Food and the City

November 7, 2011
With this incisive study of the urban farming movement, Canadian food writer Cockrall-King identifies weak links in complex global food chains supplying supersized retailers (e.g., narrowing biodiversity, just-in-time delivery, “global summertime” mentality) that, she says, will result in urban food deserts in the face of natural disasters, terrorism, contamination scares, lack of fuel, and inflation. Despite the appearance of unlimited, cheap food, Cockrall-King contends, the era of low prices has peaked as food products are diverted to agro and biofuel production, and Third World suppliers grapple with ecological devastation. In case studies of urban farmers and beekeepers stretching from London and Paris to Canada and the U.S., she reports on the growth of green markets and gardens and vineyards on rooftops, by roadsides, and in abandoned lots and community plots. Of particular note is her chapter on Cuba, which became a food desert in the 1990s after it lost financial backing from the U.S.S.R. and is now a model for urban agriculture. Despite her dire predictions for health and food security, Cockrall-King provides ample proof of city dwellers who have taken steps toward self-sufficiency by growing their food close to home.

February 1, 2012

In 2008, the United Nations announced that for the first time in human history the majority of people in the world lived in cities. Today, many government leaders are grappling with the issue of food security for urban populations. In this book, Canadian freelance food journalist Cockrall-King focuses on urban agriculture as a constructive alternative to industrialized agriculture and the globalized food industry. She visits some of the movement's pioneers in cities like Paris, Toronto, Detroit, and Havana. While Cockrall-King does an admirable job of introducing us to some of the major players in urban agriculture today, her attempts to vilify industrialized agriculture come across as biased and shrill. She does best simply documenting the trend toward urban agriculture, rather than analyzing its political roots and implications. VERDICT Full of inspirational stories about people and places on the cutting edge of urban agriculture, this book will motivate you to plant tomatoes on your balcony. For a more personal take on the trend, check out Novella Carpenter's memoir, Farm City: The Education of an Urban Farmer.--Kelsy Peterson, Prairie Village, KS

Copyright 2012 Library Journal, LLC Used with permission.

February 15, 2012
You don't have to go back to the land, you're already there. Motivated to learn more about the seemingly overnight interest in urban food production, Cockrall-King, a Canadian journalist, set off on a worldwide tour, and her informed impressions make up this fascinating snapshot of the contemporary urban-agriculture movement. From urban vineyards in London to beehives that crown Paris' national opera house (and produce the world's most expensive honey) to the world's first operational vertical farm (in a repurposed Chicago factory), the projects are both refreshingly grassroots and astonishingly innovative. Succinct overviews of the industrial food complex and the rise of urban agriculture provide ample context and include sobering statistics, as well as spot-on quotes from both international leaders and neighborhood farmers: This is just the tip of the iceberg lettuce, a Canadian activist warns. Readers may not agree with all of the author's strongly stated and sometimes loosely organized views, but this illuminating title should be essential reading for anyone interested in food safety, urban sustainability, and how to eat closer to home.(Reprinted with permission of Booklist, copyright 2012, American Library Association.)