A Magic Pill Luckily there is a remedy, René van Veenhuizen of the RUAF Foundation brought to his keynote speech of the Tropentag. It’s neither asperine, nor peniciline that can help cities and residents. The magic pill is urban agriculture. Considering that already 15% of food is produced in urban areas - soon up to 60% for perishables - it is no surprise that this practice helps food security. But urban agriculture is more, it is ‘part and parcel of urban agro ecosystem’ as van Veenhuizen puts it. He stresses the multifunctionality of urban agriculture for employment, recreation, energy and climate change. There is a fair bit, Stuttgart can learn here. For example from Freetown, Sierra Leone, which increased climate change resilience through agriculture on urban floodplains. Or take Amman where people recycle nasty waste water to fertilize their city crops. A spoon full of sugar lets the medicine go down That it does not have to be a bitter pill, cities need to swallow shows Belo Monte, Brazil. A smart labeling system, public dialogue about the multiple benefits and enabling policies on land, finance and marketing are the sweet secret. Is this secret strong enough to balance smart urban agriculture city planning with new profitable construction on the scarce land, a representative of GIZ doubtfully asked. At the end of the day, this will solely depend on how many of the functions we are willing to value. And valuing urban agriculture is the remedy for inclusive, productive and truly healthy cities. Van Veenhuizen in interview