to learn and social problems and costs; and make by making a variety of safe and nutritious how the various interacting elements of cities healthier, more equitable, and more foods available to all their local food system operate and where self-reliant. 6 26 URBANAGE Winter 1998 CO MM UNIT I ES SP EA K By Janis Jibrin Peruvian Kitchens: A Recipe for Success VWomen in Peru have 1 by 1989, there were 2,300; today, X approximately 10,000 kitchens feed used their cooking and about three million people in cities all skills to boost over Peru. btusiness skir ost To be more precise, they are not in both their communities' the cities, but in shantytowns skirting cities such as Lima, Piura, Cajamarca, nutritional levels _ Trujillo, Chimobote, and Puno. Half and ther wn [- Xx A11 of Lima's 6.9 million residents live in and their own these urban slums, or pueblos jovenes, economic well-being._ XLX j ;2 and most of them also work in there. "Instead of going into the city to = work, people stay in the shantytowns, "'P '/ I T sewing, making handicrafts, or doing hen Fredesminda Vidal - ~~~~~~~~~~~laundry for the less poor residents. So takes a lunch break from her washerwoman job ~~~~~~~~ women and men stop off at the - kitchens and eat a very low-cost meal she sits down to a big bowl of veg- - . before going back to work, or chil- etable soup and a plate of lentils and dre t fo b h i reusable rice or another equally nutritious meal. cni explain Mika Dinevb Despite a monthly income of U.$40, .< assistant country director for CARE she doesn't have to worry about feed- 7 country d A Peruvian woman prepares soup to feed her neigh- Peru. ing herself and her four children. For bors, who stop by for a very low-cost meal before that, they can thank their neighbor going back to work in their jobs on the outskirts of The Impact Silvia Lopez-Davila, a 40-year-old Lima. The community kitchens' impact seamstress and a founding member of on nutritional status has not been the kitchen that makes the low-cost the nutritional and financial health of the carefully evaluated, but signals point to its meals. Te k n e a society. benefits. A 1992 Peruvian government The kitchen, located in Ladera de study found that two-thirds of kitchens Chillon, an urban slum on the outskirts of Grassroots Effort prepared meals that cover 85 to 90 per- Lima, Peru, is one of 10,000 cormiedores In the late 1970s, inflation in Peru was cent of the daily calorie needs and a full populares, or community kitchens, serving so severe that food became unaffordable day's worth of protein, critical for prevent- up healthy meals in shantytowns all over and malnutrition was rampant. It was then ing the stunting of growth in children. A urban Peru. Their success has shattered that groups of poor urban Peruvian women recent government evaluation found that many people's preconceptions about food took matters into their own hands. First growth stunting in urban children is down and nutrition aid. For instance, many peo- using one of their own kitchens, then get- from 26 percent in 1991-92 to 16 percent pie assume that food and nutrition pro- -. .. ple assume that.foodandnutritionr ting volunteers to build additional cooking in 1996; it is widely assumed that the grams originate in the offices of govern- areas, groups of 20 to 50 women rolled up comedores have had a hand in this mients or large nongovernmental organiza- their sleeves and shared food preparation improvement. tions. Not this one. It was started by the duties for their community At first they Along with the nutritious meals, impor- indigent women themselves. Also, food aindigenthewmindsofemanylmeans Alsubsodi pooled their resources to buy their food in tant nutrition education takes place in the larger quantities, which gave them the comedores. Women go to the kitchens for and handouts. This program is on its way power to negotiate for lower prices. As the lessons in breastfeeding promotion, to self-sufficiency The Peruvian commu- enterprise took form, the comedores began increasing the protein content of their nity kitchen movement is a model worth receiving food aid from governmental and diets, hygienic food handling, and preven- considering anywhere there is hunger and nongovernmental sources including CARE tion of anemia, all taught by local health malnutrition, because it improves both (using U.S. Agency for International professionals or by members of the come- Development-USAID-funds), Food for dores who have been trained by the profes- Janis Jibrin is a nutritionist and journalist the Hungry, the Peruvian government, and sionals. "The women in the comedores I working in Washington, D.C. others. In 1978, there were 100 kitchens; worked with noticed that infants were Winter 1998 URBAN AGE 27 being fed soup sold in the = years to teach them adminis- kitchens, which isn't an appro- trative skills that will help priate infant-weaning food. So turn their kitchens into for- the comedores started produc- profit, healthy fast-food ing infant gr-uel, even deliv- restaurants. MIeals like ered it to working women," % Fredesminda Vidal's lunch recounts Marie Ruel, a D cost 40 cents in U.S. curren- research fellow at the cy ersion thaat substitutes International Food Policy 'u meat and potatoes for lentils Research Institute in and rice sells for 75 cents. Washington, D.C. The capital for their venture But the nutrition boons are comes from money saved just the beginning of the over the past three years comedores' success story while they were subsidized. Other areas of health have CARE will still offer loans. been affected as well. For As for the rest of the come- instance, advertisements for 0. dores, they still receive some public health campaigns on 0 aid from the Peruvian gov- comedores walls alert the ermient, the Catholic community to upcoming vac- < Church, and other organiza- cination programs that will Children line up for nutritious meals in a Peruvian community kitchen. s V take place in the kitchen or in those that didn't get training a local clinic. "During the are attempting to turn their cholera epidemic of 1991, 250,000 people test. The comedores' most significant kitchens into microenterprises support- were infected, but only 1,500 died, and source of aid-food donated by USAID ed by CARE's credit loans. that's partly because people could come to and administered through CARE-dried Lopez-Davila's comedore got CARE the comedores for rehydration fluids essen- up in September 1997. But before training; she and others in her group are tial for combating the effects of cholera," pulling the plug, CARE choose 450 of optimistic. She says, "We have the man- says CARE's Dinev the approximately 3,000 comedores it agement training and infrastructure to supported around the country, and succeed. And we are known for our qual- Improved Income worked intensively with them for three ity service." I And, perhaps most important for the long haul, the comedores have raised ; \ income levels. "My comedore helped my family reduce our food budget by 50 per- cent and has given me enough time to he kitchens aren't unique to I Training. For at least three years, work make money as a seamstress," says Lopez- Peru. Bolivia, Chile, Ecuador, with the comedores. Provide members Davila. Besides removing the burden of T Colombia, and Argentina have with the training they need to make it on shopping and cooking, many comedores similar operations. These are the key ele- their own. Remember, this is develop- have also freed women for work outside ments for success, according to CARE's ment, not charity "Make it clear from the the home by providing daycare. Even Dinev: beginning that the project has a begin- women who work in the kitchens are free I Preexisting organization. The ning and an end," advises Deniv to pursue other employment, since mem- community must have some sort of orga- As the Peru experience shows, it does bers of the comedore rotate shifts. There nization in place, such as a breastfeeding not take a large investment to make the are also intangible benefits-gains in self- education group. For instance, the kitchen a success. The comedores turn out esteem, a sense of power, and support that founders of the original comedores in nutritious meals on kerosene stoves, gas comes from groups of women who have Peru were already members of clubes de stoves, or simple briquette fires. (Even organized themselves to work for their |madres (mother's clubs), which received though most kitchens are equipped with community The comedores have given food aid under the old system. electricity, it is too expensive to use.) women management and leadership skills I Commitment. The people should Raise funds by organizing community that they can apply to other areas. The suc- really want it and feel committed to it. activities and then get the neighbors to cess of the kitchens has, in many cases, I Initial subsidies. "In order to give the pitch in for the construction, says Dinev increased the women's status within the kitchens a chance to get off the ground, For further information write to Erin family, paving the way for better family you've got to provide at least 60 percent Burns, Public Relations Office, CARE, 151 relations. of the food for at least three years," says Ellis Street, NE, Atlanta, GA 30303, or Now those management and leader- Dinev. call 404-681-2552, extension 117. l ship skills are being put to the ultimate 28 URBANAGE Winter 1998 N E W S L I N E By Mar-garet Ber-gen The Challenge to Wholesale Markets Jf he urban central marketplace Globalization has narrowed the market by together. The food dlstribution system will A formed the basis for mans earliest encouraging mergers and monopolies, become a major instrument for economic economic activity In many cities it resulting in giant retail supermarkets that development and, in the context of eastern is also the cultural or symbolic heart of the have the financial muscle to bypass whole- Europe, wholesale markets will promote the city Think of Les Halles or Covent Garden. salers. "We need a new development strategy transition to a market economy Today, traders see themselves still as central for our industry," Fomaresio said. Efforts to establish new wholesale mar- to city life, even as their numbers dwindle Just as in any sector that seeks to main- kets in developing countries are underway. and their market share disappears. tain and expand its presence, the search for Richard Lacroix of the World Bank spoke of At the 20th Congress of the World new sites has shifted to the developing the spinoff benefits of increasingly efficient Union of Wholesale Markets held in world. Some of the Congress' program was markets, leading to added services such as Florence in October, the president, Carlo devoted to the experience of how the storage, banking, transport, brokerage, and Dianzani opened the session by asking developing world's cities might adapt the increased control over traffic congestion, whether marginalization of the wholesale model of wholesale markets for their own pollution, and waste disposal. He believes market has become a structural phenome- food distribution needs. that developing countries still have a non. The next three days were spent re- The Congress participants felt that the chance to attract distribution clients. It is evaluating the future of the sector, process of buying, negotiating, developing, envisaged that this new wave of wholesale The irony of increasing urbanization neg- financing, and operating city markets in markets (three new Polish markets will be atively affecting wholesale markets was not developing countries will bring major polit- operating by late 1998) will not be owned lost on the Congress. According to Jaime ical, community, and business players by municipalities, but privately run. I Novoa, a marketing economist with the Food and Agriculture Organisation, longer The 1998 Institue for Planning and Development Practittoers supply lines, more people to be fed, weak- INNOVATIONS IN CAPACITY BUILDING ened links between producers and traders, Z FOR STRENGTHENING LOCAL and the complexity of the food chain have GOVERNMENT marginalized the markets' position. JulyR1998 The consumers' requirement for fresh Z 22nd June - 3rdJuly1998 produce (and lots of it) over the last 20 L' Z The purpose of this Institute is to provide a forum years has led to the emergence of chain for practitioners involved in local government supermarkets, a phenomenon that has W| issues around the world to learn about new ideas upset the traditional food distribution sys- and share their experience under the guidance of tem. Historically, the producer or farmer prominent experts in the field. Themes include: would sell produce to the wholesale market z Central - local government relations trader, who would sell it to retailers, Financing local government whether supermarkets or corner stores. Z J LL * Local governance and civil society Wholesale markets were the essential links Lu LII Local service delivery between producers and sellers. Now the L u _ In addition to activities on the USC campus, balance has been upset. > Q particpants will spend two days in Tijuana, For example, in the United Kingdom 0 Mexico, visit local organizations in Los Angeles, today, 75 percent of food is sold through _ and learn about new uses of electronic media for supermarkets. Fifty percent of the U.S. $9 ( j CD community participation. billion industry is in the hands of five For More Information Please Contact: chains. According to David Matthews, Anna Sai president of the UK Fresh Produce T TL I Institute for Planning and Development Consortium, "it is time to reappraise the * Practitioners ,of business we are in." School of Urban Planning and Development It is the opinion of a Turin fruit trader and UNIVERSITY University of Southern California Congress attendee Mauro Fomaresio that the OF SOUTHERN Los Angeles CA 90089-0042 USA crisis in the wholesale markets is part of the CALIFORNIA TEL: +1.213-743-2332 FAX: +1-213.743-2476 consoldaton of the retal food economyEMAIL: pracinsrcfusc.edu WEB: http:llwww-rcf.usc.edul-pracinst Margaret Bergen is editor of Urban Age. Winter 1998 URBANAGE 29 B OO K S By Syl-via Sensiper Food in the New Century ifteen years ago, the operating proce- are an often present or implicit theme. The expanded its export earnings to $800 mil- dures of multinational firms allowed articles themselves focus on circumstances lion, a little over 3 percent of India's foreign F them to adapt to local conditions in and case studies from localities worldwide. exchange earnings. The explanation from their far-flung locations. That way of doing In a somewhat more dramatically argued industrial studies is insufficient to describe business is no longer the case. Instead, the piece, "Nourishing Networks," authors the nature of this phenomenon, argues trans-national corporations (TNCs) of today Sarah Whatmore and Lorraine Thorne Chari as he claims that his altiernative anal'- have developed a vision and economy that relate the case of the CHEEOOAC-Nor, a sis is more explicit. He shows how Tirupir's undermines the political power of nation- coffee producing cooperative high in the success can be explained by focusing on the states and wreaks havoc on local cultures. Andean mountains. To sustain itself Grounder caste, which imported reliable Largely in response to increases in global through difficult times, in 1990 the cooper- forms of labor discipline and social relations competition, firms have shifted toward inte- ative began selling its products to from their rural existence as they built new grated international production systems. The Cafedirect, a British consortium associated empires in the city attention focused on this reconfiguration of with the charity Oxfam. This provided the Overall, the book's authors agree that production has moved agro-food studies to struggling cooperative with access to global capitalism is not a systematic and logical center stage in debates over the dynamics markets, but in no way sheltered them from process that eradicates social problems. that are shapingfin-de-siecle capitalism. capitalisms strictures- Rather, like the Peruvian The seductive and compelling narrative of deadlines, contracts, and farmers, we can perhaps find economic globalization is difficult to disrupt, standards of qualitv Neither E e i our own spaces of resistance but the agro-food system does not fit easily is the cooperative exempt i c , and the voices to make claim into arguments about spatial configurations from the vagaries of the cof- * - to life's basic needs. But there of markets and deterritorialized corporations. fee-growing process itself. l , is little in the book to coun- Unlike paradigmatic industries such as elec- The authors' argument teract some of the frightening tronics and automobiles, the agro-food sys- rests on principals from ANT and devastating statistics tem is a different kind of provisioning system that allow them to articulate * cited in the introduction sec- because its "organic"or biological dimension both the cooperative and the tion, all changes that have affects both consumption and production. far-reaching TNCs as net- recently taken place as a The 13 articles and six commentaries that works, not systems. result of the ways in which comprise this book, initially part of a work- NetNvorks are unstable order- late capitalism is affecting our shop at the University of California at ings of people, machines, and codes that are world. Among the 800 million people who Berkeley campus, tease out key issues and collective, hybrid, situated, and partial. What suffer from hunger, 500 million are chroni- additional arguments that need to be makes Oxfam's and its allied cooperatives' cally malnourished, including more than addressed. Critiques of the industrial restruc- model for doing business different from that of one-third of the children. Not surprisingly, turing literature and Fordist/post-Fordist a typical corporation is its emphasis on hunger goes hand in hand with poverty A debates are combined with poststructuralist alliance, responsibility, and connectivity-an recent International Labour Office report perspectives, actor-network theory (ANT), idea that it shares with the world. Printed on claims that adult unemployment or under- and a desire to bring to the fore the material the packaging of Cafedirect coffee is an expla- employment exceeded a billion in 1995, an and discursive struggles for alternative ways nation of a fair trade product: "More of the increase of 180 million over the previous of social organization. The books arguments money you pay for Cafedirect coffee goes year and a level that has not been seen since draw on wide-ranging ideas across the theo- directly to the small-scale coffee farmers in the Great Depression of the 1930s. Evidence retical landscape. Economic sociology, indus- Latin America and Africa. Fair trade means cof- of rising inequality and polarization between trial geography, and cultural studies are all fee growing communities can afford to invest rich and poor countries over the past 15 represented. The questions raised by Karl in health care, education and agriculture." years is punctuated by the fact that the assets Kautsky's classic text, The Agrarian Question, of the world's 358 billionaires exceeded the which considered the politics and political Labor Discipline combined annual incomes of countries with economy of agrarian transitions to capitalism, A historical geographic perspective helps 45 percent of the world's population. Sharad Chari make his case in "Agrarian This book is proof that agro-food studies Sylvia Sensiper is a writer, video producer and Questions in the Making of the Knitwear theorists can intellectually wrestle with the photographer in Cambridge, Massachusetts. Industry in Tirupur, India." In less than a beasts aroused by fin-de-siecle capitalism. But She has a Ph.D. in Public Policy and Social decade, this small boomtown has captured our real and substantive efforts to stave off the Research and is associated with the Harvard approximately 85 percent of the Indian cot- hunger and poverty created by this new eco- Business School. ton knitLvear industry and by 1994 had nomic system remain classically deficient. EI 30 URBAN AGE Winter 1998 URBAN CALENDAR CONFERENCES Tel: 519-473-7651; fax: 519-471-9945; management. Contact: Angela Walters. graduate diploma in Urban e-mail: cubberlyQonl nk.net The Judge Institute of Management Management for middle managers Singapore March 4-6, 1998. Studies.Trumpington Street, and professionals. From introductory International Conference on Quality Los Angeles, California-June 22- Cambridge CB2 IAG, UKTel: 12-2- and contextual materia through of Life in Cities. Contact: Conference July 3, 1998. 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Contact: Professor Lyndsay e-mail: bemgen9İabeml.nusstfnus.sg; Contact: Anna Sai, Institute for Plann ng range of activites to strengthen the Neilson, Centre for Developing Web site: http://www.bem.nus.sg/ and Development Practitioners, School economic base of communities and Cities, University of Canberra, PO hnm/gol.htm of Urban Plann ng and Development, ncludes the concepts and political skil s Box , Belconnen ACT 26 6, 351 Von KeinSmid Center Universty essential to economic development, Austra aTel: 61-6-06-20 -2633; fax: Washington, D.C.-March 4-5, of Southern California, Los Angeles, policy mechanisms, and the programs 61-6-06-201-5034; e-ma 1: 1 998.Technology-Led Economic CA 90089-0042, USA.Te: 213-743- and tools needed to formulate develop- Irnrdesign.canberra.edu.au Development.Technology companies 2332; fax: 2 3-743-2476. ment strategies. Contact: National help cities create jobs and foster Council for Urban Economic Lund, Sweden-The Swedish growth.The traditional means that Cambridge, Massachusetts-July Development 1730 K Street, NW, Suite Internationa Development city governments use to help bus - 6-19, 1998, Partnerships and Financing 700,Wash ngton, DC 20006, USA.Tel: Cooperation Agency, in cooperation nesses grow may not be sufficient for Strategies for Local Development.The 202-223-4735: fax: 202-223-4745. with the Lund Centre for Hab tat these types of enterprses.They need Harvard University Graduate School Studies, will offer two advanced train- new commercialization techn ques, of Design InternationalTraining Amsterdam,The Netherlands ing programs, March 2-April 24, 1998. technology transfer opportunities, Program covers strategic planning and Through November 1998, the Arch tecture and Development con- telecommunicat ons infrastructures, local development, private sector par- Averroes Foundation and UNESCO siders the professional role of archi- and an understanding of how to ticipation in infrastructure and urban presents three workshops on tects and planners in design and finance the development of their services, and public-private partner- Creating Better Cities with Children: implementation of housing and other products and services. Contact: ships for urban regeneration and Developing Strategies for Change.The bu Iding projects. International Nat onal Counc I for Urban community-based deve opment. series is des gned to introduce advo- Construct on Management deals vvith Economic Development, 1730 K Contact: Harvard Universty Graduate cates for chi dren's interests to the roles of civil engineers and plan- Street, NW, Suite 700,Wash ngton, School of Design, Unit for Housing processes for imp ementing principles ners in p anning, financing, and imple- DC 20006, USA.Tel: 202-223-4735: and Urbanization, 48 Quincy Street, of Agenda 21 and the Habitat Agenda menting bu Id ng and civ I works pro- fax: 202-223-4745. Cambr dge, MA 02138, USA; Fax: for engaging the energy and creativity jects. Contact: Lund Centre for 617-495-9347; e-mail: uhuWgsd.har- of children and youth in deve oping Habitat Studies, Box 1 8, S-22100, Nairobi, Kenya March 17-20, vard.edu:Web s te: http://www.gsd. more livable cites. Contact: Joyce Lund, Sweden. Fax: 46-46-222-4545; 1998. Supporting Growing Businesses harvard.edu/uhu Cordus,Averroes Foundation, e-mail: adicİlchs.1th,se;Web site: in Africa. Al ows de egates from gov- Linnaeushof 6,1098 KH Amsterdam, http://www.lchs.lth.se ernment, bus ness, and academia to Sydney,Australia-July 14- 18, The Netherlands.Tel: 31-20-592-9639; reflect on two and a half decades of 1998. International P ann ng H story fax: 3 -20-592-9677; e-mail: aver- Rotterdam,The Netherlands- enterprise development work and to Conference, "Taking Stock: the roesWeuronet.nl;Web site: The Institute for Housing and Urban chart a new course for the future. Twentieth Century Planning http://wvw.euronet.nl/averroes/ Development is conducting the fol- Contact: KIM/NBS Conference Office, Experience." Evaluations of issues sur- lowing three-month courses in 1998: Kenya Institute of Management, PO rounding urban and regiona planning, University of Leuven, Belgium- Urban Poverty Strategies to Reduce Box 43706, Nairobi, Kenya.Tel: 254- inc uding environmental management, The universty is offerng a master's Urban Poverty at the Loca Level, 233-7406; fax: 254-233-3255; e-mail: cultural heritage, pol cy analysis, space degree in Architecture in Human January 7-April 8; Municipal Kirmgt@lForm-net.com and place, urban change, planning Settlements.The one-year program, Environmental Policies and the education, and p anning theory taught in English, will focus on issues of Preparation of Local Agendas, January Victoria, British Columbia June Contact: Dr Robert Freestone, faculty housing, architecture, and urban plan- 7-April 8: Housing Po icy and Finance, 1 6.-17, 1998, Libraries as Leaders in of the Built Environment, University of ning in a context of development January 7-Apri 8: Urban Community Economic Development. New South Wales, Sydney NSW under scarce resources and pressing Environmental Planning and International representatives wi I 2052, Austra ia.Tel: 61-29-385-4531; environmental constraints. Contact: Post Management, Apr I 22-July 25; Housing address the state of libraries in an fax: 61-29-385-4531: e-mail: Graduate Centre Human Settlements, Delivery and Project Management, increasingy prvate environment, and R.Freestoneİunsw.edu.au: Department of Arch tecture, Urban April 22-July 25: Urban Environment the transmission and delivery of infor- Web site: http://www.arch.unsw. and Regional Planning, Faculty of Planning and Management, September mation. Access to know edge s essen- edu.au/notices/planhistl Applied Science, K.U. Leuven, Kasteel 2-December 2; Land Management in tial in modern societies, and I braries Arenberg. B-3100 Leuven (Haver ee). Cities, September 2-December 2. must be capable of repositioning Cambridge, England-July 15-17. Belg um.Tel: 32-16-321-1 371, Contact: Institute for Housing and themse ves to meet new challenges. Performance Measurement:Theory Urban Development Studies, PO Box Contact: Stan Skrzeszewski, ASM and Practice. Interd sciplinary discus- University of Canberra A 12- 1935,3000 BX Rotterdam,The Advanced Strategic Management sion of performance measurement n month urban management program Netherlands.Tel: 3 1-10-402-1544; fax: Consultants, 411 Rippleton Place, business strategy, accounting, govern- in the Centre for Deve oping Cities, 31-10-404-5671 :Web site: London. Ontario, Canada N6G I L4; ment programs, and human resources offering a master's degree and a http://www.ihs.nl I Winter 1998 URBAN AGE 31 The Urban Partnership The World Bank, in association with several partners, launched the Urban Partnership in late 1997 Its aim-to facilitate an analytical and cross-sectional focus on urban development that views the city as a unit of analysis rather than an agglomeration of sectors The Urban Partnership will make available to city and national officials the resources and tal- ents of bilateral organizations, NGOs, academics, corporations, foundations, and individuals The premise is that analysis of a successful city should not be one-dimensional, but must include all the elements of livability, productivity, competitiveness and gover- nance Cities must also be financially viable and governed well if they are to sustain social and economic growth The focus of the Urban Partnership is to provide the mechanisms, analytical rigor, and access to knowledge needed by mayors and their communities to assist them in identifying their own strategic directions and priorities, and providing them with the tools to achieve their goals Through the Urban Partnership, mayors and their communities will have access to carefully selected teams of experts >' EE who will work with them to develop strategic frame- works and to chart pathways * for long-term growth l - - Urban Age, published under the auspices of the Urban Partnership, is the world's largest magazine about cities and sustainable urban development Successful With a circulation of 36,000, an expanded format, and c s u editions in English, Spanish, Arabic, French, and Cities Russian, Urban Agewill continue to highlight the grow- ing debate in urban affairs and showcase the new thinking that is emerging in the world's urban centers For more information about the Urban Partnership, contact John Flora, Partnership Manager Tim Campbell, Principal Urban Sector Specialist Margaret Bergen, Editor, Urban Age Tel 202-473-8866 Tel 202-473-7829 Tel 202-458-5071 Fax 202-522-3223 Fax 202-522-3223 Fax 202-522-3223 E-mail jflora@worldbank org E-mail tcampbell@worldbank org E-mail mbergen@worldbank org Top photo by Curt Carnemark