scholarly journals Unearthing the entangled roots of urban agriculture

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jonathan K. London ◽  
Bethany B. Cutts ◽  
Kirsten Schwarz ◽  
Li Schmidt ◽  
Mary L. Cadenasso
Keyword(s):  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Growth Trajectories ◽  
Soil Matrix ◽  
Racial Capitalism ◽  
Racial Dynamics ◽  
The City ◽  
Historical Legacies

AbstractThis study examines urban agriculture (UA) in Sacramento, California (USA), the nation's self-branded “Farm-to-Fork Capital,” in order to highlight UA’s distinct yet entangled roots. The study is based on 24 interviews with a diverse array of UA leaders, conducted as part of a five-year transdisciplinary study of UA in Sacramento. In it, we unearth three primary “taproots” of UA projects, each with its own historical legacies, normative visions, and racial dynamics. In particular, we examine UA projects with “justice taproots,” “health taproots,” and “market taproots.” We use this analysis to understand how different kinds of UA projects are embedded in racial capitalism in ways that transform relationships between people, the city, and food systems. Unearthing these entangled roots helps illuminate UA’s underlying politics, showing how these roots grow in both competitive and symbiotic ways within the soil matrix of racial capitalism. We argue that these roots interact differently with racial capitalism, creating disparities in their growth trajectories. In particular, UA projects associated with the justice taproot are historically underrepresented and undervalued. However, we argue that there are some prospects for building alliances between the UA movement’s three roots, and that these are both promising and problematic.

scholarly journals Multitemporal Geospatial Evaluation of Urban Agriculture and (Non)-Sustainable Food Self-Provisioning in Milan, Italy

2019 ◽  
Vol 11 (7) ◽  
pp. 1846 ◽  
Author(s):  
Giuseppe Pulighe ◽  
Flavio Lupia
Keyword(s):  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Food Production ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Arable Land ◽  
Well Being ◽  
Google Earth ◽  
Total Production ◽  
Ancillary Data ◽  
Sustainable Food ◽  
The City

Urban agriculture in Global North cities is strongly promoted as a sustainable solution to achieve different goals, such as food production, quality of life, and well-being. Although several attempts have been made to evaluate urban agriculture production, few studies have investigated food production in a multitemporal geospatial way and considered per capita population needs, gender, and age strata consumption. This study presents a spatiotemporal quantification of urban agriculture in the city of Milan (Italy) for assessing food self-provisioning potential. We utilized high-resolution Google Earth images and ancillary data to create a detailed cadaster of urban agriculture for the years 2007 and 2014. Based on four scenarios of food production and statistical data on vegetables and cereals consumption, we estimated current total production and requirements for the city dwellers. Our results showed that the actual extension of vegetable gardens (98 ha) and arable land (2539 ha) in the best scenario could satisfy approximately 63,700 and 321,000 consumers of vegetables and cereal products, respectively. Overall, current urban agriculture production is not able to meet vegetables and cereal consumption for more than 1.3 million city residents. Scenario estimates suggest rethinking land use promoting horticultural production to achieve more sustainable food systems.

scholarly journals "Grow what you eat, eat what you grow": urban agriculture as middle class intervention in India

2018 ◽  
Vol 25 (1) ◽  
pp. 221 ◽  
Author(s):  
Camille Frazier
Keyword(s):  
Middle Class ◽  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Fruits And Vegetables ◽  
Agricultural Land ◽  
Food System ◽  
Farming Community ◽  
Urban Gardening ◽  
Food Quality And Safety ◽  
The City

In Bengaluru, India's "IT Capital" and one of its fastest growing cities, an increasing number of middle class residents are growing fruits and vegetables in their private spaces for home consumption. This article examines the motivations and practices of Bengaluru's organic terrace gardeners ("OTGians") in order to understand the possibilities and limitations of urban gardening as a middle class intervention into unsafe food systems and decaying urban ecologies. OTGians are driven primarily by concerns about worsening food quality and safety, and secondarily by the desire to create green spaces that counteract environmental degradation in the city. Like community gardeners in the Global North, they understand urban gardening as a way to mediate problems in the contemporary food system and the urban ecology. However, like other alternative food and environmental movements, OTGians' efforts are anchored in class-specific concerns and experiences. While they have been successful in creating a vibrant community, their efforts remain limited to the middle class. This is in large part due to the site, scale, and production practices that anchor their interventions. I briefly consider a different approach to food production in Bengaluru—that of a caste-specific farming community that has been dispossessed of much of its agricultural land in the name of urban development—to illuminate divergent histories, narratives, and practices of urban agriculture. However, I also emphasize the sites of intersection between these narratives, and suggest that OTGians can find commonalities with other food producers in the city in ways that might revolutionize Bengaluru's food future. I thus look for potential sites of collaboration and intersection in understanding the uneven power relations and politics of urban socio-natures.

City of Forests, City of Farms

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Lindsay K. Campbell
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Urban Forest ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Urban Forestry ◽  
Urban Greening ◽  
Community Gardening ◽  
The City

This book begins with the question of why PlaNYC2030—New York City’s municipal, long-term sustainability plan, launched during the Mayor Michael Bloomberg administration—had a robust urban forestry agenda, but lacked an urban agriculture agenda. PlaNYC launched the MillionTreesNYC campaign, investing over $400 million in city funds and leveraging a public-private partnership to plant one million trees citywide. Meanwhile, despite NYC having a long tradition of community gardening and burgeoning interest in local food systems, the plan contained no mention of community gardens or urban farms. In contrasting the top-down, centralized investment in the urban forest with the dispersed and decentralized social movement around urban agriculture, the book describes the ways in which political, discursive, and material processes intertwine to construct nature in the city. Urban greening unfolds through the strategic interplay of actors, the deployment of different narrative frames, and the mobilizing and manipulation of the physical environment—including other living, non-human entities. Understanding how and why the sustainability agenda is set and implemented provides crucial lessons to scholars, policymakers, and activists alike as they engage in the greening of cities.

scholarly journals The Impact of COVID-19 on Urban Agriculture in São Paulo, Brazil

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (11) ◽  
pp. 6185
Author(s):  
André Ruoppolo Biazoti ◽  
Angélica Campos Nakamura ◽  
Gustavo Nagib ◽  
Vitória Oliveira Pereira de Souza Leão ◽  
Giulia Giacchè ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Technical Assistance ◽  
Community Gardens ◽  
Sao Paulo ◽  
Food Chains ◽  
São Paulo ◽  
Sales Channels ◽  
Paulo State ◽  
The Impact ◽  
The City

During the initial months of the COVID-19 pandemic, farmers worldwide were greatly affected by disruptions in the food chain. In 2020, São Paulo city experienced most of the effects of the pandemic in Brazil, with 15,587 deaths through December 2020. Here, we describe the impacts of COVID-19 on urban agriculture (UA) in São Paulo from April to August 2020. We analyzed two governmental surveys of 2100 farmers from São Paulo state and 148 from São Paulo city and two qualitative surveys of volunteers from ten community gardens and seven urban farmers. Our data showed that 50% of the farmers were impacted by the pandemic with drops in sales, especially those that depended on intermediaries. Some farmers in the city adapted to novel sales channels, but 22% claimed that obtaining inputs became difficult. No municipal support was provided to UA in São Paulo, and pre-existing issues were exacerbated. Work on community gardens decreased, but no garden permanently closed. Post COVID-19, UA will have the challenge of maintaining local food chains established during the pandemic. Due to the increase in the price of inputs and the lack of technical assistance, governmental efforts should be implemented to support UA.

scholarly journals Long-Term Development of Urban Agriculture: Resilience and Sustainability of Farmers Facing the Covid-19 Pandemic in Japan

2021 ◽  
Vol 13 (8) ◽  
pp. 4316
Author(s):  
Shingo Yoshida ◽  
Hironori Yagi
Keyword(s):  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Food Systems ◽  
Direct Marketing ◽  
Farming System ◽  
Long Term Effects ◽  
Short Term ◽  
Short Supply ◽  
Using Data ◽  
Urban People

The coronavirus disease 2019 (Covid-19) pandemic has forced global food systems to face unprecedented uncertain shocks even in terms of human health. Urban agriculture is expected to be more resilient because of its short supply chain for urban people and diversified farming activities. However, the short-and long-term effects of the Covid-19 pandemic on urban farms remain unclear. This study aims to reveal the conditions for farm resilience to the Covid-19 pandemic in 2020 and the relationship between short-term farm resilience and long-term farm development using data from a survey of 74 farms located in Tokyo. The results are as follows. First, more than half of the sample farms increased their farm sales during this period. This resilience can be called the “persistence” approach. Second, short-term farm resilience and other sustainable farm activities contributed to improving farmers’ intentions for long-term farm development and farmland preservation. Third, the most important resilience attributes were the direct marketing, entrepreneurship, and social networks of farmers. We discussed the necessity of building farmers’ transformative capabilities for a more resilient urban farming system. These results imply that support to enhance the short-term resilience of urban farms is worth more than the short-term profit of the farms.

Cultivating biological and cultural diversity: urban farming in Casamance, Senegal

Africa ◽  
1996 ◽  
Vol 66 (1) ◽  
pp. 104-121 ◽  
Author(s):  
Olga F. Linares
Keyword(s):  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Primary Productivity ◽  
Urban Poor ◽  
West African ◽  
Lower Income ◽  
Biological Complexity ◽  
Urban Farming ◽  
Household Economies ◽  
City Environment ◽  
The City

AbstractAt the present time, urban agriculture—that is, the growing of food crops in backyard gardens, unused city spaces and peripheral zones—is an economically viable alternative for many African migrants. Although previously ‘invisible’ to most developers and economists, urban farming is now recognised as playing a crucial subsistence role in the household economies of lower-income people living in major West African cities. But the practice does more than feed the urban poor. Using the example of Ziguinchor in Casamance, Senegal, it is argued that growing crops in peri-urban and intra-urban zones, on otherwise neglected or half-built-up land, also protects and enriches the city environment while increasing the primary productivity of the inhabitants. Directly, or in more subtle ways, the practice strengthens bonds of friendship, and promotes inter-ethnic co-operation while at the same time helping to maintain biological complexity in interesting and previously unexplored ways. City farming may provide a context through which the urban poor can relate to debates about biodiversity.

scholarly journals Farmers’ Perspective on Sociological and Environmental Issues of Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture: A Case Study from Western and Southern Regions of Sierra Leone

2017 ◽  
Vol 9 (7) ◽  
pp. 186
Author(s):  
Osman Nabay ◽  
Abdul R. Conteh ◽  
Alusaine E. Samura ◽  
Emmanuel S. Hinckley ◽  
Mohamed S. Kamara
Keyword(s):  
Sierra Leone ◽  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Environmental Aspect ◽  
Financial Organization ◽  
The Social ◽  
Alternative Means ◽  
Household Assets ◽  
Almost All ◽  
The City

The paper examined and brought to the fore the typical characteristic of urban and peri-urban farmers in Freetown and Bo communities which serves as major source of supply of agricultural products into the cities’ markets. The social and environmental aspect and perception of producers involved in urban and peri-urban agriculture was examined. Descriptive statistics and pictograms were used to analyze and present the data. Results indicate that 56.34% never went to formal school and mostly dominated by women, showing that farming became the alternative means of livelihood support for those groups. Crops grown are purely influenced by market orientation—demand and cost, as is evident in Gloucester (lettuce, cabbage and spring onions). Potato leaves were commonly grown in almost all communities, reason being that it serves as common/major sauce/vegetable cooked in every household in Sierra Leone. Maize and rice were featured in Ogoo farm—government supervised land set aside purposely for growing crops to supply the city. Findings also revealed that majority of the farmers are resource poor, judging from calculation about their monthly income earning and available household assets and amenities. About 70.4% of the lands the farmers grow their crops on is leased for production. Except for Gloucester community, when costs of production will be summed, minimal benefit seem to be realized from the farming activities. Even though some of these farmers are engaged in organization, many have limited access to micro financial organization that would probably loan them money to upscale production.

scholarly journals Cuatro iniciativas de agricultura en la ciudad frente a la banalización del paisaje histórico urbano | Four urban agriculture initiatives against the banalization of urban historical landscape

ZARCH ◽  
2017 ◽  
pp. 228
Author(s):  
David Arredondo Garrido
Keyword(s):  
Citizen Participation ◽  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Urban Landscape ◽  
Right To The City ◽  
Active Perception ◽  
Historical Landscape ◽  
Historical Heritage ◽  
The City ◽  
City Centres

En ciudades con un importante patrimonio histórico son cada vez más frecuentes los procesos de homogeneización del paisaje urbano. Una dinámica que conduce a la transformación de determinados entornos históricos en espacios en donde apenas queda lugar para la singularidad, las actividades no reguladas o la participación ciudadana. Este estudio propone analizar una serie de iniciativas desarrolladas en la última década en centros de cuatro ciudades españolas, concretamente en Sevilla, Barcelona, Madrid y Zaragoza. Proyectos que se apoyan en la agricultura y la jardinería urbanas para sortear la banalización imperante, creando espacios para la cultura, las relaciones sociales y la imaginación. Pese a las dificultades en su gestión y su repercusión minoritaria, estas intervenciones ejemplifican un modo de reconfigurar el paisaje urbano, planteando esquemas de activación, percepción activa y participación en lugares centrales de la ciudad en proceso de abandono, donde las actividades agrícolas y jardineras adquieren un peso importante.PALABRAS CLAVE: paisaje urbano, acupuntura urbana, agricultura urbana, participación ciudadana, derecho a la ciudad.Processes of homogenization of the urban landscape are becoming more frequent in cities with an important historical heritage. A dynamic that leads to the transformation of certain historical environments in spaces where there is hardly any room for uniqueness, unregulated activities or public participation. This study aims to analyse a number of initiatives developed in the last decade in four Spanish city centres, particularly in Seville, Barcelona, Madrid and Zaragoza. Projects that are using urban agriculture and gardening to escape form current banality, creating spaces for culture, social relations and imagination. Despite the difficulties in its management and its minor impact, these interventions exemplify a way to reshape urban landscape, through schemes of activation, active perception and participation in abandoned places in the city, where agricultural activities and gardening are now playing an important role.KEYWORDS: urban landscape, urban acupuncture, urban agriculture, citizen participation, right to the city.

Brooklyn's agrarian questions

2014 ◽  
Vol 30 (1) ◽  
pp. 92-102 ◽  
Author(s):  
Evan Weissman
Keyword(s):  
New York ◽  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Food Justice ◽  
Small Scale ◽  
Food Network ◽  
Alternative Food Network ◽  
The Usa ◽  
The Relationship ◽  
The City

AbstractThroughout the USA, urban agriculture is expanding as a manifestation of an emerging American food politics. Through a case study of Brooklyn, New York, I used mixed qualitative research methods to investigate the political possibilities of urban agriculture for fostering food justice. My findings build on the existing alternative food network (AFN) literature by indicating that problematic contradictions rooted in the neoliberalization of urban agriculture limit the transformative possibilities of farming the city as currently practiced in Brooklyn. I suggest that longstanding agrarian questions—concerns over the relationship between agriculture and capitalism and the politics of small-scale producers—are informative for critical interrogation of urban agriculture as a politicization of food.

3. Intervening with Agriculture: A Case Study of Guerrilla Gardening in Kingston, Ontario

2018 ◽  
Author(s):  
Annie Crane
Keyword(s):  
Content Analysis ◽  
Urban Space ◽  
Urban Agriculture ◽  
Social Relations ◽  
Community Gardening ◽  
Spatial Justice ◽  
Starting Point ◽  
The Right ◽  
The City

The purpose of this study was to analyze guerrilla gardening’s relationship to urban space and contemporary notions of sustainability. To achieve this two case studies of urban agriculture, one of guerrilla gardening and one of community gardening were developed. Through this comparison, guerrilla gardening was framed as a method of spatial intervention, drawing in notions of spatial justice and the right to the city as initially theorized by Henri Lefebvre. The guerrilla gardening case study focuses on Dig Kingston, a project started by the researcher in June of 2010, and the community gardening case study will use the Oak Street Garden, the longest standing community garden in Kingston. The community gardening case study used content analysis and semi-structured long format interviews with relevant actors. The guerrilla gardening case study consisted primarily of action based research as well as content analysis and semi-structured long format interviews. By contributing to the small, but growing, number of accounts and research on guerrilla gardening this study can be used as a starting point to look into other forms of spatial intervention and how they relate to urban space and social relations. Furthermore, through the discussion of guerrilla gardening in an academic manner more legitimacy and weight will be given to it as a method of urban agriculture and interventionist tactic. On a wider scale, perhaps it could even contribute to answering the question of how we (as a society) can transform our cities and reengage in urban space.

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