[ricksplat]

Seems like a very expensive way to do it.

Look at most of the big cities. All are flanked by swathes of agricultural land. San Francisco, New York, Chicago, London, Paris ...

Yes you can trade - but it's no substitute for having your own food source right there.

EDIT HN not allowing me to respond below but yes Tokyo is an outlier - and food as you point out is very expensive.

[morgante]

Sure, and most of those imports would come from the surrounding farmland. It would likely be somewhat more expensive than the current system, but primarily because urban taxes would not be providing agricultural subsidies.

Tokyo already does this and food there is not substantially expensive than it is in other alpha cities.

Also there are plenty of big cities not surrounded by farmland. Hong Kong and Singapore, for example.

[cheetos]

Locally-grown food is generally more expensive in these areas because smaller local farms do not enjoy the same advantage of economy of scale that global distributors do.

[ricksplat]

citation needed

[rangibaby]

interesting you missed Tokyo there. Japan imports 100% of food consumed regularly except for rice, which is expensive compared to overseas (about $5/kg). Other locally grown meats fruits etc are generally premium items.