On Wednesday 24th of June we organized our first online breakfast seminar through Zoom. The topic of the seminar was anthropogenic pollutants as limiting factor for urban agriculture strategies and it was held by professor Roland Kallenborn from the Faculty of Chemistry, Biotechnology and Food Science (KBM).
Kallenborn started talking about the context of urban agriculture and the challenges of the development of agriculture and urban development. He went on to go deeper into the spesifics of anthropogenic pollutants that can be a limiting factor for urban agriculture. Urban soil is circulated for centuries and high pollution levels are documented for organic and organic pollutants in urban soils. Therefore utilisation of un-controlled urban soil as substrate for UA is questionable and no legislation of pollutant control in urban agriculture for commercial production is in place. Numerous siginifcant direct and diffusive pollution sources identified in an urban environment: vehicle traffic, domestic combustion, industrial emissions, building materials, garbage, direct release in the gutter, … Through water, air and soil this pollution can be introduced to the food produced in the city. That's why it is important that as a part of sustainable strategies, urban pollution issues need to be controlled and monitored. The full presentation is available here.
Fakta
Seminar series on urban agriculture
Once a month NCUA will organize open seminars around the topic of urban agriculture. The partners of the centre, including the faculties of NMBU and external partners (such as Pådriv), will be responsible for the content and present their view on urban agriculture and how they will contribute to the centre. The seminars will be open for all. Stay posted for updates.