4 minute read
Urban Design Project
from Chuter, Tom
MA Year 2 Semester 1 Urban Design Report- Dingle
MA Year 2 Semester 1 Urban Design Report- Dingle
A key tenet of the masterplan was to increase the health and wellbeing of the area through a multi-pronged approach involving activity, social and the promotion of healthy eating.
Arguably the most considerable part of this aspect is the Urban Farm as diet has such a vital effect on an individual’s health. Dingle, like many impoverished areas across the country suffers from significantly above-average rates of preventable chronic illnesses which diminish both the expected length and quality of life.
Furthermore, a poor diet can have substantial ramifications in a developing child. A hungry or malnourished child- something increasingly common, even in this country- performs noticeably worse in school. This obviously affects outcomes later in life and so is an issue worth addressing as a social issue rather than just that of health.
The community farm would therefore work in conjunction with the Granby Toxteth Development Trust to provide fresh produce to supplement the requirements of those who require it. The costs of this would be offset by commercial production of organic crops aimed for purchase by both culinary establishments and those residents who can afford it. With poor diet now resulting in more deaths than even smoking, in the UK, it is a crucial issue in dire need of addressing. Currently, 14% of deaths in the UK can be attributed to poor diet- a proportion growing exponentially.
In addition to those who die as a result of diet afflicted causes, an even larger number of people live with chronic illnesses. It is estimated that, without drastic improvement, around 50% of children born each year will suffer from obesity as a result of diet by the age of 65. It is important to stress that many of those suffering with obesity are, themselves, malnourished; rarely consuming enough vitamins or other nutritional requirements.
The cost of the butterfly effect associated with malnutrition in wider society is difficult to calculate, but is estimated to cost the NHS £6billion per year. A 2014 study estimated the total cost to be around £27 billion per year (around £890 per taxpayer), though this number is set to rise each year. This is a problem which would be far cheaper and effective to treat at source. Overconsumption of Processed Food and Under consumption of Healthy Food
A Healthy Diet
The Importance of Diet Why do People have Poor Diets?
- Fast Food is increasingly prevalent. - These outlets account for a quarter of all food shops in 2019. - Junk food companies in the UK spend £143 mil a year on advertising– 30x the £5 mil spent on healthy eating campaigns.
Eating Healthy is Expensive - The mean price of fruit and veg continues to soar – it cost £9.39 per 1,000 calories in 2019, up every year since 2016 – while the price of unhealthy food and drinks has remained stable at £3.54 per 1,000 calories. - The 20% least well-off families must spend 40p of every pound of their income in order to achieve an officially nutritious diet, compared with just 8p in the pound for families in the wealthiest 20% .
Lack of Time and Culinary Knowledge - In schools, culinary lessons have been reduced or removed entirely from the curriculum. - Time is a valuable commodity for many. As such, a common complaint is the inability to spare the time needed to learn, plan, prepare and cook a healthy meal plan.
Growing Locally
On an environmental level, another issue is the embodied carbon footprint attributed to the air miles of much of the food we eat. With food commonly being flown from the other side of the world in order to negate seasonal produce, it is important that we look to grow more food locally.
Carbon footprint notwithstanding, the local environmental issues attributed to growing these crops for export can be devastating. The huge amounts of water such intense farming requires has resulted in desertification, water tables are dropping, resulting in issues for residents who need the resource for personal use- an issue compounded by the reduction in rainfall due to climate change. This worsening of the lives of locals for large companies who export their produce happens globally and could be mitigated by more local growth. Further, with the UK importing 30% of all food and almost half of fresh food from the EU, Brexit threatens to increase the cost of imported food to become affordable for even less families. 3 Food is often grown in one country, processed in a second and sold in a third.
of food is imported to the UK.
Average miles a meal has travelled.
Tonnes of CO2 produced shipping food within, to and around the UK.
