Agriculture Reference
In-Depth Information
CHAPTER 3
LOCALIZING THE NITROGEN
IMPRINT OF THE PARIS FOOD
SUPPLY: THE POTENTIAL OF
ORGANIC FARMING AND CHANGES
IN HUMAN DIET
G. BILLEN, J. GARNIER, V. THIEU, M. SILVESTRE, S. BARLES,
AND
P. CHATZIMPIROS
3.1 INTRODUCTION
Food supply is a major factor in shaping cities (Steele, 2010) and deter-
mining their relationships with surrounding (close or distant) rural ter-
ritories. The agricultural development in the city hinterland as well as the
construction of large transport infrastructures has been largely dictated by
the requirements of urban food markets (Keene, 2011; Charruadas, 2011;
Billen et al., 2011). Because cities consume most of the final products
of agriculture and dictate its specialisation and location, urbanisation is a
major driver of the human perturbation of the nitrogen cycle (Svirejeva-
Hopkins and Reis, 2011). As shown by several authors, the anthropogenic
introduction into the biosphere of reactive nitrogen, which subsequently
