Urban vegetable gardens have formed part of the landscape of our cities for some time now. The benefits are numerous and multidirectional: they keep citizens in touch with a farming world, which they are not familiar with, and it serves to clean up disused plots of land that would otherwise simply accumulate rubbish and they generate income for city councils in the form of letting fees.That said, their role when it comes to providing food is somewhat limited, if not anecdotal. They simply constitute a hobby. But what would happen if we started treating them as a necessary tool to guarantee the resilience of cities?Experts in Europe and Asia, where these types of micro-farms are firmly established, analysed the situation from an open point of view during the Smart City Expo World Congress 2019. What role does food have in cities? What is its ecological impact? How can urban vegetable gardens go from being a hobby to offering solutions to such serious problems such as the break in the supply chain? These were some of the issues that were addressed.
Feeding a population in crisis situations: the weak link of resilience

Timid beginnings with a community aspect

Vertical farms: a possible industrial and sustainable solution to traditional farming.

