People, Land and Sustainability: Community Gardens and the Social Dimension of Sustainable Development

Ferris, John; Norman, Carol; Sempik, Joe

doi:10.1111/1467-9515.t01-1-00253

Cited by 217 publications

(152 citation statements)

References 5 publications

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“…Community gardens are self-organised initiatives or neighbourhood groups producing food or flowers for the personal or common benefit of their members (Ferris et al 2001;Beilin and Hunter 2011;Rosol 2011). The members participate in the decision processes and share resources such as space, water and tools.…”

Section: Ua and Pua Formsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contributing to food security in urban areas: differences between urban agriculture and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North

et al. 2015

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Food security is becoming an increasingly relevant topic in the Global North, especially in urban areas. Because such areas do not always have good access to nutritionally adequate food, the question of how to supply them is an urgent priority in order to maintain a healthy population. Urban and peri-urban agriculture, as sources of local fresh food, could play an important role. Whereas some scholars do not differentiate between peri-urban and urban agriculture, seeing them as a single entity, our hypothesis is that they are distinct, and that this has important consequences for food security and other issues. This has knock-on effects for food system planning and has not yet been appropriately analysed. The objectives of this study are to provide a systematic understanding of urban and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North, showing their similarities and differences, and to analyse their impact on urban food security. To this end, an extensive literature review was conducted, resulting in the identification and comparison of their spatial, ecological and socio-economic characteristics. The findings are discussed in terms of their impact on food security in relation to the four levels of the food system: food production, processing, distribution and consumption. The results show that urban and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North indeed differ in most of their characteristics and consequently also in their ability to meet the food needs of urban inhabitants. While urban agriculture still meets food needs mainly at the household level, peri-urban agriculture can provide larger quantities and has broader distribution pathways, giving it a separate status in terms of food security. Nevertheless, both possess (unused) potential, making them valuable for urban food planning, and both face similar threats regarding urbanisation pressures, necessitating adequate planning measures.

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Section: Ua and Pua Formsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Contributing to food security in urban areas: differences between urban agriculture and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North

et al. 2015

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“…As a subversive movement, the practice of UA generally increases social capital, civic involvement, community efficacy, and empowerment (Armstrong, 2000;Ferris, Norman, & Sempik, 2001;Gittelsohn & Sharma, 2009;Teig et al, 2009). In addition, studies have identified public participation as a crucial component of the food security planning process (Jacobsen, Pruitt-Chapin, & Rugeley, 2009;McCullum, Desjardins, Kraak, Ladipo, & Costello, 2005;Vasquez, Lanza, Hennessey-Lavery, Facente, Halpin, & Minkler, 2007).…”

Section: Ua and Food Justicementioning

confidence: 99%

Community Food Security via Urban Agriculture: Understanding People, Place, Economy, and Accessibility from a Food Justice Perspective

Meenar

Hoover

2012

JAFSCD

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“…Both are needed now more than ever-environmental justice because of dramatically widening inequalities [59] and public health because of the new obesity epidemic [60]. There is abundant evidence of the ways in which urban green spaces contribute to physical, psychological, and social health [17,[61][62][63][64][65][66][67][68], and growing evidence of their contributions to environmental justice. With regard to public health, gardening provides easily accessible opportunities for physical, mental, and social well-being.…”

Section: Social Sustainabilitymentioning

confidence: 99%

Urban Cultivation and Its Contributions to Sustainability: Nibbles of Food but Oodles of Social Capital

2016

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Abstract:The contemporary interest in urban cultivation in the global North as a component of sustainable food production warrants assessment of both its quantitative and qualitative roles. This exploratory study weighs the nutritional, ecological, and social sustainability contributions of urban agriculture by examining three cases-a community garden in the core of New York, a community farm on the edge of London, and an agricultural park on the periphery of San Francisco. Our field analysis of these sites, confirmed by generic estimates, shows very low food outputs relative to the populations of their catchment areas; the great share of urban food will continue to come from multiple foodsheds beyond urban peripheries, often far beyond. Cultivation is a more appropriate designation than agriculture for urban food growing because its sustainability benefits are more social than agronomic or ecological. A major potential benefit lies in enhancing the ecological knowledge of urbanites, including an appreciation of the role that organic food may play in promoting both sustainability and health. This study illustrates how benefits differ according to local conditions, including population density and demographics, operational scale, soil quality, and access to labor and consumers. Recognizing the real benefits, including the promotion of sustainable diets, could enable urban food growing to be developed as a component of regional foodsheds to improve the sustainability and resilience of food supply, and to further the process of public co-production of new forms of urban conviviality and wellbeing.

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People, Land and Sustainability: Community Gardens and the Social Dimension of Sustainable Development

Cited by 217 publications

References 5 publications

Contributing to food security in urban areas: differences between urban agriculture and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North

Contributing to food security in urban areas: differences between urban agriculture and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North

Community Food Security via Urban Agriculture: Understanding People, Place, Economy, and Accessibility from a Food Justice Perspective

Urban Cultivation and Its Contributions to Sustainability: Nibbles of Food but Oodles of Social Capital

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