Does Urban Agriculture Improve Food Security? Examining the Nexus of Food Access and Distribution of Urban Produced Foods in the United States: A Systematic Review

Public healthcare disparities in Africa: the food production systems and its dichotomy in a South African context

One of the major concerns of development in Africa is the issue of public health. In Africa, public healthcare has been and still is a problem most African countries are faced with. The problem of public healthcare seems to be unabated even though there are measures that are put in place for its effectiveness. There is hunger, malnutrition, high mortality rate, illnesses and deterioration of life expectancy in most developing countries of Africa. The dramatic unprecedented public health disparity has become a scourge in developing countries where it has purportedly impaired the developmental efforts, economic growth and prosperity. As a result, there is a need to scrutinize possible causes that exacerbates public health issues in developing countries. The paper argues that the current food production system (conventional) contributes to current status of public health as compared to the previous food production system (organic). The purpose of this paper is to conceptualize public healthcare disparities, juxtaposing organic and conventional food production that result as human food consumption. The paper employs literature-based analysis as a methodology to assemble data in respect of public healthcare disparities and food production systems.

Toward Heart-Healthy and Sustainable Cities: A Policy Statement From the American Heart Association

Nearly 56% of the global population lives in cities, with this number expected to increase to 6.6 billion or >70% of the world's population by 2050. Given that cardiometabolic diseases are the leading causes of morbidity and mortality in people living in urban areas, transforming cities and urban provisioning systems (or urban systems) toward health, equity, and economic productivity can enable the dual attainment of climate and health goals. Seven urban provisioning systems that provide food, energy, mobility-connectivity, housing, green infrastructure, water management, and waste management lie at the core of human health, well-being, and sustainability. These provisioning systems transcend city boundaries (eg, demand for food, water, or energy is met by transboundary supply); thus, transforming the entire system is a larger construct than local urban environments. Poorly designed urban provisioning systems are starkly evident worldwide, resulting in unprecedented exposures to adverse cardiometabolic risk factors, including limited physical activity, lack of access to heart-healthy diets, and reduced access to greenery and beneficial social interactions. Transforming urban systems with a cardiometabolic health-first approach could be accomplished through integrated spatial planning, along with addressing current gaps in key urban provisioning systems. Such an approach will help mitigate undesirable environmental exposures and improve cardiovascular and metabolic health while improving planetary health. The purposes of this American Heart Association policy statement are to present a conceptual framework, summarize the evidence base, and outline policy principles for transforming key urban provisioning systems to heart-health and sustainability outcomes.

Does urban agriculture contribute to food security, and how might this be achieved?

OBJECTIVE

Food system challenges exacerbate inequalities in access to fresh healthy food and threaten food security. Lack of food security, referred to as food insecurity, is associated with poorer physical and mental health outcomes and has been identified as a key challenge to address by calls for food system transformation. Increasing food production through urban agriculture, the production of fruit and vegetables in urban areas, has been identified as a potentially effective contributor to food system transformation, but the effect of this on household or UK-level food security is unclear. This paper reviews international evidence of urban agriculture's impact on food security.

DESIGN

Narrative review.

SETTING

This paper reviews international evidence of urban agriculture's impact on food security.

PARTICIPANTS

Previously published international research.

RESULTS

Whilst findings are mixed, available evidence suggests that urban agriculture makes a modest, yet positive, contribution to food security by facilitating the availability of and access to fresh fruit and vegetables to food insecure households.

CONCLUSIONS

Capitalising on the potential for urban agriculture to benefit food security requires government investment and support at both the national and local levels; therefore, increasing access to land for food growing, reducing costs of related resources and collaboration with existing community groups to enhance sharing of skills and expertise are identified as avenues for exploration that may help to achieve this. This review also highlights opportunities for future research in this field that may strengthen the quality of the evidence supporting urban agriculture's impact on food security.

Scale up urban agriculture to leverage transformative food systems change, advance social-ecological resilience and improve sustainability

Scaling up urban agriculture could leverage transformative change, to build and maintain resilient and sustainable urban systems. Current understanding of drivers, processes and pathways for scaling up urban agriculture, however, remains fragmentary and largely siloed in disparate disciplines and sectors. Here we draw on multiple disciplinary domains to present an integrated conceptual framework of urban agriculture and synthesize literature to reveal its social-ecological effects across scales. We demonstrate plausible multi-phase developmental pathways, including dynamics, accelerators and feedback associated with scaling up urban agriculture. Finally, we discuss key considerations for scaling up urban agriculture, including diversity, heterogeneity, connectivity, spatial synergies and trade-offs, nonlinearity, scale and polycentricity. Our framework provides a transdisciplinary roadmap for policy, planning and collaborative engagement to scale up urban agriculture and catalyse transformative change towards more robust urban resilience and sustainability.

Understanding Barriers and Strategies to Accessing Healthy Food in Urban Agriculture for Community Residents in Predominantly Black Communities

BACKGROUND

Some residents in predominantly Black communities face significant challenges in accessing healthy food. However, urban agriculture is a growing sector that aims to increase overall food production, access to affordable and nutritious produce, and potentially improve community food security.

PURPOSE

This study aimed to provide insight into barriers and strategies that urban agriculture growers and advocates identified for accessing urban agriculture markets in their communities.

RESEARCH DESIGN AND STUDY SAMPLE

We interviewed and conducted focus groups with 17 urban growers and local food advocates that work in predominantly Black communities in Chicago.

DATA COLLECTION AND/OR ANALYSIS

Understanding the complexities of access to healthy food can be challenging; therefore, we used the concept of access - accessibility, availability, affordability, accommodation, and acceptability - to better understand these barriers.

RESULTS

Key barriers were the lack of accessibility to traditional food retailers, high availability of processed foods, and cultural acceptability of urban-produced foods.

CONCLUSION

Building urban agriculture networks to support growers, connect with consumers, and emphasize political engagement can help to diversify and grow urban agriculture.

Potential Policy and Community Implications of Equitable Organic Waste, Compost, and Urban Agricultural Systems in the United States

BACKGROUND

Urban organic waste diverted from landfills for use as compost feedstock may help mitigate and adapt to the effects of our changing climate. Yet, compost produced from urban food and yard waste is often a source of contaminants harmful to human and environmental health. Efforts by multiple municipalities are increasing residential and commercial food and yard waste collection; however, finished, tested compost is typically unavailable to those contributing the waste and whose gardens would benefit.

OBJECTIVES

This commentary evaluates the relative equity and safety of U.S. organic waste cycles in relation to urban and peri-urban agriculture (UA) and waste stewardship. We a) explore historical structures that have led to siloed food and waste systems and b) provide recommendations to promote safer compost production from urban organic waste inputs. The engagement of intersectional partners in the creation of equitable policies and contracts that integrate food and waste justice is crucial to this work.

METHODS

A 15-y relationship between community, academic, and government partners in Boston, Massachusetts, has increased access to health-promoting community gardens. Historical concerns raised by gardeners resulted in improvement to the quality of compost sourced from municipal organic waste and motivated a case study of Boston and three other cities (Seattle, Washington; San Francisco, California; New York, New York). This case study provides the approaches used to source, collect, process, test, and deliver urban organic waste as compost for UA. It informed recommendations to improve the safety and equity of organic waste-to-compost cycles.

DISCUSSION

Strict feedstock regulation and required compost safety testing are essential to produce safe, city-sourced compost. Balancing the needs of landfill diversion with equitable distribution to all contributors, particularly low-income and food-insecure people, will help concentrate UA benefits within marginalized communities. Adoption of a public health lens may help ensure the safety of nutrient-rich compost available for urban growers through legislation at state and local levels, along with explicit industry contracts. https://doi.org/10.1289/EHP12921.

Level of minimum acceptable diet and its associated factors among children aged 12-23 months in Ugandan districts

Uganda has made notable progress in improving child nutrition indicators, albeit not fast enough to meet global targets. Navigating the landscape of child nutrition in Uganda demands attention, particularly in light of the necessity for a minimum acceptable diet (MAD) for children aged 12-23 months. While the focus on local nutritional planning is crucial, the absence of routine-specific nutritional status data creates a significant information gap. To bridge this void, this study used datasets from the 2021 Lot Quality Assurance Sampling (LQAS) survey. Data were analysed using multilevel mixed-effects logistic regression (clustering districts based on regional boundaries) at a 5% statistical significance level using STATA version 17. Of the 7,111 children surveyed, 3,256 (49.20%) received the minimum meal frequency, 695 (9.80%) received the minimum dietary diversity, and only 380 (5.34%) received the MAD. There was a notable variation in the proportion of children that received the MAD across regions and districts. Children living in urban areas, children whose mothers had a higher education, and children whose mothers had a diverse diet were more likely to receive the MAD. Children were less likely to receive the MAD if they lived in a household that did not receive a health worker visit within the year. These findings suggest a need to prioritize initiatives aimed at increasing dietary diversity among children in Uganda. This could be done through a variety of approaches, such as leveraging the use of home gardens to boost nutrition through diverse crop cultivation, demonstration gardens, and offering nutrition counselling through village health teams.

Sowing Seeds of Sovereignty: A Qualitative Exploration of Chapter Leader Experiences Who Belong to an African, Caribbean, and Black Women's Agriculture Advocacy Collective

African, Caribbean, and Black (ACB) populations are disproportionately impacted by food insecurity since the COVID-19 pandemic, with reports including limited access to healthy, affordable, and available food resulting in the exacerbation of existing health disparities and poorer living conditions and environments. Many interventions addressing food insecurity among ACB populations incorporate downstream models that emphasize consumer-level solutions (e.g., food donation or assistance programs). While useful for developing short-term solutions, these approaches do not meaningfully engage broader structures and root-causes-and, in many ways, reify existing inequities among these populations. Missing from mainstream dialogue is how food insecurity inequities at the individual level are often generated at higher structural levels and the unique assets of a targeted community or population to grow/distribute their own food and restore frayed transnational cultural foodways. This paper documents a case study of an international, Black women-led agriculture education collective headquartered in the South-Central region of the United States. Drawing on in-depth interviews with affiliate chapter leaders in the United States, US Virgin Islands, and Africa (n = 22), the research investigates how chapter leaders describe unique opportunities and barriers to farming and developing food insecurity solutions. Emergent themes from the data analysis were: (1) diasporically linked barriers, (a) infrastructural/political barriers and (b) patriarchal barriers; (2) mobilizing strategies; and (3) cultural and context-specific solutions. Findings from this study contribute important insights for food security development research centering community-based and grassroots organizing models addressing inequities in food production and health.

The Role of Home Gardens in Promoting Biodiversity and Food Security

Plant genetic resources provide the basis for sustainable agricultural production, adaptation to climate change, and economic development. Many present crop plants are endangered due to extreme environmental conditions induced by climate change or due to the use of a limited selection of plant materials. Changing environmental conditions are a challenge for plant production and food security, emphasizing the urgent need for access to a wider range of plant genetic resources than what are utilized today, for breeding novel crop varieties capable of resilience and adaptation to climate change and other environmental challenges. Besides large-scale agricultural production, it is important to recognize that home gardens have been an integral component of family farming and local food systems for centuries. It is remarkable how home gardens have allowed the adaptation and domestication of plants to extreme or specific ecological conditions, thus contributing to the diversification of cultivated plants. Home gardens can help in reducing hunger and malnutrition and improve food security. In addition, they provide opportunities to broaden the base of cultivated plant materials by harboring underutilized crop plants and crop wild relative species. Crop wild relatives contain a wide range of genetic diversity not available in cultivated crops. Although the importance of home gardens in conserving plant genetic resources is well recognized, there is a risk that local genetic diversity will be lost if traditional plant materials are replaced by high-yielding modern cultivars. This paper provides an overview of home gardens and their present role and future potential in conserving and utilizing plant genetic resources and enhancing food and nutritional security under global challenges.

Brassica rapa subsp. Chinensis juice enhances Bacillus subtilis selectively in leafy green production

Bacillus subtilis (BS) is a well-known beneficial microorganism for plants but is not competitive in the plant rhizosphere microbiome. We report the selective support of Brassica rapa subsp. Chinensis (Xiao Bai Cai) juice (XBCJ) on BS both in hydroponic nutrient solution and the plant rhizosphere of lettuce. After 2 weeks of being inoculated in the lettuce rhizosphere, the Bacillus population was enumerated at 3.30 ± 0.07 log CFU/unit in the BS group and at 5.20 ± 0.39 log CFU/unit in the BS + XBCJ group (p < 0.05). Accordingly, lettuce crops from the BS + XBCJ group were significantly higher than the control group for all of the tested biomass-related parameters (p < 0.05). The treatment did not significantly affect the texture, colour, moisture contents, total phenolic contents, or antioxidant activities of the lettuce crops (p > 0.05). Non-target ultra-performance liquid chromatography-quadrupole time-of-flight mass spectrometry (UPLC-Q-TOF-MS) suggested that phenolic compounds could be the key class of phytochemicals being responsible for the selectivity. High-throughput RNA-based 16S rRNA gene sequencing and analysis were performed to depict the influence of BS and XBCJ over the global microbiome compositions of plant rhizosphere.

Measuring the Effectiveness of Food Policy Councils in Major Cities in the United States

The United States food system is comprised of a diversity of stakeholders representing a range of sectors including agriculture, health, hospitality, and other sectors of the economy. Coordinating these wide-ranging aspects of the food system is a challenging responsibility of the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA) and its counterparts at the state and county level. While the USDA acknowledges the institutional importance of diversity, it has only recently begun to meaningfully consider the agricultural needs of urban environments, the unique experiences from communities of color, and opportunities for urban agriculture in its purview. This study provides a framework for food systems leaders, specifically in food policy councils (FPCs) in large urban communities, to assess the visibility and effectiveness of their diversity and inclusion initiatives represented across three key domains: (1) leadership and governance structures, (2) key stakeholder engagement strategies, and (3) advance food justice. A cluster analysis of the study results for FPCs in 19 U.S. cities and metropolitan areas across these three domains revealed four distinct groups of food policy councils. Results from the assessment of the urban FPCs reveal that they succeed in embedding diversity and inclusion in all three diversity measures, with key stakeholder engagement receiving the highest score at 73%. On average, FPCs received a score of 54% when assessing diversity and inclusion in their leadership and governance and a score of 49% in their activities to advance food justice. Results of the analysis also highlights opportunities to improve individual, thematic, and cumulative scores. Participation from food systems leadership groups such as food policy councils will be vital in advocating for equitable food systems through urban producer and consumer programs in the upcoming reauthorization of the U.S. farm bill in 2024.

Multiple ecosystem service synergies and landscape mediation of biodiversity within urban agroecosystems

Ecosystem services (ESs) are essential for human well-being, especially in urban areas where 60% of the global population will live by 2030. While urban habitats have the potential to support biodiversity and ES, few studies have quantified the impact of local and landscape management across a diverse suite of services. We leverage 5 years of data (>5000 observations) across a network of urban community gardens to determine the drivers of biodiversity and ES trade-offs and synergies. We found multiple synergies and few trade-offs, contrasting previous assumptions that food production is at odds with biodiversity. Furthermore, we show that natural landscape cover interacts with local management to mediate services provided by mobile animals, specifically pest control and pollination. By quantifying the factors that support a diverse suite of ES, we highlight the critical role of garden management and urban planning for optimizing biodiversity and human benefit.

Enablers and Barriers of Community Garden Use in New Orleans, Louisiana: An Environmental Assessment and Qualitative Analysis

PURPOSE

To explore factors associated with community garden use.

APPROACH

Environmental assessment of community gardens and semi-structured interviews.

SETTING

New Orleans, Louisiana.

PARTICIPANTS

10 community gardens (environmental assessment), 20 community members (including garden users and non-users) and garden administrators (qualitative interviews).

METHOD

Gardens were assessed based on (1) accessibility, (2) information, (3) design, (4) cleanliness, (5) walkability, (6) parking, and (7) noise. Semi-structured interviews took place over Zoom; transcribed interviews were analyzed using thematic analysis.

RESULTS

Gardens assessed in the environmental assessment ranked high in design and cleanliness but low on accessibility and information availability. Salient themes from the qualitative interviews include skill-building, access to fresh foods, and increased social engagement as enablers of community garden participation, with availability of information and time as both potential enablers of, or barriers to, participation. Community members perceived that gardens could increase fresh food access, while administrators believed that it is not possible for community gardens to produce enough food to create community-wide impact, highlighting instead the importance of the social aspects of the garden as beneficial for health.

CONCLUSION

Community gardens should improve garden physical accessibility and information availability to incentivize use. Community gardens are valued as means for skill-building and social engagement. Future research should prioritize investigating the association between the social aspects of participating in community gardens and health outcomes.

A home gardening intervention to improve vegetable consumption among urban poor children: A study protocol for randomised controlled trial

Background: One of the key importance of vegetable consumption is to obtain sufficient micronutrients, dietary fibre, and for the prevention of childhood obesity. Most Malaysian children did not meet the recommended intake of vegetable consumption, and this is especially vulnerable among the urban poor population due to food insecurity. Efforts are needed to promote vegetable consumption that fall short of the recommended intake level. Aim: This trial aims to examine the effectiveness of the "GrowEat" project, as a nutrition intervention programme integrated with home gardening activities to improve vegetable consumption among urban poor children in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia. Methods: This is a single-blinded parallel two-arm cluster randomised controlled trial (RCT) that include 134 children. Two zones in Kuala Lumpur will be randomly selected, and three low-cost housing flats from each zone will be selected as the intervention and control groups respectively. The trial is designed based on the social cognitive theory (SCT). Children from the intervention group (n = 67) will attend a 12-week programme, which consists of home garden-based activities, gardening and nutrition education session. Assessment will be conducted for both groups at three time points: baseline, post-intervention and follow-up phase at 3 months after the intervention. Conclusion: We anticipate positive changes in vegetable consumption and its related factors after the implementation of the "GrowEat" project. The current intervention may also serve as a model and can be extended to other urban poor population for similar interventions in the future to improve vegetable consumption, agriculture and nutrition awareness.

Growth response of kale (Brassica oleracea) and Nile tilapia (Oreochromis niloticus) under saline aqua-sandponics-vegeculture system

Salinity and freshwater scarcity are significant challenges affecting agriculture production worldwide. Sustaining food production in arid and semi-arid regions requires innovative, efficient, and low-cost technologies. Integrated aqua-vegeculture systems (IAVS) are promising technologies for cultivating vegetable crops and rearing fish and in a closed-loop system. The system utilizes fish effluents as crop fertilizers and recycles water for increased productivity. Hence, the current study aimed to investigate the response and productivity of kale (Brassica oleracea L.) grown at different brackish water salinities in an IAVS. The greenhouse experiment followed a completely randomized design with three salinity variants (i.e., 3000, 6000, and 9000 ppm) and control (freshwater, 400 ppm) with four replicates per treatment. The study results indicated that kale grown in a greenhouse could tolerate salinity levels of up to 6000 ppm without significantly compromising the plants' growth, yield, and nutritional composition of leaves. Likewise, rearing Oreochromis niloticus at high water salinities did not negatively impact the water quality and the growth performance, survival, and feed utilization of fish. Overall, cultivating kale and rearing O. niloticus in IAVS in water salinities reaching up to 6000 ppm could be a sustainable agricultural strategy to increase food production in regions affected by freshwater scarcity.

A scoping review of the conceptualizations of food justice

OBJECTIVE

The emerging concept of 'food justice' has been described as a movement and a set of principles that align with the goals of social justice, which demands recognition of human rights, equal opportunity, fair treatment, and is participatory and community specific. Considering its widespread use and variable definitions, this study establishes the scope of research by exploring diverse conceptualizations of food justice.

DESIGN

A scoping review of peer-reviewed literature was conducted using the term "food justice". This study used a five-step scoping review protocol. The databases included Scopus, Web of Science and Medline (OVID). Data were extracted on country of origin, research discipline, study type and conceptualizations of food justice. Reflexive thematic analysis was used to identify the themes.

RESULTS

The search identified 546 abstracts of which 90 were peer-reviewed studies. Thematic analysis revealed five themes of food justice across 90 studies: 1) social equity, 2) food security 3) food systems transformation, 4) community participation and agency, and 5) environmental sustainability.

CONCLUSIONS

Current conceptualizations of food justice are evolving. Together these themes embrace a more holistic and structural view of the food system. They emphasize healthy, sustainable, and equitable food as a human right and acknowledge the need to address structural barriers to that right. Despite its 20-year history the parameters of food justice are still not well defined, making it difficult for communities to mobilize for transformative change. Community participation and agency in food justice decision-making are critical to create a healthy, sustainable, and more just food system.

LGBTQ+ food insufficiency in New England

As a group, LGBTQ+ people experience food insecurity at a disproportionately high rate, yet food security scholars and practitioners are only beginning to uncover patterns in how food insecurity varies by subgroups of this diverse community. In this paper, we use data from the U.S. Census Bureau's Household Pulse Survey-which added measures of gender identity and sexuality for the first time in 2021-to analyze New Englanders' food insufficiency rates by gender, sexuality, race, and ethnicity. We find that (1) in the past seven days, 13.0 percent of LGB + (lesbian, gay, bisexual, and other non-heterosexual) New Englanders experience food insufficiency-which is nearly twice the rate of heterosexual people-and 19.8 percent of transgender+ (transgender, genderqueer, gender non-binary, and other non-cisgender people) New Englanders experience food insufficiency-which is two to three times the rate of cisgender men and women. (2) Whereas cisgender New Englanders experience food insufficiency at a lower rate than their counterparts in the rest of the nation (about two percentage points lower for both cisgender men and women), transgender+ New Englanders experience no such New England advantage compared to transgender+ people in the country as a whole. (3) LGBTQ+ New Englanders of color experience devastatingly high rates of food insufficiency, with, for example, one in three Black transgender+ New Englanders not having enough food to eat in the past seven days. These findings suggest that addressing food insecurity in New England demands approaching the problem with an intersectional queer lens, with attention to the ways in which racism, cissexism, and heterosexism are creating a systemic, ongoing food crisis for LGBTQ+ New Englanders, especially those who are transgender+ and/or people of color.

A review on urban agriculture: technology, socio-economy, and policy

It has been a challenge to support the expansion of urban agriculture (UA) in cities due to its poor economic profitability. However, it is also hard to deny the increasing benefits of UA in improving the socio-environmental dimension of cities. Hence, in this review, different aspects of UA were examined to highlight its value beyond profitability such as social, health and well-being, disaster risk reduction, and environmental perspectives. A case study and relevant policies were analyzed to determine how policy makers can bridge the gap between current and future UA practices and sustainable development. Bridging these policy gaps can help the UA sector to sustainably grow and become successfully integrated in cities. Moreover, advancements in UA technologies and plant biotechnology were presented as potential solutions in increasing the future profitability of commercial UA. Consequently, as new UA-related technologies evolve, the multidisciplinary nature of UA and its changing identity from agriculture to digital technology, similarly require adaptive policies. These policies should maximize the potential of UA in contributing to resiliency and sustainability and incentivize the organic integration of UA in cities, while equally serving social justice.

Remediating Garden Soils: EDTA-Soil Washing and Safe Vegetable Production in Raised Bed Gardens

Soil remediation is an important practice in the restoration of heavy metal-contaminated soils and reduce the heavy metal exposure of the local population. Here, we investigated the effect of an ex-situ soil washing technique, based on ethylenediaminetetraacetic acid (EDTA) as a chelating agent, on a contaminated Cambisol. Lead, Cd and Zn were investigated in different soil fractions, drainage water and four vegetables from August 2019 to March 2021. Three treatments consisting of (C) contaminated soil, (W) washed soil and (WA) washed soil amended with vermicompost and biochar were investigated in an outdoor raised bed set up. Our results showed that the total and bioavailable metal fractions were significantly reduced but failed to meet Austrian national guideline values. Initial concentrations in the soil leachate increased significantly, especially for Cd. Vegetables grown on the remediated soil took up significantly lower amounts of all heavy metals and were further reduced by the organic amendment, attaining acceptable values within EU guideline values for food safety. Only spinach exceeded the thresholds in all soil treatments. The increase in soil pH and nutrient availability led to significantly higher vegetable yields.

A hybrid method to quantify household urban agriculture gardening: Implications for sustainable and equitable food action planning

Urban food action plans seek quantitative data on household agriculture gardening, traditionally difficult to quantify rapidly, as well as data on inequality to explore the potential to improve equitable access to fresh vegetables through household agriculture. This article presents a novel hybrid field survey (HFS) method, combining ground surveys with satellite imagery to quantify the prevalence and area of household agriculture gardens, as well as inequality by neighborhood income. We test the method in Minneapolis and St. Paul, Minnesota, (Twin Cities), USA, analyzing the presence/absence (prevalence) and size of agriculture gardens across a total of ~17,500 households in 2017 and repeated in 2020 (during COVID-19). In 2017, the overall mean frequency of household agricultural gardening was 5.0%, with significant differences (2.7 vs. 7.0%) across low- vs. high-income neighborhoods. The city-wide median area per agriculture garden size was 14.6 m2 with greater size (19.8 vs. 11.6 m2) in low- vs. high-income neighborhoods, respectively. Across all income groups, the gardening area was a small fraction of the yard area, suggesting little land availability constraints. Measurements in the summer of 2020 during COVID-19 found the method sensitive over time, showing an overall 60% increase in the prevalence of household agriculture with low-income neighborhoods increasing rates from 3 to 5%. Overall, the method can inform aggregate production potential and inequality in household agriculture.

Contribution of Home Gardens to Sustainable Development: Perspectives from A Supported Opinion Essay

Home gardening has a long history that started when humans became sedentary, being traditionally considered an accessible source of food and medicinal plants to treat common illnesses. With trends towards urbanization and industrialization, particularly in the post-World War II period, the importance of home gardens as important spaces for growing food and medicinal plants reduced and they began to be increasingly seen as decorative and leisure spaces. However, the growing awareness of the negative impacts of agricultural intensification and urbanization for human health, food quality, ecosystem resilience, and biodiversity conservation motivated the emergence of new approaches concerning home gardens. Societies began to question the potential of nearby green infrastructures to human wellbeing, food provisioning, and the conservation of traditional varieties, as well as providers of important services, such as ecological corridors for wild species and carbon sinks. In this context. and to foster adaptive and resilient social-ecological systems, our supported viewpoint intends to be more than an exhaustive set of perceptions, but a reflection of ideas about the important contribution of home gardens to sustainable development. We envision these humble spaces strengthening social and ecological components, by providing a set of diversified and intermingled goods and services for an increasingly urban population.

How to feed the cities? Co-creating inclusive, healthy and sustainable city region food systems

People drive transitions. Current urban living conditions, specifically food systems, challenge the health, wellbeing and coherence of individuals and whole societies, and for effective change toward resilient communities, people need to reinvent the way they produce, distribute and consume food. Consequently, in their communities' people are creating foodscapes and governing the transition toward sustainable local food systems. Here, we introduce a conceptual framework to develop this transformation through empowering the urban multi-stakeholder society as the agent of this process. To do so, we reviewed scientific evidence and experiences from seven selected City Regions (Albacete, Baku, Dresden, Izmir, Ljubljana, Megara, and Valparaiso) as case studies and conducted a SWOT analysis to explore the capacity of food systems to enhance multi-functionality of urban landscapes, with special focus on social cohesion and quality of life. We grasp existing policies; hone them and leverage policies and strategies toward human-centered actions for future proofing food systems.

A sandponics comparative study investigating different sand media based integrated aqua vegeculture systems using desalinated water

This study investigated the utilization of fish effluents as irrigation water and nutrient sources to close the crop yield gap and increase Swiss chard productivity in a closed-loop sandponics system. The experiment was operated using desalinated water from a Reverse Osmosis plant. The study followed a completely randomized design with four variants, i.e., an aquaponic system (T1) and three sandponics systems; October (T2), Benu Suef (T3) and Fayoum (T4). Results indicated that T2 and T4 significantly recorded the highest plant heights in all cuts. The number of leaves per plant decreased with the increase in cut number. Leaf area and chlorophyll was significantly different between the treatments. T1 significantly had low biomass yields in cuts one and two, almost 40% less than T3 and T4. The various systems efficiently minimized water consumption ranging from 1.5 to 1.96 L/m²/day. The crop protein content ranged from 11.84 to 18.72 mg/100 g dry weight. Mineral composition in cut one was significantly higher compared to cuts two and three. The study recommends a novel technique for increasing crop production using fish effluents under sandponics systems while increasing water and fertilizer efficiency to close the crop yield gap.

Transforming the Use of Agricultural Premises under Urbanization Pressures: A Story from a Second-Tier Post-Socialist City

Diverse aspects of de-agrarianization, which is manifested by the cessation or significant reduction in agricultural activities, have been clearly visible at the outskirts of large cities in Central Europe in recent decades. The key drivers behind this process include increased pressures to cover peri-urban agricultural land by new developments, inadequate protection of agricultural land, ineffective implementation of urban planning policies, low recognition of the importance of agriculture, and overall changes in people’s dietary habits. Urbanization pressures undoubtedly belong to the factors intensifying overall de-agrarianization, as urban farmers are usually not able to compete with other urban functions. This article focuses on more in-depth understanding of the driving forces behind de-agrarianization processes that are specific to post-socialist cities. As a case study, Brno, a second-tier city in the Czech Republic, was selected. In the first part, the conceptual framework and drivers of de-agrarianization are discussed specifically for the case of large Central European post-socialist cities. In the next part, we explore by means of a set of qualitative interviews the case study of the regeneration of the area of a former Cistercian monastery in Brno that was traditionally used for agricultural purposes, but recently was redeveloped for a university campus. Our findings signal procedural issues connected to the preservation of architectural heritage during the regeneration that frequently end up with only fragments being preserved. We also demonstrate a decline in the use of urban agricultural properties that are hastily transformed into a new urban environment under extremely strong urbanization pressures. We argue that even in economically prosperous cities with highly neoliberal competition between possible urban land uses, agriculture must be considered a relevant and highly important urban function and more protected by planning tools.

Should I Pay or Should I Grow? Factors Which Influenced the Preferences of US Consumers for Fruit, Vegetables, Wine and Beer during the COVID-19 Pandemic

This study examines the key factors that determine the preferences of US consumers towards the growing and processing used for horticultural products such as fruit, vegetables, wine and beer over their preferences for buying them both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. The findings obtained using Partial Least Square Structural Equation Modeling (PLS-SEM) show that engagement with horticulture prior to and after the occurrence of COVID-19 influenced preferences for the growing and processing of fruit, vegetables, wine and beer over buying them in both the pre-COVID-19 and post-COVID-19 contexts. Engagement with horticulture before and after the COVID-19 pandemic was significantly impacted by attitudes towards US growers. Attitudes towards COVID-19 and human values such as self-enhancement, conservation and self-transcendence were also found to be significant factors, while openness to change was not found to be significant. Best practice recommendations are included on the basis of these findings for managers of community gardens, horticultural properties and specialized food stores.

Toward Sustainable Communities: A Case Study of the Eastern Market in Detroit

Community development tends to focus on large-scale, government-funded transformations or on small-scale, grassroot initiatives. In the US, the financial resources, available infrastructure, and broad-based civic support to implement large-scale community transformations are frequently lacking. In contrast, niche interventions, while often locally successful, tend to be unscalable. Accordingly, many community development programs either do not go beyond an ideational stage, or they are unscalable or unsustainable in the long run. In this qualitative case study, we analyze the Eastern Market in Detroit, Michigan, a local institution that contributes considerably and in several ways to the sustainability of multiple communities. Using Content Configuration Analysis (CCA), we conduct a bottom-up exploratory analysis of fieldwork notes, nonparticipant observations, as well as audio, visual, and written materials including policy and strategy documents from the City of Detroit, Wayne County, and the State of Michigan, academic publications, strategy and annual reports, websites, blogs, vlogs, social media outlets, newspapers, podcasts, and interviews along two lines of inquiry: first, to examine how the market contributes to sustainable community development and, second, to explore the systemic underpinnings that facilitate such development. Specifically, we focus on the Eastern Market to identify system-relevant actors, interests, relations, interventions, and outcomes that illustrate an institution which operates well beyond the ideational confines of a conventional farmers market. In the process of exploring the adaptive nature of the Eastern Market within its financial and infrastructural constraints, we also exemplify with this case that a well-established institution, a farmers market, can reinvent itself to serve multiple needs of larger, heterogeneous communities, and that the successful adaptations associated with this reinvention reimagine the community in which it is embedded.

Ensuring Urban Food Security in Malaysia during the COVID-19 Pandemic—Is Urban Farming the Answer? A Review

Urbanisation and related insufficiency of food sources is due to the high urban population, insufficient urban food sources, and inability of some urban communities to afford food due to rising costs. Food supply can also be jeopardised by natural and man-made disasters, such as warfare, pandemics, or any other calamities which result in the destruction of crop fields and disruption of food distribution. The COVID-19 pandemic exposed the impact of such calamities on the fresh food supply chain in Malaysia, especially when the Movement Control Order (MCO) policy was first implemented. The resulting panic buying caused some food shortage, while more importantly, the fresh food supply chain was severely disrupted, especially in urban areas, in the early stages of implementation. In this regard, urban farming, while a simple concept, can have a significant impact in terms of securing food sources for urban households. It has been used in several countries such as Canada, The Netherlands, and Singapore to ensure a continuous food supply. This paper thus attempted to review how the pandemic has affected Malaysian participation in urban farming and, in relation to that, the acceptance of urban farming in Malaysia and the initiatives and approaches of local governmental and non-governmental organisations in encouraging the urban community to participate in urban farming through peer-reviewed journal articles and other articles related to urban agriculture using the ROSES protocol. About 93 articles were selected after screening to ensure that the articles were related to the study. During the COVID-19 pandemic, the surge in Malaysians’ awareness of the importance of urban farming has offered great opportunities for the government to encourage more Malaysian urban communities to participate in urban farming activities. Limitations such as relevant knowledge, area, and space, however, are impediments to urban communities’ participation in these activities. Government initiatives, such as the Urban Community Garden Policy (Dasar Kebun Komuniti Bandar (DKKB)), are still inadequate as some issues are still not addressed. Permanent Food Production Parks (TKPM) and technology-driven practices are seen as possible solutions to the primary problem of land and space. Additionally, relevant stakeholders play a crucial role in disseminating relevant and appropriate knowledge and methodology applicable for urban farming. Partnerships between government agencies, the education sector, and the private sector are necessary to develop modern urban agricultural technologies as well as knowledge, knowhow, and supports to build and sustain urban community participation in urban farming activities.

On-Farm Spatial Composition, Management Practices and Estimated Productivity of Urban Farms in the San Francisco Bay Area

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.

Agricultural land systems importance for supporting food security and sustainable development goals: A systematic review

Agriculture provides the largest share of food supplies and ensures a critical number of ecosystem services (e.g., food provisioning). Therefore, agriculture is vital for food security and supports the Sustainable Development Goal (SDGs) 2 (SDG 2 - zero hunger) as others SDG's. Several studies have been published in different world areas with different research directions focused on increasing food and nutritional security from an agricultural land system perspective. The heterogeneity of the agricultural research studies calls for an interdisciplinary and comprehensive systematization of the different research directions and the plethora of approaches, scales of analysis, and reference data used. Thus, this work aims to systematically review the contributions of the different agricultural research studies by systematizing the main research fields and present a synthesis of the diversity and scope of research and knowledge. From an initial search of 1151 articles, 260 meet the criteria to be used in the review. Our analysis revealed that most articles were published between 2015 and 2019 (59%), and most of the case studies were carried out in Asia (36%) and Africa (20%). The number of studies carried out in the other continents was lower. In the last 30 years, most of the research was centred in six main research fields: land-use changes (28%), agricultural efficiency (27%), climate change (16%), farmer's motivation (12%), urban and peri-urban agriculture (11%), and land suitability (7%). Overall, the research fields identified are directly or indirectly linked to 11 of the 17 SDGs. There are essential differences in the number of articles among research fields, and future efforts are needed in the ones that are less represented to support food security and the SDGs.

Community Supported Agriculture, Human Capital, and Community Health

Community supported agriculture (CSA) strengthens the local food system (LFS) and plays a critical role in promoting human capital (HC) and addressing social determinants of health (SDH). Most CSAs develop relationships that build a sense of community, and engage in activities that facilitate access to food and economic opportunities. CSAs may also contribute to personal development, education and income, working experience, and knowledge. CSA principles align with the principles of HC, specifically the pursuit of economic development. While research on the connection between CSA and HC has broadly focused on the economic aspect, the human development dimension has remained at the conceptual level. The purpose of this study was to assess the potential HC contributions by CSA and the implications for health outcomes in central/northern New Mexico. Primary and secondary data were collected through a semi-structured, open-ended questionnaire and an internet search. Purposive sampling was used to select 13 CSAs. Eight (61.5%) responded and reported activities that address HC and SDH such as training, job creation, education, access to healthy food, food security, health education and disease management, social connections, and food justice. Given the potential impact, public health must contribute to CSA by generating evidence on its health and social benefits, training practitioners on supporting local food program, and promoting policy that stimulates the local economy, fosters social relations and food justice, and empowers community members. This study calls for research and practice to take a multilevel perspective on the contribution of LFSs to equity and wellbeing.

Roles of Cities in Creating Healthful Food Systems

Over the past several decades, cities worldwide have attempted to reconfigure their food systems to improve public health, advance social justice, and promote environmental resilience using diverse municipal policies, often with the support of stakeholder-led governance mechanisms such as food policy councils. This article reviews the roles that cities have played in creating healthful urban food systems and the effects of those policies on public health. It explains that despite wide-ranging policy initiatives, disparities in food insecurity and malnourishment persist. It concludes by describing several promising pathways for urban food policy: engaging in food-focused urban planning to create equitable food environments; treating policies to address inequality and social justice as upstream food policies; considering the effects of new business models such as online food retail in urban food policy making; and using food procurement as a lever to influence regional, national, and global food systems. Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Public Health, Volume 43 is April 2022. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.

Resilient Governance Regimes That Support Urban Agriculture in Sub-Saharan Cities: Learning From Local Challenges

Local governments in Sub-Saharan Africa face the daunting task of high urban growth and potentially devastating impacts of climate change across local communities and the economy. Urban and peri-urban food production can be among nature-based strategies planned for improving urban food security, reducing emissions, and climate adaptation. Co-operative governance, strategic planning, and accountable institutions are needed to support urban agriculture (UA), in the face of climate risks, unplanned urban development, the gendered nature of food provision, and the inability of urban farmers to self-organize toward optimal market and land access outcomes. Using a case study approach guided by qualitative content analysis with information derived from web analysis, we apply the Institutional Analysis and Development Framework to analyze underlying governance factors for UA in three selected Sub-Saharan African cities. Our three case cities of Kampala, Tamale and Cape Town reveal that UA is beginning to receive policy attention toward food security, and recognition for generating environmental, ecological, health, and human well-being benefits. Literature from specific cities however does not yet signal a local awareness and policy thrust regarding the associated and pertinent climate adaptation benefits of urban agriculture. We therefore recommend trans-disciplinary, locally-led, planning-based, and multi-sectoral approaches, involving a range of stakeholders toward recognizing and achieving the climate adaptation, environmental (ecologically restorative) and food security benefits of pursuing urban agriculture. This signals a larger role for the practice in sustainability discourse and SDGs 2 and 11, scaling out and up across large, medium and small towns, and cities of Sub-Saharan Africa.

A Mixed-methods Study to Understand Food Environments and Grocery Shopping Patterns of Community Residents in Underserved Neighborhoods in Tampa, Florida

A mixed methods study was conducted to better understand food access, food retail store environment, and perspectives of community residents on their grocery store shopping patterns and access to healthy foods in underserved, predominantly African American neighborhoods. GIS mapping, grocery store observations (n = 4), a food access and grocery store environment survey (n = 126), and focus groups (n = 48) were used. The results indicate that these neighborhoods have a low density of grocery stores, and only two out of four grocery stores meet the standard for a healthy retail store. Barriers to getting healthy foods and solutions to improve food access are discussed.

Life stories of food agency, health, and resilience in a rapidly gentrifying urban centre: Building a multidimensional concept of food access

Few studies examine how geographic and non-geographic elements of food access intersect. The purpose of this qualitative study is to explore the relationship between food access, food security, health, and gentrification in the rapidly gentrifying urban centre of Kitchener, Ontario, Canada. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 20 low-income, longtime residents of Kitchener-Waterloo, and five key informants in the region. This study complicates concepts of food access that focus on density or proximity of (un)healthy food outlets and illustrates the complex decision-making processes of residents in procuring healthy, affordable, and appropriate foods. Race, equity, and food justice-based analysis also illuminate the disproportionate effects of gentrification on racialized residents, who face barriers to obtaining culturally-appropriate foods. These findings expand food access research by showing how individuals creatively cope with and adapt to changes within their food environments. To achieve a multidimensional concept of food access under conditions of gentrification, it is important to build an understanding of individuals' diverse priorities, adaptation strategies, motivations, and behaviours related to food procurement within the context of structural barriers to food security (including urban development practices and social assistance benefit levels). By supporting residents' food agency and food justice in gentrifying cities, it might be possible to develop more effective interventions to support food security and health.

Supporting Bees in Cities: How Bees Are Influenced by Local and Landscape Features

Simple Summary

Cities are complex ecosystems that, while generally contributing to an overall reduction in biodiversity, can support surprisingly unique communities of organisms including bees. Bees are both ecologically and economically essential, therefore preserving and conserving these insects represents a significant challenge as cities continue to expand and diminish surrounding landscapes. Some attempts to support bees in cities have included establishing and improving urban green spaces. Exactly how bees and, to a lesser extent, other pollinators respond to these green spaces in addition to other urban landscape and local features, however, remains incompletely understood. Therefore, this review summarizes the current literature and generalizable trends in pollinator response to urban landscape and local features. While some functional traits or characteristics of bees such as dietary breadth and nesting strategy are more conclusively understood and supported, other characteristics such as sociality remain less generalizable. Lack of knowledge on bee responses to city features is in part due to the individual variation exhibited across different groups and species. To promote greater biodiversity in urban spaces, research should focus on specific responses to urban local and landscape features and how green spaces can be optimized for sustainable bee conservation.

Abstract

Urbanization is a major anthropogenic driver of decline for ecologically and economically important taxa including bees. Despite their generally negative impact on pollinators, cities can display a surprising degree of biodiversity compared to other landscapes. The pollinating communities found within these environments, however, tend to be filtered by interacting local and landscape features that comprise the urban matrix. Landscape and local features exert variable influence on pollinators within and across taxa, which ultimately affects community composition in such a way that contributes to functional trait homogenization and reduced phylogenetic diversity. Although previous results are not easily generalizable, bees and pollinators displaying functional trait characteristics such as polylectic diet, cavity-nesting behavior, and later emergence appear most abundant across different examined cities. To preserve particularly vulnerable species, most notably specialists that have become underrepresented within city communities, green spaces like parks and urban gardens have been examined as potential refuges. Such spaces are scattered across the urban matrix and vary in pollinator resource availability. Therefore, ensuring such spaces are optimized for pollinators is imperative. This review examines how urban features affect pollinators in addition to ways these green spaces can be manipulated to promote greater pollinator abundance and diversity.

Soil Lead Concentration and Speciation in Community Farms of Newark, New Jersey, USA

Farmed urban soils often bear legacies of historic contamination from anthropogenic and industrial sources. Soils from seven community farms in Newark, New Jersey (NJ), USA, were analyzed to determine the concentration and speciation of lead (Pb) depending on garden location and cultivation status. Samples were evaluated using single-step 1 M nitric acid (HNO3) and Tessier sequential extractions in combination with X-ray absorption fine structure spectroscopy (XAFS) analysis. Single-step extractable Pb concentration ranged from 22 to 830 mg kg−1, with 21% of samples reporting concentrations of Pb > 400 mg kg−1, which is the NJ Department of Environmental Protection (NJDEP) limit for residential soils. Sequential extractions indicated lowest Pb concentrations in the exchangeable fraction (0–211 mg kg−1), with highest concentrations (0–3002 mg kg−1) in the oxidizable and reducible fractions. For samples with Pb > 400 mg kg−1, Pb distribution was mostly uniform in particle size fractions of <0.125–1 mm, with slightly higher Pb concentrations in the <0.125 mm fraction. XAFS analysis confirmed that Pb was predominantly associated with pyromorphite, iron–manganese oxides and organic matter. Overall results showed that lowest concentrations of Pb are detected in raised beds, whereas uncultivated native soil and parking lot samples had highest values of Pb. As most of the Pb is associated with reducible and oxidizable soil fractions, there is a lower risk of mobility and bioavailability. However, Pb exposure through ingestion and inhalation pathways is still of concern when directly handling the soil. With increasing interest in urban farming in cities across the USA, this study highlights the need for awareness of soil contaminants and the utility of coupled macroscopic and molecular-scale geochemical techniques to understand the distribution and speciation of soil Pb.

'Opening up' the governance of water-energy-food nexus: Towards a science-policy-society interface based on hybridity and humility

The governance of the nexus between water, energy, and food (hereafter, 'the nexus') is permeated by complex interactions of knowledge at a science-policy-society interface. This paper starts from a literature review to find the main narratives that allow us to understand what is at stake in this interface. By thematically synthesising 19 select articles, we reached three layers of knowledge interaction: 'knowledge application', 'knowledge integration', and 'knowledge transformation'. To avoid misleading simplifications, we discussed the constraints on this debate and some pressures for what we consider as 'closing down' knowledge about the nexus. We then developed a conceptual framework based on the 'technologies of humility' proposed by Jasanoff (2003, 2007) to create opportunities to 'open up' the nexus approach. Finally, we illustrated the four pillars proposed by some studies to describe what we have termed 'nexus of humility': framing, vulnerability, distribution, and learning. These foci seek to enable a humbler appreciation on all sides of the persistent sources of uncertainty, divergence, and conditionality in sustainability governance. This framework also contributes towards necessary transformations of knowledge about nexus and its challenging implementation.

Infrastructuring the Circular Economy

The circular economy (CE), and its focus on the cycling and regeneration of resources, necessitates both a reconfiguration of existing infrastructures and the creation of new infrastructures to facilitate these flows. In urban settings, CE is being realized at multiple levels, from within individual organizations to across peri-urban landscapes. While most attention in CE research and practice focuses on organizations, the scale and impact of many such efforts are limited because they fail to account for the diversity of resources, needs, and power structures across cities, consequently missing opportunities for adopting a more effective and inclusive CE. Reconfiguring hard infrastructures is necessary for material resource cycling, but intervening in soft infrastructures is also needed to enable more inclusive decision-making processes to activate these flows. Utilizing participatory action research methods at the intersection of industrial ecology and design, we developed a new framework and a model for considering and allocating the variety of resources that organizations utilize when creating value for themselves, society, and the planet. We use design prototyping methods to synthesize distributed knowledge and co-create hard and soft infrastructures in a multi-level case study focused on urban food producers and farmers markets from the City of Chicago. We discuss generalized lessons for “infrastructuring” the circular economy to bridge niche-level successes with larger system-level changes in cities.

Socio-ecological connectivity differs in magnitude and direction across urban landscapes

Connectivity of social-ecological systems promotes resilience across urban landscapes. Community gardens are social-ecological systems that support food production, social interactions, and biodiversity conservation. We investigate how these hubs of ecosystem services facilitate socio-ecological connectivity and service flows as a network across complex urban landscapes. In three US cities (Baltimore, Chicago, New York City), we use community garden networks as a model system to demonstrate how biophysical and social features of urban landscapes control the pattern and magnitude of ecosystem service flows through these systems. We show that community gardens within a city are connected through biological and social mechanisms, and connectivity levels and spatial arrangement differ across cities. We found that biophysical connectivity was higher than social connectivity in one case study, while they were nearly equal in the other two. This higher social connectivity can be attributed to clustered distributions of gardens within neighborhoods (network modularity), which promotes neighborhood-scale connectivity hotspots, but produces landscape-scale connectivity coldspots. The particular patterns illustrate how urban form and social amenities largely shape ecosystem service flows among garden networks. Such socio-ecological analyses can be applied to enhance and stabilize landscape connectedness to improve life and resilience in cities.

Perceptions of the Challenges and Opportunities of Utilising Organic Waste through Urban Agriculture in the Durban South Basin

Waste management has become pertinent in urban regions, along with rapid population growth. The current ways of managing waste, such as refuse collection and recycling, are failing to minimise waste in cities. With urban populations growing worldwide, there is the challenge of increased pressure to import food from rural areas. Urban agriculture not only presents an opportunity to explore other means of sustainable food production, but for managing organic waste in cities. However, this opportunity is not taken advantage of. Besides, there is a challenge of mixed reactions from urban planners and policymakers concerning the challenges and benefits presented by using organic waste in urban agriculture. The current paper explores the perceived challenges and opportunities for organic waste utilisation and management through urban agriculture in the Durban South Basin in eThekwini Municipality in KwaZulu-Natal (KZN) Province of South Africa. It is anticipated that this information will be of use to the eThekwini Municipality, policymakers, researchers, urban agriculture initiatives, households and relevant stakeholders in the study areas and similar contexts globally. Two hundred (200) households involved in any urban farming activity and ten (10) key informants (six (6) staff from the Cleaning and Solid Waste Unit of the eThekwini Municipality and four (4) from the urban agricultural initiative) were selected using convenient sampling. Descriptive statistics and inductive thematic analysis were used to analyse data. The significant perceived challenges and risks associated with the utilisation of organic waste through urban agriculture included lack of a supporting policy, climatic variation, lack of land tenure rights, soil contamination and food safety concerns. Qualitative data further showed that the difficulty in segregating waste, water scarcity, difficulty in accessing inputs, limited transportation of organic waste, inadequate handling and treatment of organic waste, and being a health hazard were some important challenges. On the other hand, the significant perceived benefits associated with the utilisation of organic waste through urban agriculture were enhanced food and nutrition security, and opportunities for business incubation. Other important benefits established through qualitative data were an improved market expansion for farmers and improved productivity. Overall, despite the perceived challenges and risks, there is an opportunity to manage organic waste through urban agriculture. It is imperative for an integrated policy encompassing the food, climate and waste management to be developed to support this strategy. All stakeholders-the government, municipal authorities and urban agricultural initiatives should also, guided by the policy, support urban farmers, for example, through pieces of training on how to properly manage and recycle organic waste, land distribution, inputs availability and water usage rights among other things.

Foraging Wild Food in Urban Spaces: The Contribution of Wild Foods to Urban Dietary Diversity in South Africa

Globally, approximately one billion people benefit from contributions of wild foods to their food security and dietary diversity. Wild foods are known to be important in rural communities in terms of food and micronutrient provision, diversifying diets, reducing vulnerability to non-communicable diseases and overall health. However, the potential contribution of wild foods towards food security and dietary diversity in urban food systems has been largely overlooked. This study examined the contribution of wild foods to household dietary diversity in two towns in South Africa, based on a survey of 137 households. Household diets were quite diverse, with half (51%) having consumed ≥ 8 food groups, 39% consumed 6 or 7 food groups, and only 10% recorded ≤ 5 food groups in the previous 48 h. Wild foods were prevalent across the sample, with 62% of the households consuming them to some degree. Wild vegetables and fruits were the most common wild foods, consumed by 96 and 79% of the households, respectively. Although wild foods had limited significance on overall dietary diversity, they exhibited substantial contributions within particular food groups. For example, the consumption of vegetables and oil and fats was most prevalent among households consuming wild foods than those who did not. The findings show that wild foods could contribute towards diversifying urban diets at a micro-level, within particular food groups consumed, such as vegetables and fruits. Hence, wild foods are important in ameliorating the monotonous diets of some households and in turn promoting dietary diversity.

Governing at Scale: Successful Local Food Initiatives in the World’s Cities

To introduce the special issue on local food initiatives in the world’s cities, this editorial examines the role of scale and the governance of local food initiatives in cities. The seven papers in this issue focus variously on food system governance at the scales of metropolitan regions, neighborhoods, households, and individual consumers. Although local food initiatives must work to overcome structural challenges operating at global and national scales, as delineated in key literature on food systems, taken together, the seven articles suggest that more sustainable outcomes are possible if local initiatives embrace change across multiple scales.

Constructal Macroscale Thermodynamic Model of Spherical Urban Greenhouse Form with Double Thermal Envelope within Heat Currents

Urban agriculture is becoming a timely environmental friendly practice to strengthen cities’ resilience to climate change. However, there is a lack of academic literature regarding the thermodynamic potential of interior urban agriculture. Furthermore, there is always a need to develop, from scratch, an updated methodological approach that aims to assist architects of conceiving such specific thermodynamically complex interior environments. In this paper, urban space is identified as a ‘flow system’, and Bejan’s constructal law of generation of flow structure is used to morph and discover the system flow architecture that offers greater global performance (greater access to what flows). More precisely, a macroscale thermodynamic model of spherical urban greenhouse form with double thermal envelope has been developed while the methodological approach resulted in the definition of a decisional flowchart that can be reproduced by other researchers. On the basis of this macroscale constructal model, the present paper proposes reduced models that link thermodynamic and geometric parameters in an accurate manner and can be used at early design stages for pedagogic and qualitative optimization purposes, integrating urban farming to architectural programming.

Direct and indirect effects of urban gardening on aboveground and belowground diversity influencing soil multifunctionality

Urban gardens are popular green spaces that have the potential to provide essential ecosystem services, support human well-being, and at the same time foster biodiversity in cities. We investigated the impact of gardening activities on five soil functions and the relationship between plant (600 spp.) and soil fauna (earthworms: 18 spp., springtails: 39 spp.) in 85 urban gardens (170 sites) across the city of Zurich (Switzerland). Our results suggest that high plant diversity in gardens had a positive effect on soil fauna and soil multifunctionality, and that garden management intensity decreased plant diversity. Indices of biological activity in soil, such as organic and microbial carbon and bacterial abundance, showed a direct positive effect on soil multifunctionality. Soil moisture and disturbance, driven by watering and tilling, were the driving forces structuring plant and soil fauna communities. Plant indicator values proved useful to assess soil fauna community structure, even in anthropogenic plant assemblages. We conclude that to enhance soil functions, gardeners should increase plant diversity, and lower management intensity. Soil protective management practices, such as applying compost, mulch or avoiding soil tilling, should be included in urban green space planning to improve urban biodiversity and nature’s contribution to people.