This was also my first line of thought.
Then I started reflecting... if cities are so dependent on the non-urban areas that provide all the natural resources, why is there such a disparity of power between the two?<p>The first thing to come to mind is: natural resources have been comoditized &#x2F; financialized and are controled by &quot;urban power&quot;<p>(as I wrote in my other comment under parent)<p>[update] another obvious thing that should have occurred to me first: all the buyers for all the things the &quot;non-urban&quot; produce are in the urban areas...