Using Google’s Earth Engine software, as well as population, meteorological, and other data sets, researchers determined that urban agriculture could produce as much as 180 million metric tons of food a year if fully implemented in cities around the world. This is about 10 percent of the global output of legumes, roots and tubers, and vegetable crops. The researchers recognize that this estimate is huge, but they hope to encourage other scientists, as well as urban planners and local leaders, to begin to take urban agriculture more seriously as a potential for sustainability. After all, locally-grown food requires little transportation, which helps to cut down emissions.
According to big data, the urban farming revolution is getting started
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