Technology-Driven Transition in Urban Food Production Practices: A Case Study of Shanghai

Abstract

The continuing decline of arable land per person and global human population growth are raising concerns about food security. Recent advances in horticultural technology (i.e., growing using light-emitting diode (LED) lighting, hydroponics, vertical farming, and controlled environments) have changed the ways in which vegetables can be produced and supplied. The emerging technology makes it possible to produce more food using fewer resources, independent of the weather and the need for land. They allow bringing agricultural practices inside urban built up spaces and making horticultural production an integrated part of the daily life of urban residents. However, the process and consequences of this technology-driven transition on urban planning and development are hardly understood. This paper uses the theory of multi-level perspective (MLP) on sustainability transitions and actor–network theory (ANT) to explore this technology-driven transition and its adoption in urban planning and development. The high-tech horticulture zone development in Shanghai was used as a case study. The results show the importance of both social (i.e., policymakers and planners) and material (i.e., technologies and policy documents) actants in the transition of the sociotechnical regime. Furthermore, the transition toward sustainable urban horticulture practices requires the simultaneous preparation of supportive and compatible spatial development, agricultural and sustainable development policies, and adequate policy implementation and evaluation tools to increase the competitive strength of innovative practices.

High-Tech Urban Agriculture in Amsterdam: An Actor Network Analysis

“…In the MLP framework, transition is the "result of two driving forces, the pressure from the sociotechnical landscape (the exogenous environment of cultural patterns and macrolevel economics and politics) and the alignment of small networks of niche innovations and actors. When both come together, so-called windows of opportunity arise for destabilizing existing sociotechnical regimes and a breakthrough of new sociotechnical regimes occurs" [8] (p. 30). ANT is applied in transition studies to analyze the agency of social and material entities and the creation of actor-networks that emerge to transform the incumbent sociotechnical systems [19,20].…”

“…Immutable mobile refers to those properties of an artefact that do not change when "passing through time and space. An immutable mobile is something that can be interpreted in the same manner in different contexts, and is not context-dependent" [8] (p. 5). Guggenheim [21] introduced immutable mobiles as "highly modern objects, dependent on science to invent them, metrologies to measure and standardize them and standardized production lines to bring them into being" [21] (p. 69).…”

“…HTUA practices are urban food production initiatives that apply advanced horticultural technologies such as soilless cultivation systems (e.g., hydroponics, aeroponics), controlled environment system and horticultural light emitting diode (LED) lighting to adjust the indoor environment for growth of plants and to make growing food vertically inside built-up spaces feasible. HTUA practices are intensive vegetable and herb production practices that include cultivation, harvest and post-harvest processes [8]. Besides the social and environmental benefits of local food production in cities (e.g., education, awareness about the source of food and less transportation and post-harvest processes), HTUA practices are highly water and land efficient.…”

“…The emerging agricultural technologies are creating new business environments that are shaped by technology developers (e.g., suppliers of horticultural light emitting diodes (LED) and control environment systems) and developers of alternative food production practices (e.g., HTUA start-ups). However, research shows that the uptake of these technological innovations in urban planning processes is problematic and needs further research [8,16,17]. Therefore, this paper analyzes the barriers that local government planners and HTUA developers are facing in the embedding of HTUA in urban planning processes, using the city of Amsterdam as a case study.…”

Towards sustainable performance of urban horticulture: ten challenging fields of action for modern integrated pest management in cities

“…This can dramatically change the spectrum of plants cultivated in or around cities. Already nowadays, there are examples, which show a new “sociotechnical landscape” (Hosseinifarhangi et al 2019 ) based on glasshouse production in cities.…”