Nurturing Clever Cities: The Intersection Between Urban Agriculture and Smart Technologies

Divergent philosophies about agriculture have led to polarized camps about its future. One side focuses on progress through intensification, technology, and innovation to feed an ever-increasing population. The other stresses a step back from techno-fixes to reevaluate how and where production and distribution happen. Layered on this is the complicated relationship between urban environments and food and agriculture. Disconnects and systemic intricacies have often excluded farmers, producers, consumers, and policymakers.

This chapter briefly explains the role technology has had in bringing agriculture to where it is today (touching on both rural and urban agriculture), looks at how food production fits into cities, and explores some of the ways in which people practice urban agriculture. It investigates the benefits and drawbacks of technology in food production and distribution, the impacts of different forms of Smart City technologies and design, and where urban agriculture and forms of technology have been successfully woven together. Finally, it suggests that clever city development should identify and follow the desired lines of practitioners on the ground to best understand and support the intersection between urban food landscapes and technology tolerance and to build positive urban food system resilience.