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Canada:

$3.9M research study to explore ways to reduce gas emissions, boost food access

Not only does urban agriculture hold the key to improving access to different types of food in large urban areas, but it might also help reduce greenhouse gas emissions in the process.

"Urban areas have so much food-growing potential, but our knowledge about how, where and what kind of crops can be grown in and around cities is limited," says Marney Isaac, a professor in the Department of Physical and Environmental Sciences and the Department of Global Development Studies at U of T Scarborough. "We know even less about how well urban agriculture can capture and store carbon dioxide, a greenhouse gas that is a major contributor to climate change."

To help answer these questions, Isaac will lead a multifaceted project with a team of researchers and partners from the private and public sector thanks to a $3.9-million grant from the NSERC- and SSHRC-funded Sustainable Agriculture Research Initiative.

The researchers want to explore how sustainable agricultural practices – those that require less intensive use of fertilizers, pesticides and irrigation – in urban areas can help reduce GHG emissions compared to conventional agricultural systems. Isaac adds that greater urban food production might also help reduce the pressure on converting forests to farmland in rural areas, a major environmental concern and contributor to global GHG emissions.

Read more at University of Toronto

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