Urban agriculture includes the production, distribution, and marketing of food and other products within the centers of metropolitan areas. Examples include community, school, backyard and rooftop gardens with a purpose beyond home consumption and education, urban gardens, innovative food production methods that maximize production in a small area, community-supported agriculture based in areas urban and family farms located in metropolitan green belts. According to Dickinson Despommier, professor emeritus of Columbia University, states that half of the world's population resides in cities. By his estimates, the land needed to feed those people would be half the size of South America. The amount of land accumulated to feed the entire world would be the size of South America (10%) and it would only be farmland. About 17-23% of the land used is for livestock, which is equivalent to the size of Africa. The world's population is expected to reach 9 billion in the next 40 years, which means we will have to use more land. Unfortunately, more than 50% of the earth's land is uninhabitable and about 3% has been developed into urban areas. Eventually we will encounter food and land problems that will require multiple streams of support solutions. Urban agriculture would be a great partner in increasing population and decreasing land. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Urban farming, also known as urban gardening or urban farming, is often confused with community gardening, homesteading, or subsistence farming. (Greensgrow, 1) Urban agriculture is generally chosen to produce products for sale rather than growing them for personal consumption or sharing. An integral part of urban agriculture is the ability to start and operate a farm on a tract of land and produce sustainable quantities of food. The food can be sold at farmers' markets or restaurants or can be donated to local soup kitchens or churches. In Chicago there is an agricultural organization, City Farm, run by Ken Dunn, which implements urban farming on vacant lots. With Ken's system, they seal the lots first in an attempt to avoid all the contaminated soil previously polluted by the industrial city. City Farm collects food waste from local restaurants and stores compost in the ground to produce richer crops. Reusing food waste could offer many benefits, such as reducing gas emissions into the atmosphere, not contributing to crowded landfills, and protecting your wallet by saving money on waste collection costs. City Farm is the perfect example of an organization trying to bring food waste back. local food system that the United States has forgotten about. Nowadays, food production is big business that could have big impacts if localized. By using urban agriculture, people are able to find work on local farms and produce fresh food for the community, while larger food companies will take days to deliver food that won't be as fresh. 90% of commercial farms in the United States produce “staple” crops that are converted into processed foods. First, these processed foods lack adequate nutrition needed to avoid obesity, where ⅓ of adults and 17% of children in the United States suffer from obesity. Second, the increase in urban agriculture means the decrease.