What do we really know about urban agriculture’s impact on people, places, and the planet?

ABSTRACT

Urban agriculture has myriad benefits for those who participate in it, but it’s not guaranteed to be more climate-friendly than conventional agriculture. That said, there are some very specific steps urban farmers can take to slash carbon emissions.

KEYWORDS:

• Urban agriculture
• rooftop farm
• climate crisis
• food security
• urban farming
• carbon emissions

Acknowledgments

We would like to thank all the gardeners and farmers in France, Germany, Poland, the United Kingdom and the United States, who diligently collected data on food production and resource use during two growing seasons in 2019 and 2020, filled out social and behavioral surveys. and allowed researchers to visit their gardens so that they could take measurements. This work is based on the results of the European-funded FEW-meter project and was made possible by the support of our colleagues who contributed their time, energy and insight.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Funding

The FEW-meter project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (GA No. 730254) under the Belmont Forum and JPI Urban Europe’s call SUGI—FWE Nexus, and the ANR, France, grant number ANR-17-SUGI-0001-01; BMBF, Germany, grant number 01LF1801A; National Science Centre, Poland, grant number 2017/25/Z/HS4/03048; ESRC, UK, grant number ES/S002170/2; NSF, USA, Belmont Forum 18929627.

Additional information

Funding

The FEW-meter project has received funding from the European Union’s Horizon 2020 research and innovation programme (GA No. 730254) under the Belmont Forum and JPI Urban Europe’s call SUGI—FWE Nexus, and the ANR, France, grant number ANR-17-SUGI-0001-01; BMBF, Germany, grant number 01LF1801A; National Science Centre, Poland, grant number 2017/25/Z/HS4/03048; ESRC, UK, grant number ES/S002170/2; NSF, USA, Belmont Forum 18929627.

Notes on contributors

Agnès Fargue-Lelièvre

Agnès Fargue-Lelièvre is an assistant professor in agronomy at AgroParisTech – University Paris-Saclay. Her research interests focus on urban agriculture, its sustainability with more focused studies led on its practices and their impact.

Jason K. Hawes

Jason Hawes is a PhD Candidate at the University of Michigan School for Environment and Sustainability. His dissertation investigates the role of urban agriculture in more sustainable, resilient, and just future cities.

Benjamin Goldstein

Benjamin Goldstein is an assistant professor in the School for Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan. He leads the Sustainable Urban-Rural Futures (SURF) Lab which develops advanced sustainability analytics for cities.

Lidia Poniży

Lidia Poniży is an assistant professor in the Faculty of Human Geography and Planning at the Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań, Poland. Her research interests focus on the role of green infrastructure in the socio-ecological system of cities, with particular emphasis on the urban agriculture.

Erica Dorr

Erica Dorr received her PhD in Environmental Science from Université Paris-Saclay.