The urban-rural gap and food regime in Ireland considered through the lens of the metabolic rift

Critical Ecologies

Urban centres are places of ‘parasitic’ consumption and are highly developed, whereas rural areas are left far behind. Although cities are not particularly involved in food production, they do provide higher food safety than rural areas. We talk about how these inequalities between rural and urban spaces are developed in the context of the Irish food regime through the lens of the metabolic rift and ask whether it is possible to lower these disparities. Cuba is an exciting case study of how to overcome the urban-rural gap regarding the food regime by means of urban agroecology. Can Cuba be a blueprint for mitigating Ireland’s metabolic rift?