Urban Agriculture and Urban Design

摘要

Over the past two centuries, significant advances have been made in understanding the human nutritional needs and the diet with concomitant health improvements. Similarly, we have also tackled a wide range of infectious diseases allowing many of us tolive longer and better than our ancestors did. This has been largely possible because of the scientific and technological advances made in 19th and 20th centuries and their parallel economic development, which started in the West, but is spreading rapidly in Brazil, Russia, India, China (popularly known as the BRIC countries) and other less developed nations. The social dimensions of economic and behavioral changes which have followed, however, are impacting negatively, particularly on the lives of urban dwellers, who are experiencing a rise in cancer, heart disease and diabetes rates. Chronic health problems cause over 70% of all deaths and are at the root of 75% of healthcare costs in the province of Quebec, Canada. Worldwide, health expenditures are now increasing at a faster pace in the developing world in comparison to industrialized countries [1].