38
B. Anindya and K. N. Sekhar
to produce bulk of its basic requirements utilising the local resource base. Schumacher through his pivotal publication ‘Small Is Beautiful’ [47] advocated for shortening of long-distance distribution lines; he devised the term ‘Buddhist Economics’
where transportation is regarded as necessary evil which needs to be reduced through
increased local production. Apart from ecological concerns, the rising energy prices
have forced the planners to reduce the movements of materials and concentrate more
on local self-reliance.
2.3.6 Continuing Metropolitan Mayhem
Long back in 1875, Benjamin Ward Richardson in his presidential address entitled,
‘Hygeia: The City of Health’ to the Health Department of the Social Science Association at Brighton projected an idea of ‘Utopian City’ [45] in the line of Greek,
Roman thinkers where public health would be the primary design consideration. But
even in modern times, this idea still remains ignored and regarded as utopian.
Undoubtedly COVID-19 is a global phenomenon but case incidences have been
much higher in the urban areas having dense population. There have been efforts
to ‘decongest’ the cities by following policies of decentralisation of industries and
service sectors but not much has been achieved, the demographic dividend has over
the years become a burden on the cities. The cities which have been badly hit are—
New York, USA; Sao Paolo, Brazil; Moscow, Russia; London, UK; Madrid, Spain;
besides many others. All these are bustling cities with robust economic activities
and high population density. Similar situation has been mirrored for India. Cabinet
Secretary, Government of India pointed out that 13 cities accounted for 70% of the
total COVID-19 cases in the country [52] with metropolitan clusters like Mumbai,
Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata unceremoniously leading the pack accounting for nearly
half of the nationwide COVID-19 tally [44].
2.4 Urban Pantry: A Saga of Neglect
A healthy city is one that is self-reliant through holistic planning with engaged
citizenry emphasising efficient localism. Though the ecology of the cities is deeply
influenced by urban agriculture, the discussions about that have not been included
with due importance in the urban planning discourse. This lacuna was first pointed
out by Pothukuchi and Kaufman [43] and they conducted a survey on 22 US city
planning agencies to establish the issue. In 2007, for the first time, American Planning
Association formulated a Policy Guide on Community and Regional Food Planning
[3]. Food planning, after a period of ignorance, has now earned a place in the planning
agenda of many developed and developing countries. Grewal et al. [26] analysed three
separate hypothetical situations for the city of Cleveland, in terms of implementation
of urban agriculture, which suffered from lack of access to locally produced healthy
B. Anindya and K. N. Sekhar
to produce bulk of its basic requirements utilising the local resource base. Schumacher through his pivotal publication ‘Small Is Beautiful’ [47] advocated for shortening of long-distance distribution lines; he devised the term ‘Buddhist Economics’
where transportation is regarded as necessary evil which needs to be reduced through
increased local production. Apart from ecological concerns, the rising energy prices
have forced the planners to reduce the movements of materials and concentrate more
on local self-reliance.
2.3.6 Continuing Metropolitan Mayhem
Long back in 1875, Benjamin Ward Richardson in his presidential address entitled,
‘Hygeia: The City of Health’ to the Health Department of the Social Science Association at Brighton projected an idea of ‘Utopian City’ [45] in the line of Greek,
Roman thinkers where public health would be the primary design consideration. But
even in modern times, this idea still remains ignored and regarded as utopian.
Undoubtedly COVID-19 is a global phenomenon but case incidences have been
much higher in the urban areas having dense population. There have been efforts
to ‘decongest’ the cities by following policies of decentralisation of industries and
service sectors but not much has been achieved, the demographic dividend has over
the years become a burden on the cities. The cities which have been badly hit are—
New York, USA; Sao Paolo, Brazil; Moscow, Russia; London, UK; Madrid, Spain;
besides many others. All these are bustling cities with robust economic activities
and high population density. Similar situation has been mirrored for India. Cabinet
Secretary, Government of India pointed out that 13 cities accounted for 70% of the
total COVID-19 cases in the country [52] with metropolitan clusters like Mumbai,
Delhi, Chennai, Kolkata unceremoniously leading the pack accounting for nearly
half of the nationwide COVID-19 tally [44].
2.4 Urban Pantry: A Saga of Neglect
A healthy city is one that is self-reliant through holistic planning with engaged
citizenry emphasising efficient localism. Though the ecology of the cities is deeply
influenced by urban agriculture, the discussions about that have not been included
with due importance in the urban planning discourse. This lacuna was first pointed
out by Pothukuchi and Kaufman [43] and they conducted a survey on 22 US city
planning agencies to establish the issue. In 2007, for the first time, American Planning
Association formulated a Policy Guide on Community and Regional Food Planning
[3]. Food planning, after a period of ignorance, has now earned a place in the planning
agenda of many developed and developing countries. Grewal et al. [26] analysed three
separate hypothetical situations for the city of Cleveland, in terms of implementation
of urban agriculture, which suffered from lack of access to locally produced healthy