Abstract
Urbanization has become a global phenomenon that affects the food system. Some studies revealed that urbanization increases income/capita, thus transforming food consumption from cereals to animal products, vegetables, and fruits. Urbanization, particularly in developing countries, not only produces economic benefits but also various issues that might lessen peoples’ capacity to afford food. This study aims to analyze the impact of urbanization on food consumption, food composition, as well as farming performance. Series of consumption data since 1976 and statistical descriptive approaches were employed. The results showed a trend of declining the share of food expenditures, especially in urban areas, which is commonly regarded as a sign of increasing prosperity. Surprisingly, food composition remained stable, dominated by rice, due to lower-income and higher non-food expenditures of urban inhabitants mainly for housing, transportation, water and energy. The stagnancy of food composition provides less incentive for farmers; thus, farming is dominated by low-revenue paddy fields, uneducated laborers, and older farmers. Based on these findings, some recommendations can be suggested: (1) incorporating food composition and farming performance into food security policies, instead of merely focusing on the compliance of food supply and demand, (2) linking food issues with non-food issues, especially with urban planning, housing development, and transportation management to increase the income capacity of the society to purchase a greater variety of food, and (3) developing food diversification served by urban food vendors to support the benefits of the farming business.
Highlights
The relationship between urbanization and the food system has become an important issue as a global society is becoming more urban, and this change alters the food supply and demand [1,2,3,4]
Urbanization has a strong correlation with an increase in the gross domestic product (GDP) per capita [54,55], and this is found in Indonesia (Figure 1)
Urbanization refers to the number of populations who live in urban regions defined by BPS based on criteria of high population density, non-agriculture economic-based, and urban-standard facilities
Summary
The relationship between urbanization and the food system has become an important issue as a global society is becoming more urban, and this change alters the food supply and demand [1,2,3,4]. Numerous studies have stated that urbanization has pushed economic growth and income per capita, enhancing people’s capacity to access food [5,6,7]. People’s consumption of processed and preserved food tends to increase in parallel with increasing eating-out behavior [2,6]. Growing urban populations might stimulate an increased demand for food, which is beneficial for farmers [2]. The change in urban diets has provided opportunities for farmers to diversify and develop their products [1,11]. Increasing rural-to-urban migration is believed to increase rural income [1,12] and farming efficiency as the ratio of farmers to farmland is declining [13]
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