American Farmland Trust has received a grant to research the feasiblity of San Fransisco feeding itself. This is a very progressive thought, and something that may be a need to be a reality for cities across the world as population grows and farm land continues to shrink.

In North America we can too easily take food for granted. Urban Agriculture is growing and it will continue to be an important innovation as peak oil becomes a crisis. I predict that 20 years from now less traveled food will not longer be a trendy alternative, it will be a necessesity.

Like other American cities, San Francisco residents rely on distant sources of food that travel an average of 1,500 miles to get to their tables. But the city is surrounded by unique agricultural lands, with a mild Mediterranean climate capable of producing nearly every kind of food enjoyed in the Bay Area. American Farmland Trust’s San Francisco Foodshed Study is looking into whether San Francisco residents could feed themselves exclusively from sustainable farms located within 100 miles of the Golden Gate Bridge. The project will result in a strategy to maximize the potential for the city to feed itself locally, while protecting the farmland critical to the San Francisco foodshed.

:: For more information see the AFT Project Website.