Urban, Peri-Urban & Controlled-Environment Systems

Food no longer has to be grown far from where it is eaten. On rooftops, in vacant lots, inside stacked vertical farms, and in greenhouses on the edges of expanding cities, agriculture is moving into and around the urban world. As populations concentrate in cities and supply chains stretch thin, growing food closer to consumers — and growing it in tightly managed environments — is reshaping ideas about where and how farming can happen. Urban, Peri-Urban & Controlled-Environment Systems is the session exploring this rapidly evolving frontier.

These systems trade open land for control. A vertical farm or greenhouse can dial in light, temperature, humidity, and nutrients with precision impossible in a field, producing consistent crops year-round in a small footprint — but at the cost of energy, capital, and technical demand. Peri-urban farms on city fringes occupy a middle ground, supplying nearby markets under intense land pressure. Across urban farming and controlled-environment agriculture, the central questions are about resource efficiency, economic viability, and the role these systems can realistically play in feeding cities sustainably.

This session convenes urban agriculture practitioners, controlled-environment specialists, and city-food researchers to weigh both potential and limits. The programme covers urban and rooftop growing, peri-urban production systems, vertical farming and hydroponics, greenhouse and protected cultivation, and the resource, energy, and economic dimensions that determine success. Contributors to this Agriculture Conference will examine where these approaches genuinely add value — fresh local produce, short supply chains, year-round growing — and where energy costs or economics constrain them, charting how urban and controlled systems can complement, rather than replace, conventional agriculture.