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
More of Today's Solutions
Germany’s coal mines are now Europe’s largest lake district
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM When the last miners left the open-cast lignite pits of eastern Germany’s Lusatia region, they left behind craters ...
Read MoreThe sensory superpower that lets seals hunt in total darkness
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM When a fish moves through water, it doesn’t simply pass through and vanish. It leaves a trail of ...
Read MoreAI helps restore Rembrandt masterpiece that was disfigured 300 years ago
In 1715, three-quarters of a century after Rembrandt painted it, The Night Watch was greatly disfigured when it was moved from its original location ...
Read MoreA new way to stack bricks could help clean Bangladesh’s air
BY THE OPTIMIST DAILY EDITORIAL TEAM In the cool, dry winters of Bangladesh, the country’s 8,000-plus brick kilns roar to life. Coal-fed and open-air, ...
Read More
