Next City Event: Feeding Cities: Food Security in a Rapidly Urbanizing World

Penn’s Institute for Urban Research (Penn IUR), in collaboration with the University of Pennsylvania Schools of Arts & Sciences, Design, Education, Law, Medicine, Nursing, Social Policy, Veterinary Medicine and Wharton, is pleased to present “Food Security in a Rapidly Urbanizing World,” the first international conference to examine the critical link between urbanization and global food security. The nexus between food security and urbanization touches on one of the most fundamental challenges facing modern society—how to provide an affordable, sustainable and nutritious diet to the world’s burgeoning population of city dwellers.

With some 6 billion people projected to inhabit urban areas by 2050, this task is not only urgent, but also immensely complex. It will require coordinated management of the myriad agricultural, ecological, social, economic, and land use systems that underlie global food production, distribution, consumption, and nutrition. To ensure an accurate portrayal of the complexity of this global challenge, Penn IUR is collaborating closely with seven schools from across the University of Pennsylvania.