SMART CITIES
© Brooklyn Grange
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A s we enter a new decade , the human race finds itself faced with worldwide political turmoil , economic injustice , dizzying technological achievements , and an existential threat in the form of a spiralling climate crisis . In order to rise to and overcome these challenges , humanity is going to need to drastically reevaluate the way it caters to some of its basic needs .
The global urban population has grown rapidly , from 751mn people in 1950 to 4.2bn today . Almost 70 % of the world ’ s population is predicted to live in urban areas by 2050 , according to a report by the United Nations ( UN ) released last year . At the start of the 1800s , more than 90 % of the population ( in the US ) lived on farms and , on average , a farmer grew enough each year to feed between three and five people . Throughout the subsequent centuries , advances in agricultural technology and technique meant that farms produced more food using less labour . In 1900 , an acre of land used to grow corn only produced 18 % of the
FEBRUARY 2020