Urban agriculture focuses on the development of ten functions.

To develop urban agriculture, we should focus on the development of the ten major functions of agriculture. The first is the function of food security, the second is the function of increasing employment and income, the third is the function of ecological conservation, the fourth is the function of tourism and leisure, the fifth is the function of experience and participation, the sixth is the function of beautifying the environment, the seventh is the function of distribution service, the eighth is the function of popular science and education, the ninth is the function of cultural inheritance, and the tenth is the function of reshaping dignity.

Urban agriculture includes both urban agriculture and suburban agriculture. Urban agriculture is different from suburban agriculture. Although both of them rely on the city, serve the city, adapt to urban development and adapt to urban construction and development planning, suburban agriculture mainly provides agricultural and sideline products for the city. to meet the material needs of the city, the level of development is low, located in the surrounding areas of the city, while urban agriculture is to meet the various needs of the city as the purpose of service, is a multi-functional agriculture, a higher level of development. The location includes urban centers and surrounding areas, and urban agriculture covers suburban agriculture.

According to the current empirical analysis, if the per capita GDP reaches about 2000-3000 US dollars, we can enter the stage of urban agriculture. According to this standard, there are more than 660 cities and more than 2000 county towns in China, most of which have reached the stage of developing urban agriculture.

Where is the source power of urban agriculture? The city is the son of the countryside, and the countryside and agriculture nurture the city, but after the separation of the city and the agricultural countryside, it has embarked on the form of dualistic opposition. Urban desertification makes citizens miss the green countryside of agriculture and the harmony of biodiversity. This pursuit of quality of life is the return demand of the relationship between man and nature, an essential sublimation of the concept of survival, life and development, and the source of power for the development of urban agriculture. The deteriorating environment, dirty air, full noise and congested roads urge people to pay attention to agriculture and beautiful rural areas.

Different from traditional agriculture, urban agriculture is a high-level, high-tech and high-grade green industry; it is an ecosystem completely based on the socio-economic and structural functions of the city; it is a modern agricultural system that integrates production, life, ecology, science, education and culture according to the various needs of citizens; it is an engineering system integrating farming, industry, trade, industry, research and education. Is an important part of the complex and huge ecosystem of the city.

The development orientation of urban agriculture is determined by the needs of the city, which not only reflects the metropolis' dependence on agriculture, but also reflects the interdependent, complementary and mutually reinforcing relationship between urban and agriculture.

In 1998, the first symposium on urban agriculture in China was held in Beijing. Cities in the Yangtze River Delta, Pearl River Delta and Bohai Rim began to attach importance to the development of urban agriculture. Beijing proposes to seize the commanding heights and make the agriculture in the suburbs of Beijing become the leading force of China's agricultural modernization.

The development of urban agriculture mainly lies in the omni-directional development of the various functions of agriculture. Based on the experience of urban agriculture in the world and the reality of our country, I personally think that we should focus on the development of ten major functions. The first is the function of food security, the second is the function of increasing employment and income, the third is the function of ecological conservation, the fourth is the function of tourism and leisure, the fifth is the function of experience and participation, the sixth is the function of beautifying the environment, the seventh is the function of distribution service, the eighth is the function of popular science and education, the ninth is the function of cultural inheritance, and the tenth is the function of reshaping dignity.

One is the function of food security. Today's food security situation is more serious than ever, quantity security is basically worry-free, while quality security is becoming more and more difficult, food safety problem has become a serious social phobia. From the perspective of domestic agricultural situation, with the development of society, the per capita consumption of meat, eggs and milk in China is growing rapidly, and the output of melons, fruits and vegetables per capita exceeds the world average, but the demand is still rising sharply, and the problem of food security is facing a severe test. We have spent a huge price on the "south-to-north water diversion", and the north, which is short of water, grows grain and transports it to the south. This is a disguised "north-to-south water diversion", an absurd and awkward paradox. From the perspective of the world agricultural situation, Kissinger predicted that whoever controls food will control all the people on earth. The United States has been studying GM since the early 1960s. By 2001, more than 130 agricultural products have been developed, and today there will be more. They are genetically modified not only to increase production, but also to control the seeds of agricultural products in other countries from the source. If the seeds are controlled, the quantity and quality of agricultural products will be controlled to a great extent. Most of China's imported soybeans are genetically modified, and more than 90% of the vegetable seeds in Shouguang, Shandong Province are controlled by multinational corporations. Today, food safety must be controlled from the source. Urban agriculture should highlight two articles in the development of food security function: one is to establish the base of organic agricultural products, and the other is not to use genetically modified agricultural products seeds as far as possible.

The second is the function of increasing employment income. The development of human agriculture can be divided into three stages: primitive agriculture, traditional agriculture and modern agriculture. I personally divide modern agriculture into two stages: pre-modern and post-modern. Pre-modern agriculture breaks the self-cycle of internal closure and injects external forces, that is, the use of pesticides, chemical fertilizers and machinery. While developing primary production, post-modern agriculture introduces the elements of secondary and tertiary industries, which is a complete industrial system with the linkage of primary and secondary industries, the integration of upstream, middle and downstream, and the mutual promotion of production, supply, marketing and addition. Its employment capacity has naturally increased greatly. American farmers account for about 2% of the total population, while employment in the service sector for agriculture accounts for 17% of the total population. There are seven or eight people behind a farmer to serve him. The employment capacity of China's agriculture is far from being developed. Over the past few decades, we have followed a policy line of absorbing agricultural surplus to serve urban and industrial development. The passive situation of agriculture, rural areas and farmers has led to the association of poverty, backwardness and ignorance with poverty, backwardness and ignorance in society. In developed countries, workers are the poorest, and farmers are the jobs that some people yearn for. Serving agriculture is as favored by the society as the urban service industry. Our agriculture has great potential to be tapped in this respect.

Third, the function of ecological conservation. The second and third industries destroy the ecological environment, ecological restoration and conservation is only one production, planting flowers and trees in cities belong to the category of large agriculture, only agriculture has this function, because there is a natural harmonious relationship between agriculture and nature. Agriculture is the two production processes of economic reproduction and natural reproduction, and the objects of agricultural production are living organisms. Unlike industrial products, which can be made at once by working overtime, agriculture must follow the laws of nature. When grain is planted and harvested, and when animals are pregnant and produced, they must follow a life cycle and cannot be disobeyed. Some experts estimate that the ecological value of a 50-year-old tree is about 200000 US dollars in terms of absorbing toxic gases to produce oxygen, conserving water sources, increasing soil fertility, and providing habitat for birds. This does not count the value of wood, flowers and fruits themselves. Farmland has a strong ability to purify water, each hectare of paddy field can purify 7500-12000 cubic meters of sewage per day, sewage discharged into the paddy field, about a week can purify more than 90%, the production of oxygen is more considerable. Someone has calculated an account for Beijing that the ecological service value of agriculture, forestry and water has reached more than 1 billion yuan, which is comparable to the total GDP of Beijing. Now the environmental problem is very serious. "haze feeds the people to serve the fog", and the cement forest replaces the ecological forest.

Fourth, the function of tourism and leisure. Agricultural tourism and leisure originated in Italy, France and other countries more than a hundred years ago. It spread to Japan, South Korea and Taiwan in the 1960s and 1970s. It has been very popular in Chinese mainland for more than ten years. From a world point of view, the tourism, leisure and sightseeing function of agriculture has a strong development momentum and great prospects for development, especially with the continuous improvement of people's consumption level, the continuous increase of income, the change of life style and the increase of leisure time. Tourism and leisure tourism has increasingly become an important part of people's life, and agriculture has a very broad development prospect in this aspect. Agriculture has extended its roots from people's bellies to people's minds, from material sublimation to spirit. The bigger the city, the higher the citizens' interest in "agricultural taste".

Fifth, experience the function of participation. It is very meaningful to have an integrated activity park of experience participation and picking in the center of the city and its surrounding areas. Show the cultivation of crops, so that urban people, especially children, know how wheat, rice, fruits, vegetables and other crops grow, so that they can better understand and respect the process of life, and love nature more. Hundreds of "citizen gardens" and "urban pastoral schools" have been built in Tokyo, Japan. Today, in developed countries, a homestead with a vegetable garden is more luxurious than a private residence with a swimming pool, because because of food safety problems, eating what you grow and raise yourself or bought in the food market has become a basic yardstick for upper-class society and the rich to measure the standard of living.

Sixth, the function of beautifying the environment. Livable industry is the basic function of a city, and the most important condition for livable is a beautiful environment, which is an important embodiment of the taste, style and characteristics of a city. The flowers and trees in the city have the function of beautifying the environment. Some cities in Europe stipulate that flowers must be planted on the windowsill. In recent years, the phenomenon of "suburbanization" has sprung up in western countries, and many people have moved from the urban center to the suburbs and villages. The population living in rural areas in Germany has reached more than 40%, and the UK has reached nearly 30%. This kind of return has mainly occurred in the past decade, and the momentum is getting stronger and stronger. The British survey shows that the age of the returning population is between 25 and 40 years old, and the trend of rejuvenation is very obvious. The occurrence of "counter-urbanization" phenomenon has put forward a new topic for urban construction. In urban construction, how to take agriculture as an organic part of urban ecology and effectively improve the quality of urban ecological environment as an important content. The city of Paris proposes that the way to meet the increasing pastoral interest of citizens through the alternation of urban civilization and agricultural civilization is to arrange "moderate above-ground building groups" and "moderate pastoral groups". London's urban farms and community orchards are dotted with schools and parks, and crops are grown all the way to citizens' courtyards and balconies. The farm has been opened to the sky (roof) and underground (abandoned basement). New York is short of land, so abandoned stadiums and public wasteland have been developed to grow crops. In the 1970s, there were activities for urban residents to build "second houses" and open up artificial vegetable gardens in France. Singapore retains half of its urban development as agricultural land. These agricultural land and urban built-up area green space permeate each other, forming a distinctive and beautiful urban scenery.

Seventh, the function of distribution service. Today, with the social division of labor becoming more and more detailed, some people in the city need to deliver home reassuring services, and urban agriculture is the most appropriate force to undertake this demand. For example, regularly distribute meat, eggs, milk, melons, fruits and vegetables to families in need, including flowers. This is a promising industry that urgently needs to be developed. Cities should properly retain and develop some stalls that are most convenient for buying and selling, so that the survival of the bottom society can be relied on. Many cities in the United States have set up "farmers' markets" in fixed places and at fixed times. "farmers' markets" selling vegetables, flowers and snacks are regularly opened in the woods and meadows in front of the Los Angeles city government. Urban vendors are not the target of disturbing social order, but indispensable urban functions.

The eighth is the function of popular science education. The biggest change in reform and opening up is the change in the relationship between people and people, between people and things, and between people and nature. From criticizing people to being people-oriented, from being proud of being poor to being proud of being rich, from triumphant over nature to harmony between man and nature, people finally know to follow the laws of nature. Faber, a famous French scientist, has such a famous saying: "Historical praise leads people to the battlefield of death, but disdains to talk about the wheat fields on which people live." History clearly knows the name of the emperor's illegitimate son, but it is reluctant to tell people where the wheat came from. This is the stupidity of human beings. " Urban agriculture must not allow this stupidity to continue, and should take the initiative to undertake this historical mission. The function of popular science education should go into schools, classrooms, communities and families, let children and citizens know the growth process of animals and plants with modern network technology and network video, and understand that the law is inviolable.

The ninth is the function of cultural inheritance. The key to the 5000-year civilization inheritance of the Chinese nation lies in the cultural inheritance of agriculture. Agriculture has ten cultural inheritance functions, including the inheritance of crop culture, agricultural technology, economic model, agricultural philosophy, agricultural system, emphasis on agriculture, village family culture, folk culture, pastoral literature and traditional Chinese medicine. The traditional rural culture plays a very important role in the social management of China's rural areas. Modern agriculture should have stronger cultural inheritance function and greater carrying capacity than traditional agriculture, such as the application of modern high technology and modern information technology. The whole society should understand that without the inheritance of agricultural civilization, all human civilizations are meaningless, and the misconception that the farther away from agriculture is, the closer it is to modernization must be overcome. Some experts predict that in the next ten years, the field of agriculture will become the final arena of competition between China and the United States, which shows that human competition, starting from agriculture, will eventually return to the origin of agriculture.

The tenth is the function of reshaping dignity. Throughout history, agricultural civilization, industrial civilization and urban civilization are the three basic carriers of human civilization. Other civilizations are attached to these three carriers, and the latter civilization is developed on the basis of the previous civilization. Agricultural civilization is the matrix civilization. Under the background of the rapid development of industrialization and urbanization, agriculture has been "overshadowing the busy city with a broken hat", and agricultural civilization lacks basic dignity. In this context, we must reshape the modern dignity of agricultural civilization, otherwise, the synchronization of the four modernizations is doomed to become empty talk.

Urban agriculture, which has a relatively superior geographical location and unique conditions for gathering resources, is faced with the people who have the most say, in the eddy current that is most likely to form strong public opinion, and reshape the modern dignity of agricultural civilization. Urban agriculture must be urban agriculture!

Urban agriculture is the pioneer and cutting-edge in the construction of modern agriculture and the realization of agricultural modernization. In the call of "coexistence of city and nature", "green industry returning to city" and "integration of city and countryside", urban agriculture will become a vanguard force of agricultural modernization. Starting from urban agriculture is the preferred way for our country to build modern agriculture and realize agricultural modernization.