How big is the farm? trailing the externalities and internalities of industrialised farming and urban agriculture

This chapter compares the externalities and internalities of industrial farming and urban agriculture. Contemporary farming practices are contingent on global processes, supply chains and labour. By following and interrogating the example of modern broiler farming, the chapter highlights the exploitation of natural resources and ecosystems upstream and downstream from the poultry house, evidencing wide-ranging negative externalities and few positive internalities. The long- and short-term effects are often obscured from the consumer, processor, or farmer, as they often take place in distant landscapes and the effects are never truly reflected in product prices. The purpose of this approach is to ask what one considers the size of the farm to be. Is it simply the spatial territory in which we grow food, or does it require a broader definition that considers social, cultural and environmental impacts on third-parties or on society at large? In contrast, urban agriculture is an enabling agent that measures its success on being socially and culturally effective, rather than deducing the problem to economic and resource efficiency. Urban agriculture offers new opportunities for education, health and wellbeing that enhance long-term prosperity and fosters meaningful relationships with food. The paper argues that the emergence and uptake of urban agriculture will rely on how we measure the effect of food and what we consider a true cost or benefit to be.