THE ENVIRONMENT FOR URBAN AGRICULTURE

One of the most effective ways of assessing the environmental impact of a particular process or product is
to find out how much non-renewable energy is required to produce it; this quantity of energy is referred to as embodied energy.

The consumption of embodied energy results in the emission of greenhouse gases, which contribute to global warming and climate change.
So embodied energy can be thought of as a shorthand for assessing the climate change potential of a process.
Another important reason for finding out how much energy different processes and products use is to judge how equitably the world’s resources are distributed. In 1985 the per capita carbon dioxide emissions for someone living in Africa was 0.79 tonnes per annum while the corresponding figure for someone living in the USA or Canada was 19.21 tonnes per annum (Shorrock and Henderson, 1989).
The challenge lies in reconciling the need for reducing emissions of greenhouse gases and the imbalance in access to energy between developed and developing regions.
Most people would prefer this imbalance to be evened out by a general improvement in the living standards of those with the least access to resources. A variety of mechanisms can achieve this end, all requiring access to energy, and if you think, as we do, that conventional nuclear power is not an attractive and safe
longterm solution, then the only option is to use renewable energy and reduce the amount of energy required
for processing goods and activities.
The need to reduce embodied energy applies as much to food production as to the energy efficient operation
of buildings and other activities.


CONTINUOUS PRODUCTIVE URBAN LANDSCAPES:
DESIGNING URBAN AGRICULTURE FOR
SUSTAINABLE CITIES

SAN DIEGO
André Viljoen
Katrin Bohn
Joe Howe