City farming becomes increasingly popular.  In cities like Toronto, Rotterdam (the Netherlands) and Los Angeles projects have started to promote farming by local communities. Driven by the economic crisis and sustainability city farming spreads. But to what extend? And is it here to stay?

See trailers about the Garden Trailer Project in LA:

Article on city farming in Rotterdam (Dutch):

http://www.volkskrant.nl/vk/nl/2844/Archief/archief/article/detail/3263453/2012/05/31/Serieus-boeren-kan-ook-in-de-stad.dhtml

The US Department of Agriculture’s Foreign Agricultural Service identifies eight key factors that will dominate global agriculture through 2020.

1 ) The rise of the middle class

2 ) The seemingly inevitable fall in the US dollar

3 ) Biofuel demand

4 ) Trade liberalization

5 ) Policy errors

6 ) The USDA cites high input and energy price

7 ) The increasing role of biotechnology

8 ) The increase in production area

Read more: Asia Sentinel

Sustainable development cannot be realized unless hunger and malnutrition are eradicated, FAO said in a policy document prepared for the Rio+20 Summit to be held in June in Rio de Janeiro.

“We cannot call development sustainable while this situation persists, while nearly one out of every seven men, women and children are left behind, victims of undernourishment,” said FAO Director-General José Graziano da Silva.

“The quest for food security can be the common thread that links the different challenges we face and helps build a sustainable future. At the Rio Summit we have the golden opportunity to explore the convergence between the agendas of food security and sustainability to ensure that happens,” he added.

One of the great flaws in current food systems is that despite significant progress in development and food production hundreds of millions of people are hungry because they lack the means to produce or purchase the food they need for a healthy and productive life, according to FAO’s report.

Read more: http://www.fao.org/news/story/en/item/146179/icode/

See report:  Towards the future we want 

Anglo-Dutch food giant Unilever has announced it will phase out the use of factory-farmed chicken in its products.

In Dutch, factory-farmed chickens are commonly known as plofkip - blown-up chicken – because they are bred and drugged to grow so large so fast that they are ready for slaughter in just 42 days. Their organs and legs cannot keep up with their accelerated rate of growth, so heart attacks, organ failure and leg deformities are common.

Unilever informed animal rights organisation Wakker Dier that it plans to start phasing out the use of factory-farmed animals in the first quarter of next year, beginning with its chicken hot dogs and later following with its soups and other food products.

Unilever has told Wakker Dier that the industrially farmed chicken will be replaced with chicken which qualifies for at least one star in the Dutch ‘better life’ meat production rankings. One-star chickens are not bred as quickly and have access to a covered outdoor area.

Source: Radio Netherlands Worldwide