Feeding Leeds: A fair and self-sustaining food system for the city

Feeding Leeds: A fair and self-sustaining food system for the city A bold vision for feeding the population of Leeds would transform the city into a far more food secure, fair and sustainable place to live. Analysts from the University of Leeds’ Global Food and Environment Institute studied the city’s food system to assess its resilience in the face of supply chain and delivery disruptions caused by severe weather, climate change and events such as the COVID-19 pandemic and Brexit. The urban food system includes all the activities involved in the production, distribution and consumption of food within a city. They mapped and analysed publicly available data relating to agricultural production and human health in the metropolitan district and discovered that 48.4% of the city’s total calorific demand can be met by current commercial food production activities. This is relatively high for such an urbanised space, but there is little diversity in what is being produced. Three cereal crops (wheat, barley, oats) dominate the Leeds production system, reflecting a post-war food system that focused on energy supply. This means that most of the fruits and vegetables consumed in the city are transported in from elsewhere.