Urbanization and agriculture to the year 2020

At present, the global population is half rural and half urban, but the world's cities are swelling. By 2025, two-thirds of the world's people will live in urban areas, and 80 percent of these urban residents will live in developing countries. As urbanization increases, policymakers in developing countries will be challenged to design ways to feed their cities ideally by relying mostly on their countries' own agriculture sectors. They must also work to prevent undernutrition, cope with changing diets among urban residents and seek to quell the trend toward obesity. The result is often poverty, unemployment, inadequate shelter, poor or non-existent sanitation, contaminated or depleted water supplies, air pollution, and other forms of environmental degradation. Substandard housing, unsafe water, and poor sanitation in densely populated cities are responsible for 10 million deaths worldwide every year, according to the United Nations. The UN reports that 600 million urban dwellers now live in life- and health-threatening housing situations in Africa, Asia and Latin America.