Metropolitan Foodscape Planner London City-Region
Within the urban core (periphery) and the green buffer we calculated a potential of about 100,000 ha for ecological forms of dairy farming on grassland. For the 8.6 million inhabitants of London’s urban core, the metropolitan food production zone for crops used to provide plant-based food will follow upon the green buffer, between 38 km and 61 km from the city centre, providing a total of about 320,000 ha of arable land. The metropolitan food ring required to provide feedstuff and facilities for livestock farming will need to span between 61 and 86 km distance from the centre, covering a total of 850,000 hectares, thus almost three times the areas of the plant-based food ring. Like in case of Rotterdam, the city's location in close proximity to the North Sea means, that the rings required for feeding the city of London need to be larger, because a great percentage is not available for food production because it is covered by sea water.
Figure below shows that the available crop rotation contingent (potatoes-sugar beet-wheat) is exceeding the actual demand by a factor of three. Rotation crops dominate the regions north-east, east and south-east of London (from Kent up to Leicestershire). Grasslands are well represented in the south-west and west of London (from Sussex up to Northamptonshire) with a surplus of about 100,000 ha based on the actual consumption needs of the London population. Other surplus crops are non-wheat cereals and oilseed plants. Food crops are notoriously under-represented, point at the need for substantial feedstuff imports for livestock farming. In the overall London metropolitan region (according to OECD), more than 15 million people are living, requiring a transition zone for both plant- and animal-based food crops until a distance of 124 km from its urban centre (1.2 million hectares for food production).
