Hostname: page-component-78c5997874-8bhkd Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-15T17:16:19.977Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Growing ‘good food’: urban gardens, culturally acceptable produce and food security

Part of: RAF Social Disadvantage Collection

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  03 September 2018

Lucy O. Diekmann Open the ORCID record for Lucy O. Diekmann [Opens in a new window] ,
Leslie C. Gray  and
Gregory A. Baker
Lucy O. Diekmann*
Affiliation:
Food & Agribusiness Institute, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA, USA University of California Cooperative Extension Santa Clara County, San Jose, CA, USA
Leslie C. Gray
Affiliation:
Department of Environmental Studies and Sciences, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA, USA
Gregory A. Baker
Affiliation:
Food & Agribusiness Institute, Santa Clara University, Santa Clara, CA, USA
*
Author for correspondence: Lucy O. Diekmann, E-mail: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

With food security increasingly seen as an urban concern, urban agriculture (UA) has emerged as one strategy for improving access to healthy, affordable food within cities in the Global North. This research evaluates the contributions of three types of urban gardens in Santa Clara County, California, to food security. Survey, interview and harvest data were collected from home gardeners, community gardeners and gardeners participating in community food security (CFS) programs, which provide low-income families with the materials and training to grow their own vegetables. To assess food security we use a multi-dimensional framework that encompasses food availability, accessibility, nutritional adequacy and cultural acceptability as well as agency within the food system. Over the summer of 2015, median garden production ranged from 26 kg for participants in CFS programs to 56 kg for home gardeners. All garden types produced enough produce for at least one adult to consume the number of cups of vegetables recommended by federal nutritional guidelines. Gardening also increased some low-income gardeners’ access to healthy food, allowing them to have the diet they wanted—one high in organically grown vegetables—but could not otherwise afford to purchase. Interviews showed that gardeners do not think of cultural acceptability strictly in terms of the presence of certain types of cultural crops; they also articulated a broader set of values concerning the environmental and social conditions of food production. At all income levels, gardeners frequently described a set of food values related to knowledge, control, trust, freshness, flavor, organic production methods and sharing, which they were able to enact through gardening. Taken together, these findings demonstrate the nutritional contributions that urban gardens make but also highlight the importance that low-income gardeners place on having food that aligns with their cultural and ethical values and being able to exercise greater autonomy in making food choices. In conclusion, we suggest that more robust, holistic assessments of UA's contributions to food security will include the subjective aspects of food as well as quantitative measures related to food production.

Keywords

Agencyfood accessfood imaginariesfood insecurityfood valuesurban agriculture
Type
Research Paper
Information
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Volume 35 , Issue 2 , April 2020 , pp. 169 - 181
Copyright
Copyright © Cambridge University Press 2018

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Airriess, CA and Clawson, DL (1994) Vietnamese market gardens in New Orleans. Geographical Review 84, 16–31.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Algert, SJ, Baameur, A and Renvall, MJ (2014) Vegetable output and cost savings of community gardens in San Jose, California. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 114, 1072–1076.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Algert, SJ, Baameur, A, Diekmann, LO, Gray, L and Ortiz, D (2016 a) Vegetable output, cost savings, and nutritional value of low-income families’ home gardens in San Jose, CA. Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition 11, 328–336.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Algert, S, Diekmann, L, Renvall, M and Gray, L (2016 b) Community and home gardens increase vegetable intake and food security of residents in San Jose, California. California Agriculture 70, 77–82.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Alkon, AH, Block, D, Moore, K, Gillis, C, DiNuccio, N and Chavez, N (2013) Foodways of the urban poor. Geoforum; Journal of Physical, Human, and Regional Geosciences 48, 126–135.Google Scholar
Allen, P (1999) Reweaving the food security safety net: mediating entitlement and entrepreneurship. Agriculture and Human Values 16, 117–129.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, MD and Cook, JT (1999) Community food security: practice in need of theory? Agriculture and Human Values 16, 141–150.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Association of Public & Land-Grant Universities (2017) The Challenge of Change: Harnessing University Discovery, Engagement, and Learning to Achieve Food and Nutrition Security. Available at: www.aplu.org/ChallengeofChangeGoogle Scholar
Auerbach, C and Silverstein, LB (2003) Qualitative Data: An introduction to Coding and Analysis. NYU Press, New York.Google Scholar
Bacon, CM and Baker, GA (2017) The rise of food banks and the challenge of matching food assistance with potential need: towards a spatially specific rapid assessment approach. Agriculture and Human Values 34, 899–919.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Carney, PA, Hamada, JL, Rdesinski, R, Sprager, L, Nichols, KR, Liu, BY, Pelayo, J, Sanchez, MA and Shannon, J (2012) Impact of a community gardening project on vegetable intake, food security and family relationships: a community-based participatory research study. Journal of Community Health 37, 874–881.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Carolan, MS (2013) Reclaiming Food Security. Routledge, New York.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Centre for Studies in Food Security (2016) The Five A's of Food Security [online]. Available at: https://www.ryerson.ca/foodsecurity (Accessed 22 Aug 2018).Google Scholar
Chappell, MJ (2018) Beginning to End Hunger: Food and the Environment in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, and Beyond. Univ of California Press, Oakland.Google Scholar
Chappell, MJ and LaValle, LA (2011) Food security and biodiversity: can we have both? An agroecological analysis. Agriculture and Human Values 28, 3–26.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Colasanti, K and Hamm, MW (2010) The local food supply capacity of Detroit, MI. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development 1, 1–18.Google Scholar
Coleman-Jensen, A, Rabbit, M, Gregory, C and Singh, A (2017) Household Food Security in the United States in 2016 (ERR-237). U.S. Department of Agriculture, Economic Research Service.Google Scholar
Conk, SJ and Porter, CM (2016) Food gardeners’ productivity in Laramie, Wyoming: More than a hobby. American Journal of Public Health 106, 854–856.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Corlett, JL, Dean, EA and Grivetti, LE (2003) Hmong gardens: botanical diversity in an urban setting. Economic Botany 57, 365–379.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Data USA Santa Clara County, CA [Online]. Available at https://datausa.io/profile/geo/santa-clara-county-ca/ (Accessed 22 March 2018).Google Scholar
Fazzino, DV and Loring, PA (2013) Nutritional and cultural transitions in Alaska native food systems: Legacies of colonialism, contested innovation, and rural-urban linkages. In Hayes-Conroy, A and Hayes-Conroy, J (eds), Doing Nutrition Differently: Critical Approaches to Diet and Dietary Intervention. New York: Routledge, pp. 99–112.Google Scholar
Feeding America (2018) Food Insecurity in Santa Clara County [Online]. Available at http://map.feedingamerica.org/county/2015/overall/california/county/santa-clara (Accessed 22 March 2018).Google Scholar
Gauder, M, Hagel, H, Gollmann, N, Stängle, J, Doluschitz, R and Claupein, W (2019) Motivation and background of participants and providers of self-harvest gardens in Germany. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 34, 534–542.Google Scholar
Gittleman, M, Jordan, K and Brelsford, E (2012) Using citizen science to quantify community garden crop yields. Cities and the Environment (CATE) 5, Article 4, 1–12.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gray, L, Guzman, P, Glowa, KM and Drevno, AG (2014) Can home gardens scale up into movements for social change? The role of home gardens in providing food security and community change in San Jose, California. Local Environment 19, 187–203.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Guthman, J (2008) Bringing good food to others: investigating the subjects of alternative food practice. Cultural Geographies 15, 431–447.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammelman, C (2018) Urban migrant women's everyday food insecurity coping strategies foster alternative urban imaginaries of a more democratic food system. Urban Geography 39, 706–725.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hammelman, C and Hayes-Conroy, A (2015) Understanding cultural acceptability for urban food policy. Journal of Planning Literature 30, 37–48.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Hayes-Conroy, A and Sweet, EL (2015) Whose adequacy?(Re) imagining food security with displaced women in Medellín, Colombia. Agriculture and Human Values 32, 373–384.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Heynen, N, Kurtz, HE and Trauger, A (2012) Food justice, hunger and the city. Geography Compass 6, 304–311.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Horst, M, McClintock, N and Hoey, L (2017) The intersection of planning, urban agriculture, and food justice: a review of the literature. Journal of the American Planning Association 83, 277–295.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Kortright, R and Wakefield, S (2011) Edible backyards: a qualitative study of household food growing and its contributions to food security. Agriculture and Human Values 28, 39–53.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lang, T and Barling, D (2012) Food security and food sustainability: reformulating the debate. The Geographical Journal 178, 313–326.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Lawson, L (2007) Cultural geographies in practice: the South Central Farm: dilemmas in practicing the public. Cultural Geographies 14, 611–616.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Litt, JS, Soobader, MJ, Turbin, MS, Hale, JW, Buchenau, M and Marshall, JA (2011) The influence of social involvement, neighborhood aesthetics, and community garden participation on fruit and vegetable consumption. American Journal of Public Health 101, 1466–1473.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
MacRae, R, Gallant, E, Patel, S, Michalak, M, Bunch, M and Schaffner, S (2010) Could Toronto provide 10% of its fresh vegetable requirements from within its own boundaries? matching consumption requirements with growing spaces. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development 1, 105–128.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Maxwell, S (1996) Food security: a post-modern perspective. Food Policy 21, 155–170.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Mazumdar, S and Mazumdar, S (2012) Immigrant home gardens: places of religion, culture, ecology, and family. Landscape and Urban Planning 105, 258–265.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClintock, N, Cooper, J and Khandeshi, S (2013) Assessing the potential contribution of vacant land to urban vegetable production and consumption in Oakland, California. Landscape and Urban Planning 111, 46–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
McClintock, N, Mahmoudi, D, Simpson, M and Santos, JP (2016) Socio-spatial differentiation in the Sustainable City: a mixed-methods assessment of residential gardens in metropolitan Portland, Oregon, USA. Landscape and Urban Planning 148, 1–16.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Meenar, M and Hoover, B (2012) Community food security via urban agriculture: understanding people, place, economy, and accessibility from a food justice perspective. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development 3, 143–160.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minkoff-Zern, LA (2014 a) Hunger amidst plenty: farmworker food insecurity and coping strategies in California. Local Environment 19, 204–219.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Minkoff-Zern, LA (2014 b) Knowing ‘good food’: immigrant knowledge and the racial politics of farmworker food insecurity. Antipode 46, 1190–1204.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
MTC (2017 a) Income [Online]. Available at http://www.vitalsigns.mtc.ca.gov/income (Accessed 22 March 2018).Google Scholar
MTC (2017 b) Poverty [Online]. Available at http://www.vitalsigns.mtc.ca.gov/poverty (Accessed 22 March 2018).Google Scholar
National Gardening Association (2009) The Impact of Home and Community Gardening in America. National Gardening Association, South Burlington, VT.Google Scholar
Norgaard, K, Reed, R and Van Horn, C (2011) A continuing legacy: Institutional racism, hunger, and nutritional justice on the klamath. In Alkon, A and Agyeman, J (eds), Cultivating Food Justice: Race, Class, and Sustainability. The MIT Press, Cambridge, MA, pp. 23–46.Google Scholar
Opitz, I, Berges, R, Piorr, A and Krikser, T (2016) Contributing to food security in urban areas: differences between urban agriculture and peri-urban agriculture in the Global North. Agriculture and Human Values 33, 341–358.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pothukuchi, K and Kaufman, JL (2000) The food system: a stranger to the planning field. Journal of the American Planning Association 66, 113–124.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pourias, J, Aubry, C and Duchemin, E (2016) Is food a motivation for urban gardeners? Multifunctionality and the relative importance of the food function in urban collective gardens of Paris and Montreal. Agriculture and Human Values 33, 257–273.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Pourias, J, Duchemin, E and Aubry, C (2015) Products from urban collective gardens: food for thought or for consumption? Insights from Paris and Montreal. Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development 5, 175–199.Google Scholar
Raja, S, Morgan, K and Hall, E (2017) Planning for equitable urban and regional food systems. Built Environment 43, 309–314.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Reynolds, K and Cohen, N (2016) Beyond the Kale: Urban Agriculture and Social Justice Activism in New York City. University of Georgia Press, Athens, GA.Google Scholar
Rocha, C (2007) Food insecurity as market failure: a contribution from economics. Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition 1, 5–22.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schupp, JL and Sharp, JS (2012) Exploring the social bases of home gardening. Agriculture and Human Values 29, 93–105.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Schupp, JL, Som Castellano, RL, Sharp, JS and Bean, M (2016) Exploring barriers to home gardening in Ohio households. Local Environment 21, 752–767.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Shamasunder, B, Mason, R, Ippoliti, L and Robledo, L (2015) Growing together: poverty alleviation, community building, and environmental justice through home gardens in Pacoima, Los Angeles. Environmental Justice 8, 72–77.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Simmonds, C (2017) ‘The Silicon Valley paradox: one in four people are at risk of hunger.’ Guardian, 12 Dec.Google Scholar
Slocum, R (2007) Whiteness, space and alternative food practices. Geoforum; Journal of Physical, Human, and Regional Geosciences 38, 520–533.Google Scholar
Smith, CM and Kurtz, HE (2003) Community gardens and politics of scale in New York City. Geographical Review 93, 193–212.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Smith, V, Greene, R and Silbernagel, J (2013) The social and spatial dynamics of community food production: a landscape approach to policy and program development. Landscape Ecology 8, 1415–1426.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Tarkle, B, Haynes, C and Schrock, D (2017) Using demographic survey results to target master gardener volunteer recruitment. Journal of Extension 55, 3RIB8.Google Scholar
Taylor, JR and Lovell, ST (2014) Urban home food gardens in the Global North: research traditions and future directions. Agriculture and Human Values 31, 285–305.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, JR and Lovell, ST (2015) Urban home gardens in the Global North: a mixed methods study of ethnic and migrant home gardens in Chicago, IL. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 30, 22–32.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Taylor, JR, Lovell, ST, Wortman, SE and Chan, M (2017) Ecosystem services and tradeoffs in the home food gardens of African American, Chinese-origin and Mexican-origin households in Chicago, IL. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems 32, 69–86.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
UC Master Gardeners (2018) Santa Clara County, CA, ‘Who We Are,’ Available at http://mgsantaclara.ucanr.edu/who-we-are/ (Accessed 21 March 2018).Google Scholar
U.S. Department of Health and Human Services and U.S. Department of Agriculture (2015) Dietary Guidelines for Americans 2015–2020. 8th Edition. Available at http://health.gov/dietaryguidelines/2015/guidelines.Google Scholar
Valley Verde (2018) ‘Super Jardineros’ Available at http://www.valleyverde.org/super-jardineros/ (Accessed 21 March 2018).Google Scholar
Valley, W and Wittman, H (2018) Beyond feeding the city: the multifunctionality of urban farming in Vancouver, BC. City, Culture and Society, 1–9.Google Scholar
Veggielution (2018) ‘Our Farm’ http://veggielution.org/our-farm/ (Accessed 7 June 2018).Google Scholar
Vitiello, D and Wolf-Powers, L (2014) Growing food to grow cities? The potential of agriculture foreconomic and community development in the urban United States. Community Development Journal 49, 508–523.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
White, MM (2011) Environmental reviews & case studies: D-town Farm: African American resistance to food insecurity and the transformation of Detroit. Environmental Practice 13, 406–417.CrossRefGoogle Scholar