A study of dozens of city gardens and urban farms across the US and Europe found several ways to boost their benefits, not just for their neighborhoods, but for the planet.
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Articles on Urban agriculture
Displaying 1 - 20 of 29 articles
Urban farms can work in developing countries if farmers and architects are aware of conditions that favour food production in built spaces.
Really, how productive is the average home vegetable garden – and will it leave you hungry? It largely depends on space, soil and gardening skills.
A ‘right to grow’ law encouraging more locally-grown food could boost health, community pride and food supply resilience.
Nurturing enthusiasm for growing food closer to home could benefit people, wildlife and the global food system.
Policies should protect arable land from urban encroachment and make peri-urban households less vulnerable.
Urban farming can make it easier for city residents to obtain healthy, affordable food. But to raise big yields from small pieces of land, farmers need training and support.
Vertical farms grow more food but use much more energy, so let’s consider other kinds of urban agriculture.
Invasive alien species that costs South Africa’s economy billions can be eliminated.
From Brooklyn to Los Angeles, thousands of Americans are raising chickens in their backyards. But without stricter regulation, urban poultry farming is risky for both humans and birds.
Hydroponics and aquaponics are already being used by the agriculture industry – is it time urban farmers got on board?
Sydney, Melbourne and many other areas can expect to pay more for veg from next month, after widespread crop losses in Bowen, a major source of winter vegetables such as tomatoes, beans and capsicum.
Urban consumers in Africa are rapidly growing and they are demanding high quality, pesticide free food.
Urban farming increases access to healthy foods. And building social networks is one of the greatest benefits of urban agriculture in poor areas.
Can suburban gardening and poultry-keeping meaningfully contribute to resilient and sustainable food systems? We look to the past to find out.
Urban farms might be trendy, but they won’t replace rural agriculture anytime soon.
It’s important to question whether the promotion of urban agriculture can actually help people, or whether other solutions should be explored.
As consumption has soared and prices have fallen, the realities of industrial chicken farming often clash with the values of people who live on the urban fringes where broiler farms are sited.
Australians eat a lot of water. Nearly 500 L is required to produce the food each of us eats every day.
Farms on Sydney’s fringes supply 20% of the city’s food. That could drop by more than half if urban sprawl isn’t kept in check.
Top contributors
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Senior Lecturer in Food Systems, The University of Melbourne
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Research Director, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney
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Researcher in sustainable food systems, The University of Melbourne
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Chair Professor in Sustainability, Lancaster University
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PhD Candidate, School of Social Sciences, University of Tasmania, and Senior Research Consultant, Institute for Sustainable Futures, University of Technology Sydney
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Research Fellow, School of Natural and Built Environment, Queen's University Belfast
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Professor of History, The University of Western Australia
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Professor of Urban Sustainability, University of Salford
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Professor of International Planning, Centre for Urban Research, RMIT University
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Food Systems Research and Partnerships, The University of Melbourne
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Senior Researcher in Urban Food Security and Food Systems, University of Cape Town
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Research Fellow: Food and Urban Systems, University of Helsinki
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Assistant Professor, Department of Entomology; African-American Studies, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign
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Principal Horticultural Scientist (RHS)/RHS Fellow, University of Reading
