Can urban farms feed the world?

From underground car parks to hi-tech hydroponics, the future of food does not have to be rural

-  David Farrier

In 1982, artist Agnes Denes planted almost a hectare of wheat on waste ground in New York's Battery Park, near the World Trade Center. The twin towers soared over a golden field, as if dropped into Andrew Wyeth's bucolic painting Christina's World. Denes's Wheatfield: A Confrontation was a challenge to what she called a "powerful paradox": the absurdity of hunger in a wealthy world.

The global population in 1982 was 4.6 billion.

By 2050, it will be more than double that, and the prospect of feeding everyone looks uncertain.

Food insecurity already affects 2.3 billion people.

Covid-19 and extreme weather have revealed the fragility of the food system. Denes was called a prophet for drawing attention to ecological breakdown decades before widespread public awareness. But perhaps she was prophetic, too, in foreseeing how we would feed ourselves. By 2050, more than two-thirds of us will live in cities.