Rethinking the Whenua Around our Cities Could Help Turn the Table on our Food Crisis

By making the fertile land surrounding our cities more sustainably productive, we can improve our food, housing and wellbeing all at the same time. As Aotearoa's population grows, food and housing are currently 'competing' with each other for land space. This sees the urban sprawl of expanding cities eating up the best whenua for food production. Instead, we could design our green spaces differently to provide both areas for local food production and new housing, shows new research from Our Land and Water-funded project Peri-Urban Potential. The research, a collaboration between Lincoln University and BECA, investigated innovative ways of making periurban whenua (semi-rural land surrounding a town or city) more productive while also benefiting locals, including Māori communities.