Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dzt6s Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-27T09:52:50.243Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The problems, promise and pragmatism of community food growing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 May 2018

Chris Maughan ,
Rebecca Laycock Pedersen  and
Hannah Pitt
Chris Maughan*
Affiliation:
Centre for Agroecology, Water and Resilience, Coventry University, Priory Street, Coventry CV1 5FB, UK
Rebecca Laycock Pedersen
Affiliation:
School of Geography, Geology and the Environment, Keele University, Keele, Staffordshire ST5 5BG, UK
Hannah Pitt
Affiliation:
Sustainable Places Research Institute, Cardiff University, Cardiff, CF10 3AT, UK
*
*Corresponding author: [email protected]
Get access Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Alongside associated forms of socially and politically conscious food production, community food growing is routinely connected to a wide range of social and environmental benefits. However, robust evidence in support of these associations remains scant, and while the conversation has shifted in recent years to take account of the sometimes unintended or negative aspects of these activities, no consensus has been reached about how such forms of food growing should adapt to new conditions, or be scaled up to maximize their positive impacts. A July 2016 conference was organized to address this strategic shortfall. This themed issue presents the papers resulting from the conference.

Keywords

Community food growingcommunity gardeningparticipatory action researchsustainable food systemsurban agricultureurban agroecologyurban gardening
Type
Commentary
Information
Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems , Volume 33 , Special Issue 6: Themed Content: Critical Foodscapes , December 2018 , pp. 497 - 502
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

Algert, S.J., Baameur, A., and Renvall, M.J. 2014. Vegetable output and cost savings of community gardens in San Jose, California. Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 114(7):1072–1076.Google Scholar
American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) 2018. Growing community across the U.S. and Canada. Retrieved January 22, 2018, from https://communitygarden.org/mission/Google Scholar
Birkin, L. and Goulson, D. 2015. Using citizen science to monitor pollination services. Ecological Entomology 40(S1):3–11.Google Scholar
Bonow, M. and Normark, M. this issue. Community gardening in Stockholm: participation, driving forces and the role of the municipality. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. doi: 10.1017/S1742170517000734.Google Scholar
Boston, P.Q., Lopez, I.A., and Harper, K. 2015. Diversity-grown: participatory evaluation of a community gardening initiative through Photovoice. Practicing Anthropology 37(4):38–43.Google Scholar
Bryant, C.R. and Chahine, G. 2015. Action research and reducing the vulnerability of peri-urban agriculture: a case study from the Montreal region. Geographical Research 54(2):165–175.Google Scholar
Bugdalski, L., Lemke, L.D., and McElmurry, S.P. 2014. Spatial variation of soil lead in an urban community garden: implications for risk-based sampling. Risk Analysis 34(1):17–27. doi: 10.1111/risa.12053.Google Scholar
Castro, D.C., Samuels, M., and Harman, A.E. 2013. Growing healthy kids: a community garden-based obesity prevention program. American Journal of Preventive Medicine 44(3):193–S199.Google Scholar
CoDyre, M., Fraser, E.D., and Landman, K. 2015. How does your garden grow? An empirical evaluation of the costs and potential of urban gardening. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 14(1):72–79.Google Scholar
Cohen, N. and Reynolds, K. 2014. Urban agriculture policy making in New York's ‘new political spaces’ strategizing for a participatory and representative system. Journal of Planning Education and Research 34(2):221–234. doi: 10.1177/0739456X14526453.Google Scholar
Department for Communities and Local Government 2012. Space for food growing: a guide. https://www.gov.uk/government/uploads/system/uploads/attachment_data/file/7595/2203624.pdfGoogle Scholar
Design Trust for Public Space 2015. Farming Concrete Data Collection Toolkit. https://farmingconcrete.org/barn/static/resources/DataCollectionToolkit.pdfGoogle Scholar
Ferguson, R.S. and Lovell, S.T. 2014. Permaculture for agroecology: design, movement, practice, and worldview. A review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development 34(2):251–274.Google Scholar
Finn, D. 2014. DIY urbanism: implications for cities. Journal of Urbanism: International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability 7(4):381–398.Google Scholar
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) 2007. The Urban Producer's Resource Book: a practical guide for working with low income urban and peri-urban producers organisations.Google Scholar
Food and Agriculture Organisation (FAO) & RUAF Foundation 2015. A vision for city-region food systems. http://www.fao.org/3/a-i4789e.pdfGoogle Scholar
Galt, R.E., Bradley, K., Christensen, L., Van Soelen Kim, J., and Lobo, R. 2016. Eroding the community in community supported agriculture (CSA): competition's effects in alternative food networks in California. Sociologia Ruralis 56(4):491–512.Google Scholar
Ghose, R. and Pettygrove, M. 2014. Urban community gardens as spaces of citizenship: urban community gardens as spaces of citizenship. Antipode 46(4):1092–1112.Google Scholar
Gittleman, M., Jordan, K., and Brelsford, E. 2012. Using citizen science to quantify community garden crop yields. Cities and the Environment 5(1):1–12.Google Scholar
Goldstein, B.P., Birkved, M., Hauschild, M.Z., and Fernandez, J. 2014. Urban agricultural typologies and the need to quantify their potential to reduce a city's environmental ‘foodprint’. In World Sustainable Building Conference 2014.Google Scholar
Grier, K., Hill, J.L., Reese, F., Covington, C., Bennette, F., MacAuley, L., and Zoellner, J. 2015. Feasibility of an experiential community garden and nutrition programme for youth living in public housing. Public Health Nutrition 18(15):2759–2769.Google Scholar
Guitart, D., Pickering, C., and Byrne, J. 2012. Past results and future directions in urban community gardens research. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 11(4):364–373.Google Scholar
Guitart, D.A., Pickering, C.M., and Byrne, J.A. 2014. Color me healthy: food diversity in school community gardens in two rapidly urbanising Australian cities. Health & Place 26:110–117.Google Scholar
Guthman, J. 2008. Bringing good food to others: investigating the subjects of alternative food practice. Cultural Geographies 15(4):431–447.Google Scholar
Hajer, M. 2003. Policy without polity? Policy analysis and the institutional void. Policy Sciences 36(2):175–195.Google Scholar
Hardman, M. and Larkham, P.J. 2014. The rise of the ‘food charter’: a mechanism to increase urban agriculture. Land Use Policy 39:400–402.Google Scholar
Harper, K. and Afonso, A.I. 2016. Cultivating civic ecology: a Photovoice study with urban gardeners in Lisbon, Portugal. Anthropology in Action 23(1):6–13.Google Scholar
International Panel of Experts of Sustainable Food Systems (IPES) 2017. What makes Urban Food Policy happen? Insights from five case studies. http://www.ipes-food.org/images/Reports/Cities_full.pdfGoogle Scholar
IPES 2016. From uniformity to diversity: a paradigm shift from industrial agriculture to diversified agroecological systems. Brussels: International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES). Retrieved from http://www.ipes-food.orgGoogle Scholar
Jackson, J. this issue. Growing the community – a case study of community gardens in Lincoln's Abbey Ward. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. doi: 10.1017/S1742170517000643.Google Scholar
Jermé, E.S. and Wakefield, S. 2013. Growing a just garden: environmental justice and the development of a community garden policy for Hamilton, Ontario. Planning Theory & Practice 14(3):295–314. doi: 10.1080/14649357.2013.812743.Google Scholar
Kingsley, J.Y., Townsend, M., and Henderson-Wilson, C. 2009. Cultivating health and wellbeing: members’ perceptions of the health benefits of a Port Melbourne community garden. Leisure Studies 28(2):207–219.Google Scholar
Krasny, M. and Tidball, K. 2016. Community gardens as contexts for science, stewardship, and civic action learning. In Blum, J (ed.), Urban Horticulture: Ecology, Landscape, and Agriculture. Waretown, NJ: Apple Academic Press Inc., pp. 267–290.Google Scholar
Laycock, R. 2013. The tip of the iceberg lettuce: what direct and indirect factors enable knowledge and skill sharing in community gardens? Master Thesis Series in Environmental Studies and Sustainability Science. Lund University, Lund, Sweden.Google Scholar
Lile, J. and Richards, L. 2016. Youth as interviewers methods and findings of participatory peer interviews in a youth garden project. Journal of Adolescent Research, 1–24. doi: 0743558416670009.Google Scholar
Lin, B.B., Philpott, S.M., and Jha, S. 2015. The future of urban agriculture and biodiversity-ecosystem services: challenges and next steps. Basic and Applied Ecology 16(3):189–201.Google Scholar
Marsh, P., Gartrell, G., Egg, G., Nolan, A., and Cross, M. 2017. End-of-life care in a community garden: findings from a participatory action research project in regional Australia. Health & Place 45:110–116.Google Scholar
Martin, G., Clift, R., Christie, I., and Druckman, A. 2014. The sustainability contributions of urban agriculture: exploring a community garden and a community farm. In Proceedings of the 9th International Conference on life cycle assessment in the agri-food sector (LCA Food 2014), pp. 752–760.Google Scholar
McClintock, N. 2014. Radical, reformist, and garden-variety neoliberal: coming to terms with urban agriculture's contradictions. Local Environment 19(2):147–171.Google Scholar
Milan Urban Food Policy Pact (October 15, 2015. http://www.milanurbanfoodpolicypact.org/wp-content/uploads/2016/06/Milan-Urban-Food-Policy-Pact-EN.pdfGoogle Scholar
Mitchell, R.G., Spliethoff, H.M., Ribaudo, L.N., Lopp, D.M., Shayler, H.A., Marquez-Bravo, L.G. and McBride, M.B. 2014. Lead (Pb) and other metals in New York city community garden soils: factors influencing contaminant distributions. Environmental Pollution 187:162–169.Google Scholar
Mok, H.F., Williamson, V.G., Grove, J.R., Burry, K., Barker, S.F., and Hamilton, A.J. 2014. Strawberry fields forever? Urban agriculture in developed countries: a review. Agronomy for Sustainable Development 34(1):21–43. doi: 10.1007/s13593-013-0156-7.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(2):341–358. doi: 10.1007/s10460-015-9610-2.Google Scholar
Orsini, F., Gasperi, D., Marchetti, L., Piovene, C., Draghetti, S., Ramazzotti, S., ... and Gianquinto, G. 2014. Exploring the production capacity of rooftop gardens (RTGs) in urban agriculture: the potential impact on food and nutrition security, biodiversity and other ecosystem services in the city of Bologna. Food Security 6(6):781–792.Google Scholar
Peoples Knowledge Editorial Collective 2017. Knowledge for Food Justice: Participatory and Action Research Approaches. Practical Action: Coventry University.Google Scholar
Pudup, M.B. 2008. It takes a garden: cultivating citizen-subjects in organized garden projects. Geoforum: Journal of Physical, Human, and Regional Geosciences 39(3):1228–1240.Google Scholar
Schmutz, U., Kneafsey, M., Kay, C.S., Doernberg, A. and Zasada, I. this issue. Sustainability impact assessments of different urban short food supply chains: examples from London, UK. Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems. doi: 10.1017/S1742170517000564.Google Scholar
Shillington, L.J. 2013. Right to food, right to the city: household urban agriculture, and socionatural metabolism in Managua, Nicaragua. Geoforum 44:103–111.Google Scholar
Smith, V.M., Greene, R.B., and Silbernagel, J. 2013. The social and spatial dynamics of community food production: a landscape approach to policy and program development. Landscape Ecology 28(7):1415–1426.Google Scholar
Speak, A.F., Mizgajski, A., and Borysiak, J. 2015. Allotment gardens and parks: provision of ecosystem services with an emphasis on biodiversity. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 14(4):772–781. doi: 10.1016/j.ufug.2015.07.007.Google Scholar
Taylor, J.R. and Lovell, S.T. 2014. Urban home food gardens in the Global North: research traditions and future directions. Agriculture and Human Values 31(2):285–305.Google Scholar
Tornaghi, C. 2014. Critical geography of urban agriculture. Progress in Human Geography 38(4):551–567.Google Scholar
Tornaghi, C. 2017. Urban agriculture in the food-disabling city: (re)defining urban food justice, reimagining a politics of empowerment. Antipode 49(3):781–801.Google Scholar
Treviño, A.J. and McCormack, K.M. 2016. Service Sociology and Academic Engagement in Social Problems. London: Taylor and Francis. Retrieved from http://public.eblib.com/choice/PublicFullRecord.aspx?p=4468960Google Scholar
van Veenhuizen, R. and Danso, G. 2007. Profitability and Sustainability of Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture. Rome, Italy: Food and Agriculture Organisation. http://www.ruaf.org/sites/default/files/Profitability%20and%20Sustainability.pdfGoogle Scholar
Wang, H., Qiu, F., and Swallow, B. 2014. Can community gardens and farmers’ markets relieve food desert problems? A study of Edmonton, Canada. Applied Geography 55:127–137.Google Scholar
WinklerPrins, A.M.G.A. 2017. Global urban agriculture: convergence of theory and practice between North and South.Google Scholar
World Bank 2013. Urban Agriculture: Findings From Four Case Study Cities. Urban Development Series. Washington, DC: World Bank. http://www.ruaf.org/sites/default/files/Worldbank%20report%20on%20urban%20agriculture.pdfGoogle Scholar
Yap, C. 2017. Garden inside: communication, representation and transformation in Seville's urban gardens [video]. http://canadianfoodstudies.uwaterloo.ca/index.php/cfs/pages/view/GardenInside.Google Scholar