Challenges and Perspectives for Food and Agriculture in Urbanized Societies in the 21st Century: An Introduction

The dawn of the twenty-first century brought an unprecedented situation to humanity; we became a mostly urban society with 55% of the world living in cities, a number projected to rise to 68% by 2050. This situation brings a series of challenges to society. On the one hand, cities currently retain disproportionate power in relation to rural areas in terms of political, economic and cultural influence, being the places where decisions are made and international trends are defined. On the other hand, they harbour a growing context of social inequality and poverty, consuming an expensive and increasingly unsustainable amount of natural resources and generating 70% of energy-related greenhouse gas emissions (UN, 2018). A situation that is unsustainable in both environmental and social terms.