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Urban agriculture is often associated with sustainable agricultural practices. However, the variety of systems qualifying as urban agriculture and the limited information available about their sustainability question this direct relationship. To better understand differences in intra-urban agriculture systems and their sustainability, this paper proposed an holistic classification of urban agricultural systems and collected knowledge about the environmental, social, and economic sustainability of these systems. Such a classification is important to evaluate sustainability claims on urban agricultural systems, anticipate potential sustainability trade-offs between urban agricultural systems and propose preventive measures to address these, and ultimately guide the sustainable deployment of these systems. Compared with existing classifications, the novel classification scheme proposed here accounts for technological, social and economic characteristics of urban agriculture systems to better distinguish between all systems. It was built on 91 scientific papers. The economic intensity of production was, for example, an important characteristic to coherently group urban agriculture systems. The intensity of cooperation between all actors was another characteristic emphasized for certain urban agriculture systems. One end of the classification scheme describes ground-based open, socially motivated urban agriculture systems with high cooperation intensity and low production intensity. The other end of the classification scheme describes building-integrated quasi-closed systems with high production intensity. In between, we find: building-integrated conditioned systems, ground-based conditioned systems, and building-integrated open systems. Mapping sustainability claims from literature in the classification scheme supported its definition along the three characteristics. For example, urban farming was associated with job creation, food safety, water savings, and higher yields while urban gardening with educational potentials, biodiversity improvements, and lower yields. Their display in the classification scheme was therefore supported. To further support the use of the proposed scheme, additional quantitative research to better understand and quantify the sustainability of urban agriculture systems is required. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The renaissance in urban agriculture is driven by its contributions to fostering more sustainable, healthy, and renaturalized cities. While urban gardens are usually designed to improve food security or serve social purposes, they also offer additional benefits. The aim of this research is to study the urban allotment gardens in Valladolid, Spain, highlighting their capacity to support low-income populations and their potential contribution to urban cooling. As a result of research in twelve plots across four gardens, we found that crop selection in Valladolid aligns with broader urban gardening trends in the Global North, with production adapted to limited plot space and varying significantly by season. In addition, we observed that urban allotment gardens provide more stable and cooler temperatures compared to urban gray spaces, although not as significantly as urban parks. The cooling effect was most pronounced during the summer, a season with the highest number of crops and the warmest temperatures. The study identified that greater crop cover above soil had a more significant cooling effect at the plot level. Surprisingly, crop abundance and crop diversity showed a weak correlation with cooling benefits. As a complement, survey questionnaires conducted with gardeners revealed their awareness of climate change and its perceived direct threat to their crops, health, and city. The future concerns of gardeners regarding the availability of water for both crop growth and the development of urban allotment gardens are emphasized. The findings provide results on self-produced food, urban cooling, and the opinion of gardeners, underscoring the multifunctional contributions of urban gardens to cities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban agriculture has gained prominence over the last decade in New Orleans, but the majority of the new gardens and farms that have emerged in the city since 2010 are neither culturally nor socially connected to the vibrant history of local food provisioning in the city's Black communities. The history is tied closely to the region's economic boom and bust, systemic oppression and segregation, and the cultural co-optation and devaluation of Black folk foodways in the city. By relying on the oral history to complement where the official or academic documentation has failed to capture the rich history of urban gardening by Black New Orleanians, this article demonstrates that the residents of Black communities in New Orleans once grew their own food, both as a form of collective efficacy and as a way of passing on horticultural knowledge and skills. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Exposure to pesticides may jeopardize pollinators, but it has rarely been examined in urban landscapes. We used larval food provisions (mix of pollen and nectar) of mason bees (Osmia spp.) nested in artificial shelters as matrices to investigate the rate of pesticide pollution in twelve allotment sites in Prague and Brno cities. Seven commercial croplands (fruit orchards, oilseed rape fields) were selected for comparison. In total, 79 samples of larval provisions were analysed using a validated UPLC–MS/MS method for the presence of 262 pesticides and/or important metabolites. Fifty-six pesticide residues were detected in the allotments and 74 in cropland sites. Fifty pesticide compounds were common to both landscapes. Fewer residues were found in the allotments (14.3 ± 0.9, mean ± SE) than in croplands (21.5 ± 1.1, mean ± SE; df = 17.4; t = −2.9; p < 0.01), and they were present at low levels up to 16 ppb. In cropland sites, ten residues occurred at high individual concentrations (mean per site > 10 ppb). The highest levels were observed for the fungicide pyrimethanil (mean = 1,989 ppb, maximum = 3,983 ppb) and among insecticides for thiacloprid (mean = 136 ppb, maximum = 170 ppb). The results supported the presumption of a lower risk of pesticide exposure in urban gardens than in croplands. Given the limited knowledge on the sublethal effects of pesticides and especially pesticide mixtures on solitary bee development, the regulation or control of pesticide use in allotment gardens is recommended. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban community gardening is emerging as a form of quiet activism challenging the corporate food system. In urban community gardening, quiet activism subtly challenges the dominant corporate food system. However, research tends to overlook its presence and impact in global South cities, where issues of food insecurity and corporatisation are acute. There is a gap in research on urban community gardening activism, with a focus mainly on global North cities. Global South cities and populations face unique challenges in the corporate food system that require attention and exploration in scholarly literature. We draw on qualitative research conducted with urban community gardeners in Cape Town, South Africa. Through interviews and observations, the study investigates how these gardeners engage in quiet activism to challenge the corporate food system. We find that community gardens are subtle but potent platforms for bolstering local food movements and fostering healthier dietary practices by cultivating and sharing produce. Quiet activism through community gardening offers a nuanced approach to challenging the corporate food system. The study highlights the need to recognise and understand varying levels of activism intensity and their implications for reshaping urban food systems. We underscore the need to discern the distinct embodiments necessitated by different modes of activism. Understanding these different modes of activism is crucial for comprehending their varying impacts on challenging and reshaping the corporate food system. This nuanced approach reveals the transformative potential inherent in community gardening practices. Community gardening in Cape Town exemplifies the transformative potential of understated acts in food activism. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This is a visual essay about small-scale urban agriculture in Kampala, Uganda. It starts by introducing the context of Kampala, particularly, the K-zones, which are informal settlements with limited access to services, infrastructure and public spaces. This creates an urban environment where the health and well-being of dwellers in the K-zones are compromised. In this context, a partnership between Danish non-profit organisation, Dreamtown, and Ugandan non-profit organisation, Network for Active Citizens, has facilitated the creation of eight green, public spaces. These are spaces for urban agriculture, while additionally functioning as public space for the communities, spaces for skills training, livelihood activities and non-formal education. While a vision with the green, public spaces has been to provide training in urban agriculture for increased food security and to foster green livelihoods, residents explain that urban gardens must reach a certain scale to be economically sustainable for households. In conclusion, the essay showcases small-scale, low-tech urban gardening to optimise scarce urban space in informal settlements. Gardens which are more than just a space for urban agriculture, but also act as communal spaces for health and well-being in the communities, are more sustainable in the long term, especially during times of crisis. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban community gardens, once seen as a counter to neoliberal subjectivity, are now perceived as inadvertently reinforcing neoliberal dominance, challenging the progressive goals of urban gardening. This study investigates how the state shapes urban community gardens in alignment with neoliberal principles, potentially diluting their intended advantages. By analysing policies and interviewing state actors supporting urban gardening initiatives and activists, I argue that the state actively cultivates neoliberal subjectivities in these contexts. Unfortunately, state policies and projects often fail to address the root causes of food and nutrition insecurity in urban areas. This neoliberalisation of urban community gardening diminishes their potential to act as tools for advancing food justice in historically disadvantaged communities in Cape Town. Nevertheless, there is hope in the agency of gardeners who are not passive participants in this process. I conclude that relying on the state to implement projects for a more equitable food system may not be a dependable strategy. Instead, urban gardeners must carefully select their allies to effectively pursue their goals. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

An increasing number of urban residents in the Global South are turning to rooftop gardening, whether through soil or hydroponics, to cultivate their own vegetables, fruit, and herbs. In Hanoi, Vietnam's capital, rooftop gardening serves as an important alternative to traditional wet markets and more recently established supermarkets. In this paper, we examine the motivations, practices, and constraints of Hanoi's rooftop gardeners, along with the level of government support or disapproval for rooftop gardening. Our study is grounded in critical urban geography and urban political ecology and specific debates regarding informal life politics. Our findings reveal that Hanoi's rooftop gardeners feel confronted by a critical food safety crisis, emphasising their need to access safe, fresh, and affordable produce through rooftop gardening. Simultaneously, they express scepticism about the capacity and willingness of formal political institutions at both the municipal and national levels to address and resolve these concerns. We explore whether Hanoi's urban rooftop gardeners can be considered to be engaging in a form of everyday life politics and examine the dynamics emerging in this regard. We conclude by offering potential policy recommendations for Global South cities to support urban gardening communities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban gardening is becoming increasingly popular in the U.S., in metro and nonmetro communities alike, to address rapid urbanization and food insecurity. Urban gardens are incredibly diverse systems, and likely have equally diverse invertebrate communities. To support this growing trend, more information is needed on invertebrate communities that impact crop production. The primary objective of this study was to describe invertebrate community composition at 10 urban community gardens across two counties in Indiana. We also aimed to identify possible mechanisms that determine community assemblages, such as garden size, surrounding land use, ground cover management, and crop diversity. Using pitfall traps, sticky cards, and in-situ visual assessments, we determined that herbivores represent the dominant feeding guild at community gardens, and herbivore counts were highest on zucchini and tomato. However, sentinel prey releases suggested that predators and parasitoids are important regulators of pest populations. Overall, the assemblage of feeding guilds was similar across sites, suggesting a common metapopulation present in the surrounding landscape. On-farm practices that had the greatest influence on insect diversity were crop diversity, the presence of floral resources, and ground cover management. Insect diversity was positively correlated with crop diversity, and pollination activity was associated with flowering crops, namely dill. Parasitoid counts on sticky cards were often associated with sites that had more ground cover, such as straw mulch. This study provides useful insights on the dominant invertebrate groups present at urban community gardens in Indiana and accessible on-farm practices to improve farm biodiversity. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With the boom in urban living has come a boom in urban gardening. In particular, urban community gardening is an increasingly popular form of horticultural production, community involvement and connection to nature. Through the establishment and management of community gardens, biodiversity can flourish, with community gardens as 'hotspots' of flora and fauna within the urban matrix. Gardeners can deeply connect with the natural elements of gardens and thus learn about and gain appreciation for the natural world. Such interactions can combat the loss of nature experiences in cities. Despite their benefits for nature and for people, community gardens are threatened ecosystems as often temporary fixtures in city landscapes due to lack of land tenure and policy protection.In this perspective, we recognize community gardens as an important ecosystem in urban conservation and argue for the defence of urban community gardens by city policy. We formalize this activity and the value of these ecosystems with scientific evidence from ecological and social‐ecological research in 39 community gardens in Berlin and Munich, Germany.Although our data reveal that these gardens support large amounts of biodiversity and catalyse human‐nature connections, a lack of comprehensive documentation of social‐ecological benefits at the city level can make community gardens vulnerable to urban planning threats; we have seen losses of multiple research sites in the last 4 years of biodiversity research.Policy implications: To protect community gardens now and for future urban generations, we call for systematic and comprehensive data collection on community gardening activities and policy support for these urban ecosystems. Some cities are starting to do this and this can be scaled out. We argue for the recognition of urban community gardens as a physical land use and also of the gardeners themselves as important habitat managers and stewards of urban biodiversity. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. Read the free Plain Language Summary for this article on the Journal blog. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Job and its nature is one of the most important factors that directly affects a person's life. The nature of the job includes the activity environment, benefits, and losses resulting from it. The type of job can affect people's mental health and resilience. In this research, the effect of three job groups of urban agriculture, government job and freelance job on the psychological resilience of people was investigated. For this purpose, five components of social skill, capacity to deal with stress, positive thinking, feeling alive and motivation were used. In order to data collection, 156 people were selected purposefully and by snowball method. To evaluate the data at the level of inferential statistics, analysis of variance and multivariate analysis were performed. The results revealed that the psychological resilience of persons in the three job categories differed, with those involved in urban agriculture having higher resilience than the other two job groups (P=0.000). The total score of resilience varies significantly by age group, with the highest average value (19.85) for urban farmers above the age of 50. The interaction effect for age groups and type of employment was also significant (P=0.004). There was also a significant interaction impact for age groups and type of job (P=0.004). The total score of psychological resilience wasn't affected significantly by gender. Furthermore, the findings of the two-way ANOVA across groups revealed that the interaction impact between job and gender is not significant. Suggested to investigate other dimensions of resilience in the group of women. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The 60,000 food pantries in the United States are well known for charity-based emergency food assistance and edible food recovery, serving 53 million people in 2022 (Feeding America, 2023a). Thousands of urban gardens emphasize vegetable production and food justice, but lack strong connections to food pantries. We explore how food pantries and urban gardens could partner to transform pantries into distribution sites that also become food justice education and organizing spaces. To assess this potential, we engaged in participatory action research with a leading social services provider that offers programs supporting both organized urban gardeners and a large urban food pantry in San Jose, California. We conducted and analyzed 21 interviews with food pantry volunteers and urban gardeners affiliated with the same agency, and eight interviews with other urban gardeners and food pantry staff from external organizations. We found that while both food pantry volunteers and urban gardeners expressed concerns about increasing healthy food access and reducing food waste, pantry volunteers were often unfamiliar with food justice and uncomfortable talking about race and culturally rooted food preferences. These findings were similar with the informants from external organizations. To support urban gardener and food pantry volunteer collaboration, we developed a food justice approach to emergency food assistance and food waste management in which both groups co-create onsite vermicomposting infrastructure and partner with a university to design a training program focused on diversity, justice, and systemic change. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban agriculture should be promoted as long as the food produced is safe for consumption. Located in the metropolitan region of São Paulo-Brazil, Santo André has intense industrial activities and more recently an increasing stimulus to urban gardening. One of the potential risks associated to this activity is the presence of potentially toxic elements (PTEs). In this study, the concentration of PTEs (As, Ba, Cd, Co, Cu, Cr, Ni, Mo, Pb, Sb, Se, V and Zn) was evaluated by soil (n = 85) and soil amendments (n = 19) in urban gardens from this municipality. Only barium was above regulatory limits in agricultural soil ranging from 20 to 112 mg kg−1. Geochemical indexes (Igeo, Cf and Er) revealed moderate to severe pollution for As, Ba, Cr, Cu, Pb Se and Zn, especialy in Capuava petrochemical complex gardens. A multivariate statistical approach discriminated Capuava gardens from the others and correlated As, Cr and V as main factors of pollution. However, carcinogenic and non-carcinogenic risks were below the acceptable range for regulatory purposes of 10–6–10–4 for adults. Soil amendments were identified as a possible source of contamination for Ba, Zn and Pb which ranged from 37 to 4137 mg kg−1, 20 to 701 mg kg−1 and 0.7 to 73 mg kg−1, respectively. The results also indicated the presence of six pathogenic bacteria in these amendments. Besides that, the occurrence of antimicrobial resistance for Shigella, Enterobacter and Citrobacter isolates suggests that soil management practices improvement is necessary. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Copyright of Agronomía Colombiana is the property of Universidad Nacional de Colombia and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

In recent years, a growing number of citizen‐led gardens have appeared in the urban public spaces of large cities across the world. While many of these projects are initially launched informally without any support from the state, they gradually become integrated into the social fabric of the city. To understand the evolution of the formal–informal boundaries of the practice, we argue that we should be paying attention to the specific institutional contexts that frame gardeners' interactions with public authorities. Drawing from a study of citizen‐led gardens in Mexico City, we show that informal urban gardening becomes a disconnected‐from‐the‐state practice. On the one hand, the Mexico City government has shown a growing interest in regulating urban agriculture. On the other hand, gardeners are increasingly trying to find their own ways to formalize and perennate their practice. We suggest that this disconnection between gardeners and the state is best explained by the weakness of the institutional context in which their interactions take place. A top‐down policymaking process, along with the incapacity and unwillingness of the multi‐leveled city government to implement policies effectively, reinforces norms of mistrust and generates low expectations among gardeners as they interact with local authorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The types of the city-regional, i.e. city-near rural, peri-urban and intra-urban agriculture ("urban agriculture") were qualitatively recorded in this study on the basis of an online research. The types of agriculture were assigned to main actors and their main intention. Profit-oriented companies, non-profit-oriented urban gardening initiatives and the administrations of the cities and municipalities were named as the main actors. The companies manage both open land areas and greenhouse areas, work in building-integrated or building-bound agriculture. They use open spaces, cages, stables, plant growth chambers or combined systems such as aquaponics to produce a wide variety of products. They use soil, substrates, hydroponic media or growing media. Their services range from the production of arable and horticultural crops to animal husbandry; Processing and refining of raw materials are included. The raw materials are used to produce food for humans, animal feed or to generate energy. Nature conservation and biodiversity services are increasingly being integrated. There are also social benefits. Funding measures play an important role in the orientation of many companies. Not-for-profit, urban gardening takes place in public spaces, community gardens and in house and allotment gardens. The focus here is on questions of lifestyle, self-realization, participation and cooperation, self-sufficiency, shaping the environment and experiencing nature. The common good-oriented work of the cities and municipalities themselves leads to programs and concepts in terms of services of general interest, but also to their own measures that represent the framework for urban agriculture. For this purpose, guiding concepts such as the edible city, urban-regional food systems, food councils, sponge city or green city concepts are adapted and further developed. The targeted addressing, networking and, if necessary, financial support of the economically working farms, the socially oriented working urban gardeners and the public welfare-oriented cities and municipalities that have to create the framework conditions for urban agriculture appear to be of central importance in order to support and promote agriculture in its multifunctionality and to develop its huge potential. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Sustainable urban farming is a strategy to improve food availability and food access, and to support food security for the urban population in Malaysia. However, the development of these activities has been affected by several constraints. This article aims to identify the challenges faced by urban farmers in Kuala Lumpur. The challenges of practicing urban gardening were categorised into five groups (technical, resource-related, economic, social and environmental factors). Data were collected via a questionnaire survey distributed to 106 urban farming practitioners from 17 urban gardens in Kuala Lumpur and were analysed using descriptive analysis by tabulating the frequency and percentage. The result showed that highly fluctuating weather, problems with access to available land and financial problems were the main challenges faced by urban farmers in Kuala Lumpur. Furthermore, difficulty in access to a financial institution, lack of commitment and the increased number of pests were also the problems faced by the urban garden. Availability of technical factors is the least issue in this study. Correlation analysis was used to determine the relationship between the challenges of urban gardens and socio-demographics. The result showed that there was a weak correlation between technical factors of educational level (r = 0.225) and race (r = 0.210), respectively, as well as between race and social factor (r = 0.201), while there was a moderate correlation between age and environment factor (r = −0.410). There is a need for further work, and comprehensive research should be conducted to capture what actions can be taken to create a policy-making space for urban farmers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

The partial lockdown during the Covid-19 pandemic in Indonesia pushed people to work from and spend more time at home. During this unprecedented time, many people pursued new hobbies in gardening, which proved to enhance physical and mental health. With anxieties regarding food insecurity, food gardens became a new urban trend. With a relatively tiny space available, it is possible to make an urban food garden in the front yard of a house using various cultivation techniques to maximize space. However, the implementation of food gardens in urban houses is quite challenging due to limited space. Then, we reflect on the practical process and personal benefits gained from developing a tiny food garden at home. The tiny food garden could produce a variety of vegetables and herbs, such as the spinach family, lettuce, Asian greens, the tomato family, eggplants, the basil family, mint, rosemary, moringas, and butter y-pea flowers. It may support a household with few amounts of fresh emergency food in the worst scenario during the Covid-19 pandemic. Besides, developing a tiny food garden at home may also provide co-benefits such as enhanced subjective well-being, increased appreciation of food and the environment, motivating others to start gardening at home, and great personal satisfactions of consuming home-grown food. With all these socio-ecological co-benefits, home food garden must be integrated as a strategy to achieve urban sustainability and increase household food resilience. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Allotment gardens (AGs) are widely used in metropolitan areas around the world to offer agricultural opportunities to urban residents. However, there are not enough individual plots for residents to rent for urban gardening, and research on AGs from a city-wide perspective is ongoing. In addition, AGs have a long history in Tokyo, yet few international studies on the current situation of AGs have addressed Asian cities. Thus, this study intends to analyze the provision of AGs and its influencing factors in Tokyo. Using ArcGIS combined the 472-points dataset created by geo-coordinate mapping with urban GIS data to reveal spatial characteristics in four dimensions. Results demonstrate that most AGs are in the urbanization promotion area; most municipalities have AGs; AGs are concentrated within 20 to 30 km from the center of Tokyo; the AGs' clusters are located at the municipal boundaries. We conducted multiple regressions to determine the influencing factors at the municipal level, with the provision that AGs are related to population density, land price, and the ratio of productive green space. The policy implication of this study is that policymakers need to consider the siting strategy of AGs based on spatial characteristics of AGs. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Analyses of household urban agriculture have demonstrated a wealth of personal, economic, social, moral or political uses for self-provisioned food, yet have often understood the practice itself as merely a production process. This 'means-to-an-end' perspective is especially pronounced in studies of locations undergoing economic hardship. Urban gardening in postsocialist Central and Eastern Europe and the former Soviet Union has been framed as an element of an informal economy, enabling household savings, access to informal networks and avoidance of industrial goods deemed ethically dubious. In this article, I present evidence from participant observation and interviews with urban gardeners conducted in 2014–2015 in Ljubljana, Slovenia, where urban agriculture proliferated during the European debt crisis that began in 2009. I interpret the material through an ecological perspective that focuses on labour in nature and highlights the interconnected, situated role of the gardener. My analysis of gardening styles, behaviours, attitudes and life-narratives of long-term urban growers challenges the utilitarian interpretation by arguing that urban agriculture in Ljubljana is in fact a means in itself—not an informal economy, but a narrative practice. While undertaken to ameliorate the effects of economic hardship, household urban agriculture first and foremost promotes individual wellbeing and restores a stable sense of self. I outline a series of self-making benefits of working with cultivated, edible nature that helped gardeners reconstruct their biographies after their previously established self-making processes collapsed in the economic downturn. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban areas are the fastest growing land type worldwide. By 2060, it is expected that approximately 70% of the human population will live in cities. With increased urban population growth, food sovereignty and security issues have gained more attention, resulting in a drastic increase in urban food production activities including, urban farming and gardening. The extent to which urban farms function, their social, ecological and economic composition, and their overall impact on local food security has become an often overlooked, but important topic. From 2014 to 2017, we partnered with 29 urban farms in the San Francisco Bay Area for a broad-scale survey of urban farm characteristics. Findings reported in this research focused on local (on-farm) characteristics, including management practices, on-farm spatial composition, and estimated productivity. We implemented open-ended surveys for farm managers to better understand management practices, measured on-farm elements, including yields, crop biodiversity, weed composition and abundance, and measured spatial characteristics such as area of production, non-crop area, and proportion of infrastructure to better understand how urban farms were spatially configured. We found trends regarding spatial composition, including a large proportion of farm area dedicated to infrastructure and underutilized potential production space. All farms surveyed had adopted a breadth of agroecological management practices, including cover cropping, crop rotations, intercropping, and a range of soil conservation practices. Measured farms are incredibly productive, with estimated seasonal yields of 7.14 kg/square meter. Estimated yields were comparable with actual yields as measured at two participating farms. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban agriculture is increasingly recognized as an important sustainable pathway for climate change adaptation and mitigation, for building more resilient cities, and for citizens' health. Urban agriculture systems appear in many forms -- both commercial and non-commercial. The value of the services derived from urban agriculture, e.g., enhanced food security, air quality, water regulation, and high level of biodiversity, is often difficult to quantify to inform policymakers and the general public in their decision making. We perform a contingent valuation survey of four different types of urban agriculture Where the citizens of Oslo are asked about their attitudes and willingness to pay non-commercial (urban community gardens and urban gardens for work training, education and kindergartens) and for commercial (i.e. aquaponics and vertical production) forms of urban agriculture. Results show that the citizens of Oslo are willing to increase their tax payments to contribute to further development of urban farming in Oslo. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Fifteen soil and 45 vegetable samples from Detroit community gardens were analyzed for potential antimicrobial resistance contamination. Soil bacteria were isolated and tested by antimicrobial susceptibility profiling, horizontal gene transfer, and whole-genome sequencing. High-throughput 16S rRNA sequencing analysis was conducted on collected soil samples to determine the total bacterial composition. Of 226 bacterial isolates recovered, 54 were from soil and 172 from vegetables. A high minimal inhibitory concentration (MIC) was defined as the MIC greater than or equal to the resistance breakpoint of Escherichia coli for Gram-negative bacteria or Staphylococcus aureus for Gram-positive bacteria. The high MIC was observed in 63.4 and 69.8% of Gram-negative isolates from soil and vegetables, respectively, against amoxicillin/clavulanic acid, as well as 97.5 and 82.7% against ampicillin, 97.6 and 90.7% against ceftriaxone, 85.4 and 81.3% against cefoxitin, 65.8 and 70.5% against chloramphenicol, and 80.5 and 59.7% against ciprofloxacin. All Gram-positive bacteria showed a high MIC to gentamicin, kanamycin, and penicillin. Forty of 57 isolates carrying tetM (70.2%) successfully transferred tetracycline resistance to a susceptible recipient via conjugation. Whole-genome sequencing analysis identified a wide array of antimicrobial resistance genes (ARGs), including those encoding AdeIJK, Mex, and SmeDEF efflux pumps, suggesting a high potential of the isolates to become antimicrobial resistant, despite some inconsistency between the gene profile and the resistance phenotype. In conclusion, soil bacteria in urban community gardens can serve as a reservoir of antimicrobial resistance with the potential to transfer to clinically important pathogens, resulting in food safety and public health concerns. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Our research explores the historical continuities and changes in urban gardening through a case study of a small post-industrial city in the Midwest. We argue that although the recent interest in urban gardening is unique in some ways, it follows previous garden initiatives in many of its approaches and goals. While urban agriculture was most visible during political and economic crises in the early and mid-20th century, it has been a constant presence in the city even as the location of gardens and farms have shifted. Settlement house gardens, Victory Gardens, and community gardens today all share a common logic that promotes solutions to poverty by expanding access to healthy foods and green spaces while seeking to improve individual behaviors in marginalized neighborhoods. At the same time, local food movements have always been shaped by understandings of community and citizenship at scales beyond the local. While gardening programs have often failed to acknowledge the deep-seated factors that produce food insecurity, we suggest that present-day local food initiatives offer the possibility of a more inclusive food system based on embodied relationships with agriculture and place, both in the city and beyond. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

• Home-gardening is a widespread practice in Croatia and Czechia. • Main motivation for FSP is fresh and healthy food and not the financial reasons. • FSP brings significant, if usually unintended, environmental benefits. • Framing FSP on Eastern European context broadens the conceptual scope of responses to environmental crisis. European accounts of home gardening or food self-provisioning (FSP) typically frame these practices as primarily economically motivated and need related, and community gardening or urban agriculture as ethical sustainability strategies. Drawing on primary research on FSP in two East European countries, this paper combines analysis of socio-demographic and socio-economic characteristics of food self-provisioners with analysis of their motivations. There is strong evidence that while economic reasons are present FSP is primarily motivated, even in comparatively less affluent East European societies, by the desire to obtain fresh and healthy food and engage in a pleasurable activity. Based on our findings, we thus propose that a more appropriate framing for FSP in the European East and West alike is characterised by autonomy and community care. This would provide for a reengagement with the epistemology of sustainability-compliant behaviours and attitudes beyond the joy vs. limitations dichotomy. Given the performativity of social scientific research, rooting the framing on knowledge from East European societies, where FSP is widespread in all social groups, including the affluent middle class, is important for lending credence to alternative visions and practices that can enhance the sustainability of overdeveloped societies. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban agriculture can be used to improve green infrastructure and social well-being and as a tool for the sustainable regeneration of urban environments. Furthermore, urban agriculture, including urban gardening, has emerged as a means to help improve food insecurity and tackle climate change. This paper focuses on the social urban garden located in the Ponticelli neighbourood on the eastern outskirts of Naples, which has around 70,000 inhabitants. This area originally had an agricultural economy but has now undergone uncontrolled building expansion and lacks an adequate supply of services for the community. The area also suffers from significant social and cultural problems, including high unemployment, school dropout rates and crime rates, which touch a large part of the population. The urban garden of Ponticelli represents an example of how social cohesion can be built through the expansion of urban agriculture, while at the same time contributing to the goal of sustainability and maintaining links to the rural economy. Yet the urban agriculture initiative risks remaining isolated and being of limited benefit to regional and metropolitan efforts for environmental sustainability if it is not framed within an overall metropolitan strategy for an urban agriculture programme. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A great part of the interwar expansion of European cities relied on social housing schemes built on affordable suburban land following garden-city principles. Green spaces were an essential part of these extension plans, which were particularly ambitious in London and Frankfurt. While both initiatives have been extensively researched, most of these studies contemplate their green areas as an offshoot of the housing programmes and not as an essential part of the planning. Based on published sources and archival research, this article compares two of the most paradigmatic settlements of the period, Becontree in London and Römerstadt in Frankfurt, to analyze the role gardens played in the urban agenda. As this comparative study shows, private gardens and allotments were not a byproduct but a keystone in interwar suburban planning, albeit in different ways. While in London they were introduced as a new hobby for the working classes that insisted on its ornamental features, in Frankfurt, they were part of a comprehensive plan to make the city self-sufficient, so its productive, utilitarian role was prioritized. Both strategies used gardens in a significant way to achieve their ultimate goal of improving living conditions in order to avoid social unrest. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

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Copyright of Acta Scientiarum Polonorum. Formatio Circumiectus is the property of Wydawnictwo Uniwersytetu Rolniczego im. Hugona Kollataja w Krakowie and its content may not be copied or emailed to multiple sites or posted to a listserv without the copyright holder's express written permission. However, users may print, download, or email articles for individual use. This abstract may be abridged. No warranty is given about the accuracy of the copy. Users should refer to the original published version of the material for the full abstract. (Copyright applies to all Abstracts.)

The majority of the world's population now lives in cities, where reduced levels of native biodiversity, coupled with fewer opportunities for people to experience nature, are expected to result in an urban public increasingly disconnected from the natural environment. Residential gardens have great potential to both support native species and allow people daily contact with nature. Embracing the epistemological assumption that urban residents' interactions with nature in their gardens and parks may be complex, unpredictable, contradictory, and context-dependent, we used an interpretative phenomenological analysis approach to explore the human relationship with urban nature in a New Zealand city. We conducted 21 semi-structured "go-along" interviews to facilitate a deeper understanding of participants' personal experiences of nature in parks and gardens. Interviews revealed a tension between stated values and concrete actions affecting urban biodiversity in private gardens. This value-action gap stemmed from the multiple purposes and values that people hold for their gardens, which do not necessarily align with conservation of native nature. By recognizing that urban residents hold multiple values and want their gardens to fulfill multiple purposes, local authorities aiming to promote nature conservation in cities can design wildlife gardening programs that meet these multiple needs and reconcile conflicting priorities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper critically engages with the increasingly prevalent concept and practice of "urban experimentation" and associated transformations towards sustainability. Too often, the paper argues, urban experiments are assessed from a diffusion-oriented perspective which foregrounds questions of how to replicate lessons from (similar) experiments across (similar) places. This common perspective implies an over-emphasis of unifying visions and rationales at the expense of diverging interpretations of "sustainability"; a neglect of "unsuccessful" experiments and questions of persistence; and an over-focus on certain types of – "green" or "creative" – places while disregarding the emergence and characteristics of experiments in more ordinary urban geographies. To address these issues, the paper introduces a novel methodological approach, combining a metropolitan geodemographic typology with qualitative data on 166 active and inactive urban agriculture initiatives across London. Varying socio-spatial patterns of experimentation are discussed, illustrating how contextual differences at neighbourhood levels matter. The paper demonstrates that neglecting the diversity of urban socio-economic, demographic, and physical contexts may lead to the erroneous suggestion that only places privileged by certain demographics can "achieve" sustainability and points to the significance of experiments beyond narrow ideas of novelty and innovation. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This paper presents an agent-based model that explores the conditions for ongoing participation in community gardening projects. We test the effects of Ostrom's well-known Design Principles for collective action and use an extensive database collected in 123 cases in Germany and two case studies in the Netherlands to validate it. The model uses the Institutional Analysis and Development (IAD) framework and integrates decision mechanisms derived from the Theory of Reasoned Action (TRA). This allows the analysis of volunteer participation in urban community gardens over time, based on the garden's institutions (Design Principles) and the volunteer's intention to join gardening. This intention is influenced by the volunteer's expectations and past experiences in the garden (TRA). We find that not all Design Principles lead to higher levels of participation but rather, participation depends on specific combinations of the Design Principles. We highlight the need to update the assumption about sanctioning in such systems: sanctioning is not always beneficial, and may be counter-productive in certain contexts. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study investigated the contribution of urban community gardens to food availability in Emfuleni Local Municipality, Gauteng Province of South Africa. The objectives were to determine the ability of the urban community gardens to produce vegetables throughout the year and to assess the contribution of these gardens to food availability. It was conducted in six (6) townships of Emfuleni Local Municipality by means of semi-structured survey questionnaires. A sample of 254 participants was randomly drawn from 418 urban farmers. A descriptive analysis technique and one-way ANOVA formed part of the data analysis using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS) version 23. The study found that community gardens contributed to food availability of the respondents by providing fresh vegetables to most urban farmers and their household members throughout the year. Furthermore, it was discovered that there is no relationship between vegetable availability and gender of the respondents. Based on the results, the study recommended that farmers in urban community gardens should focus on increasing and sustaining their production to ensure that they have adequate vegetables to feed their families throughout the year. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Purpose: Urban soil contamination by heavy metals is one of the foremost challenges for urban soil quality, especially in the urban agriculture context. Urban gardening is a common practice in many industrialized and developing countries. How sources of soil contamination relate to inputs and influence the heavy metal content in soils, however, is not established yet. Materials and methods: This study aims to assess the potential of pesticide applications (such as Bordeaux mixture) on soil quality. A set of 104 allotment gardens was selected in three cities in France, and topsoil was sampled and analyzed. Results and discussion: The four most abundant metals in urban vegetable garden topsoils were Zn, Pb, Cu, and Cr. The past and/or present industrial and urban activities are not the only cause of the metal contamination in urban vegetable garden soils. Gardens, where pesticides such as the Bordeaux mixture are being used showed significantly higher total Cu values in soils (78 mg kg−1 compared with 49 mg kg−1 for untreated gardens). Conclusions: Even though the risk of metal contamination through vegetable consumption is usually considered low, we clearly identified indicators of anthropogenic Cd, Cu, Pb, and Zn pollution due to pesticides inputs. This link was particularly strong between the use of Bordeaux mixture and increases Cu levels. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Expanding scholarship on urban farming has not systematically examined what spurs the proliferation of cultivation practices, especially when the city is undergoing economic and social transitions. This study examines the development of the urban cultivation (UC) scene in New Orleans over the decade following Hurricane Katrina with a particular focus on entrepreneurial UC projects. By contextualizing in‐depth interviews with the growers in the historical events in the city, the study finds that the dominant motives of cultivation projects shifted from social missions to economic interests over time, as the city transitioned from recovery to redevelopment. The study highlights the heterogeneity of UC practices, and questions the current scholarship's tendency to situate urban gardens in opposing theoretical frameworks: tools for neoliberal urbanism or food justice activism. The findings show that the distinction between socially motivated and economically motivated UC cannot be easily drawn. Most of the socially motivated UC projects began adopting market participation over time, while many of the economically motivated UC projects operated as social entrepreneurialism. While growers tended to view themselves as alternative to the dominant political‐economic system, they also undoubtedly benefitted from the market‐driven redevelopment of the city that expanded UC opportunities. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

There has been a vibrant community gardening movement in New York City since the 1970s. The movement is predominantly located in working class communities of color and has fought for decades to turn vacant land into beneficial community spaces. However, many of these communities are struggling with gentrification, which has the potential to transform access to and use of community gardens in the city and the politics around them. Drawing on separate multi-year ethnographic projects, this article compares two community gardens in food insecure communities in Queens and Brooklyn: one that is undergoing gentrification and one that is not. We analyze how race and class transformations in each community shape the trajectories of urban agriculture spaces, specifically the ideologies, agricultural practices, and daily interactions among gardeners and as well as between gardeners and nongardeners. We find significant differences in how the two sets of community gardeners conceptualize the purpose of their gardens, particularly in constructing them as green spaces, agricultural production sites, and tools for achieving food justice. We argue that these differences can be best understood at the intersection of the personal histories of individuals, the organizational settings in which the gardens are embedded, and each neighborhood's history of urban renewal and gentrification. Our findings show why some community gardens in food insecure communities adopt a food justice vision, while others do not, and how gentrification can amplify racial and class tensions within community gardens and between gardeners and nongardeners. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Nature-based solutions directed at improving biodiversity, on both public and private land, can provide multiple benefits, but many of these benefits are not being fully realised. One reason is the normative and cognitive disconnect between people and nature, highlighting the need for new learning programs to foster better nature connections. More is known about learning in the context of community gardens than in relation to private gardens. Using semi-structured interviews and thematic analysis, this study explores learning among residents engaged in home gardening for biodiversity in Winnipeg, Canada. We uncovered diverse and interconnected learning processes/activities founded on formative childhood experiences. The processes/activities were non-formal and informal, and included individual, social and blended experiences. Learning outcomes were also mutually influencing and multi-levelled, comprising normative, cognitive/behavioural and relational changes. The results support an analytical framework suggesting how learning-focused initiatives can enhance biodiversity on private property and aid in delivery of nature-based solutions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

With rising concerns for food security and climate adaptation, urban gardening and urban agriculture have emerged as a rising agenda for urban resilience around the world. In East Asia, a variety of initiatives have emerged in recent years with different levels of institutional support. Focusing on Taipei, where a vibrant urban agriculture movement has been unleashed in recent years, this article examines the ongoing outcomes of the city's new 'Garden City Initiative', which supports the establishment of urban gardens including community gardens, rooftop gardens and school gardens. Based on interviews and participant observations during the initial period of advocacy, planning and implementation between 2014 and 2017, this study examines the background of the programme, the involvement of governmental and non-governmental actors and the programme's ongoing implementation. Based on the findings, the article further reflects upon their implications for the practices of urban governance in the face of contemporary environmental, political and social challenges. The case of Taipei suggests a model in which policy formation and implementation may require opportunistic actions involving a variety of actors and organisations in both institutions and the civil society. Rather than dramatic changes or instant institutional realignment, the effort may require strategic adaptation of the existing bureaucratic structure, while mobilising its strengths and resources. In addition, despite the critical role of civil society organisations, the Taipei case also illustrates a considerable public-sector investment, distinct from the predominant model of neoliberal governance that has been associated with urban gardening programmes elsewhere. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban agriculture is an integral aspect of the urban food system in African cities. This is particularly so in Cape Town where despite frequent droughts and harsh physical conditions the activity has thrived largely as a result of the available organisational and material support to urban gardeners. While several supporting actors (e.g. government institutions and non-governmental organisations) provide various forms of assistance to urban gardeners in the Cape Flats, access to this support is little known. Moreover, there is limited knowledge on the level of coordination of activities among supporting actors in facilitating urban agriculture initiatives in the city. This study examines the linkages between urban gardeners and supporting actors in Mitchells Plain, Cape Town. It is based on a mixed methods approach that employs questionnaire and in-depth interviews to gather information from urban gardeners and supporting officials. The findings show that the nature and strength of the linkages between urban gardeners and supporting actors are critical in determining urban gardening success. The findings also show that there is minimal cooperation among non-state actors operating in Mitchells Plain. Since the success of urban gardeners hinges on external support, there is a need for increased collaboration and partnership among supporting actors. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

A renaissance of community gardening is unfolding on a global urban scale. Scholars have analysed community gardening projects as empowering, contested or controlled spaces depending on the local governance networks in which, or despite of which, they emerge. Focusing on the political-economic context in which gardening activities emerge in Amsterdam, we present community gardens as places where the neoliberal localisation of the city unfolds. Based on a qualitative study of 19 community gardening projects in the city of Amsterdam, we argue that community gardening projects in Amsterdam can be seen as "controlled space" [Eizenberg, E. 2012a. "Actually Existing Commons: Three Moments of Space of Community Gardens in New York City." Antipode 44 (3): 764–782.]: a space where various institutional governance actors have a varied level of influence and control. Following [McClintock, N. 2014. "Radical, Reformist, and Garden-Variety Neoliberal: Coming to Terms with Urban Agriculture's Contradictions." Local Environment 19 (2): 147–171.] who argues that community gardens can be "radical and neoliberal at once" we unpack this notion of controlled space. We compare differently managed gardening projects and describe the varied relations between gardeners and four governance actors, namely local government, welfare organisations, green NGOs and housing associations. We show how these relations both impair and enable the civic participation of gardeners, the inclusive potential of gardens and an alternative, local food provision and distribution. Finally, we reflect on what this means for the potential of community gardening, a rising urban phenomenon, to (re)claim urban space. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

COVID-19 gardening could herald a greener, healthier future However, these countries represent approximately 81% of the global COVID-19 reported infections (on 22 Oct 2020) with clear initial COVID-19 infection peaks at different times of the year. We found that the pattern in gardening interest was strongly synchronized with the first-wave infection peaks of the COVID-19 pandemic (Figure 1; I F i = 64.29, I R i SP 2 sp = 0.64; I P i < 0.001), showing strong cross-country interest in gardening as lockdowns became more widespread. The world is currently experiencing major public health and socioeconomic crises, as COVID-19 impacts the way we live, work, and interact (Lambert I et al i . 2020). [Extracted from the article]

In our urbanizing society, urban horticulture is gaining relevance due to its potential to increase resource efficiency, contribute to city food security and enhance associated ecosystem and social services. In cities, however, spaces available for cultivation are limited, thus leading to the need to explore innovative growing solutions, for instance, plant cultivation on building rooftops. While rooftop horticulture experiences are “sprouting” all over the world, scientific evidence on the most suitable growing solutions, policies and potential benefits is growing. The present review will address the main features of rooftop horticulture, providing an interdisciplinary assessment of different approaches for development and the multi-faceted forms that rooftop horticulture may assume in different contexts, bringing together existing experiences as well as suggestions for planning of future sustainable cities.In some urban rooftop gardens mineral fertilizers and pesticides are used. This article work will help to understand rooftop gardening and to conduct future research work on rooftop gardens. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Although best management practices have been recommended by government agencies and non-profit organisations to reduce community gardeners' potential exposure to soil contaminants such as lead, some gardeners do not perform these practices. Understanding gardeners' beliefs and motivations is critical for effective promotion of safer gardening practices. This study, grounded in the Theory of Planned Behavior (TPB), employed five focus groups to investigate Atlanta community garden leaders' perspectives concerning three gardening practices: composting, hygiene behaviours, and mulching. These general practices are also considered safe gardening practices in that they can reduce exposure to toxicants in urban gardens. Qualitative analysis identified advantages and disadvantages; supporters and non-supporters; and barriers and facilitators that might influence gardeners' opinions regarding these behaviours. Gardeners expressed that more funding, volunteers, and training are needed to promote these behaviours. Gardeners noted that mulch and compost provided advantages such as improving soil quality, but a primary barrier was concern about contamination of source materials. Focus group participants did not directly associate composting and mulching with reduction of exposure to soil contaminants. Behavioural challenges related to hygiene included concerns about decreased exposure to salubrious bacteria, inadequate access to potable water, and limited availability of gloves and wipes. These study findings characterise factors that community garden stakeholders should consider when promoting safe gardening practices and interventions. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Urban gardening contributes to society in various ways such as by enhancing communities, ensuring food security, improving health, providing places for recreation as well as by raising environmental awareness. Although urban gardening initiatives have been spreading, the challenge remains to include vulnerable communities, especially in developing countries, which face manifold infrastructural, environmental and social pressures, thereby helping achieve the United Nations Sustainable Development Goal (SDG) 11 (Make cities and human settlements inclusive, safe, resilient and sustainable) and foster urban inclusiveness. The study evaluated the performance of urban community gardens in order to verify their potential for implementation in the slums of Sao Paulo, Brazil. Significant assets and drawbacks were analyzed from existing studies and categorized into social, spatial, economic and environmental factors. Additionally, qualitative interviews on societal and motivational issues were conducted with contributors to a community garden in Dresden, Germany. The results highlight the potential of urban gardening to counteract spatial pressures in informal areas by creating green spaces, improving food quality, raising environmental awareness and, in general, ensuring a higher quality of life. On the other hand, some obstacles remain to be overcome, such as soil pollution, the high probability of further contamination as well as a lack of basic infrastructure. A top-down implementation of urban gardens within slums is considered feasible if the projects are designed in partnership with the community, and a long-term adaptive management model is applied. Under these conditions, urban gardening will make a significant contribution to 'inclusive urbanism'. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Different forms of urban agriculture have gained increased interest and participation in Germany. One form of urban agriculture is self-harvest gardening where participants can lease a plot in a field with various vegetables. However, in Western Europe, little is known about self-harvest garden participants and providers or their motivation and social background. Therefore, in 2015 a survey was conducted with 173 participants and 34 providers from different regions and cities in Germany. The study aimed to compile a self-characterization of people engaged in this form of gardening on a national level. The outcome of the survey captures an emerging phenomenon. While many of the self-harvest gardens can be assigned as grassroot initiatives, participants generally characterized themselves as having a middle or high income, a sustainable lifestyle, high level of education and high nutritional awareness. Disproportionally often, females were engaged in self-harvest gardening. Providers were mainly farmers with a high affinity to organic agriculture. Often the farmers had synergistic effects with other activities like farm shops. Location of the garden area, good support by the providers, promotional marketing and social activities were identified as factors for successful self-harvest gardens. The main incentive for the participants seem to be their engagement in the production of local and healthy food, which can be taken into account by the providers when considering their future focus. On the other hand, problems with bad harvest, theft and vandalism were challenges for some self-harvest gardens. While, legal problems were not a major concern for the providers. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]