Between City and Countryside: Changing Nexus in the Urban Phenomenon of Rome

Abstract

A lack of productive urban land, existence of food insecurity, an uncontrolled urban growth, lack of stable local food markets, land use conflicts in urban areas and a general lack of knowledge about urban and Peri-Urban food production, all join to fuel debate about cities and food in a time of change. Referring to the Mediterranean geography, cities do not originate from the countryside, but rather it is the countryside that originates from a city that it is barely capable of feeding. The settlement models that largely define the forms and processes of the farming and environmental systems to which they belong characterize the territorial dynamics of the Mediterranean urban areas. Looking at agri-food systems, even at a local level the aspects that have to be considered are: market variability and the price of raw materials, how these reflect on food prices definition, access to natural resources and the level of urbanisation. This work starts by analysing the relationship between city and countryside, to then reinterpret the current day context of Rome through factors that outline and define such a relationship. The relationship between food and cities—seen not as a simple fact but as a complex system of social, economic and political behaviour—can tell the story of many Mediterranean cities and certainly that of Rome. This is because the agricultural and urban facets of Rome are set side by side, without interruption, defining a breadth, a space that somehow epitomises the Roman landscape itself.