Growing a Sustainable City?

Growing a Sustainable City?
Author: Christina D. Rosan
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2017-01-01
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1442628553

Urban agriculture offers promising solutions to many different urban problems, such as blighted vacant lots, food insecurity, storm water runoff, and unemployment. These objectives connect to many cities' broader goal of "sustainability," but tensions among stakeholders have started to emerge in cities as urban agriculture is incorporated into the policymaking framework. Growing a Sustainable City? offers a critical analysis of the development of urban agriculture policies and their role in making post-industrial cities more sustainable. Christina Rosan and Hamil Pearsall's intriguing and illuminating case study of Philadelphia reveals how growing in the city has become a symbol of urban economic revitalization, sustainability, and - increasingly - gentrification. Their comprehensive research includes interviews with urban farmers, gardeners, and city officials, and reveals that the transition to "sustainability" is marked by a series of tensions along race, class, and generational lines. The book evaluates the role of urban agriculture in sustainability planning and policy by placing it within the context of a large city struggling to manage competing sustainability objectives. They highlight the challenges and opportunities of institutionalizing urban agriculture into formal city policy. Rosan and Pearsall tell the story of change and growing pains as a city attempts to reinvent itself as sustainable, livable, and economically competitive.

Sustainable Urban Agriculture and Food Planning

Sustainable Urban Agriculture and Food Planning
Author: Rob Roggema
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 312
Release: 2016-08-12
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1317293797

As urban populations rise rapidly and concerns about food security increase, interest in urban agriculture has been renewed in both developed and developing countries. This book focuses on the sustainable development of urban agriculture and its relationship to food planning in cities. It brings together the best revised and updated papers from the Sixth Association of European Schools of Planning (AESOP) conference on Sustainable Food Planning. The main emphasis is on the latest research and thinking on spatial planning and design, showing how urban agriculture provides opportunities to develop and enhance the spatial quality of urban environments. Chapters address various topics such as a new theoretical model for understanding urban agriculture, how urban agriculture contributes to restoring our connections to nature, and the limitations of the garden city concept to food security. Case studies are included from several European countries, including Bulgaria, France, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, Romania, Spain, Turkey and the UK, as well as Australia, Canada, Cameroon, Ethiopia and the United States (New York and Los Angeles).

Growing Better Cities

Growing Better Cities
Author: Luc J. A. Mougeot
Publisher: IDRC
Total Pages: 119
Release: 2006
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1552502260

Accompanying CD-ROM also has titles in French and Spanish.

Growing a Sustainable City?

Growing a Sustainable City?
Author: Christina D. Rosan
Publisher: University of Toronto Press
Total Pages: 209
Release: 2017-11-29
Genre: Political Science
ISBN: 1442624213

Urban agriculture offers promising solutions to many different urban problems, such as blighted vacant lots, food insecurity, storm water runoff, and unemployment. These objectives connect to many cities’ broader goal of “sustainability,” but tensions among stakeholders have started to emerge in cities as urban agriculture is incorporated into the policymaking framework. Growing a Sustainable City? offers a critical analysis of the development of urban agriculture policies and their role in making post-industrial cities more sustainable. Christina Rosan and Hamil Pearsall’s intriguing and illuminating case study of Philadelphia reveals how growing in the city has become a symbol of urban economic revitalization, sustainability, and – increasingly – gentrification. Their comprehensive research includes interviews with urban farmers, gardeners, and city officials, and reveals that the transition to “sustainability” is marked by a series of tensions along race, class, and generational lines. The book evaluates the role of urban agriculture in sustainability planning and policy by placing it within the context of a large city struggling to manage competing sustainability objectives. They highlight the challenges and opportunities of institutionalizing urban agriculture into formal city policy. Rosan and Pearsall tell the story of change and growing pains as a city attempts to reinvent itself as sustainable, livable, and economically competitive.

Urban Agriculture and City Sustainability II

Urban Agriculture and City Sustainability II
Author: S. Mambretti
Publisher: WIT Press
Total Pages: 160
Release: 2020-12-07
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1784663816

As urban populations continue to increase it is essential to consider ways of reducing their impact in terms of the use of natural resources, waste production and climate change. The increasing number of people in cities requires new strategies to supply the necessary food with limited provision of land and decreasing resources. This will become more challenging unless innovative solutions for growing and distributing food in urban environments are considered. The scale of modern food production has created and exacerbated many vulnerabilities and the feeding of cities is now infinitely more complex. As such, the food system cannot be considered secure, ethical or sustainable. In the last few years, there has been a rapid expansion in initiatives and projects exploring innovative methods and processes for sustainable food production. The majority of these projects are focused on providing alternative models that shift the power back from the global food system to communities and farmers improving social cohesion, health and wellbeing. It is therefore not surprising that more people are looking towards urban farming initiatives as a potential solution. These initiatives have demonstrated that urban agriculture has the potential to transform our living environment towards ecologically sustainable and healthy cities. Urban agriculture can also contribute to energy, natural resources, land and water savings, ecological diversity and urban management cost reductions. The impact urban agriculture can have on the shape and form of our cities has never been fully addressed. How cities embed these new approaches and initiatives, as part of new urban developments and a city regeneration strategy is critical. The 2nd International Conference on Urban Agriculture and City Sustainability addressed these challenges and the search for new solutions. The presented papers which form this volume detail research works looking at how urban agriculture can contribute to achieving sustainable cities.

Urban Agriculture and City Sustainability

Urban Agriculture and City Sustainability
Author: Syngellakis, S.
Publisher: WIT Press
Total Pages: 171
Release: 2019-09-18
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1784663654

Papers presented at the 1st International Conference on Urban Agriculture and City Sustainability are contained in this book. The research reviews ways in which urban agriculture can contribute to achieve sustainable cities and considers ways of reducing the impact in terms of use of natural resources, waste production and climate change.

Sustainable Food Systems

Sustainable Food Systems
Author: Robert Biel
Publisher: UCL Press
Total Pages: 154
Release: 2016-12-05
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 191130707X

Faced with a global threat to food security, it is perfectly possible that society will respond, not by a dystopian disintegration, but rather by reasserting co-operative traditions. This book, by a leading expert in urban agriculture, offers a genuine solution to today’s global food crisis. By contributing more to feeding themselves, cities can allow breathing space for the rural sector to convert to more organic sustainable approaches. Biel’s approach connects with current debates about agroecology and food sovereignty, asks key questions, and proposes lines of future research. He suggests that today’s food insecurity – manifested in a regime of wildly fluctuating prices – reflects not just temporary stresses in the existing mode of production, but more profoundly the troubled process of generating a new one. He argues that the solution cannot be implemented at a merely technical or political level: the force of change can only be driven by the kind of social movements which are now daring to challenge the existing unsustainable order.Drawing on both his academic research and teaching, and 15 years’ experience as a practicing urban farmer, Biel brings a unique interdisciplinary approach to this key global issue, creating a dialogue between the physical and social sciences

Global Urban Agriculture

Global Urban Agriculture
Author: Antoinette M G A WinklerPrins
Publisher: CABI
Total Pages: 273
Release: 2017-05-24
Genre: Technology & Engineering
ISBN: 1780647328

There has been growing attention paid to urban agriculture worldwide because of its role in making cities more environmentaly sustainable while also contributing to enhanced food access and social justice. This edited volume brings together current research and case studies concerning urban agriculture from both the Global North and the Global South. Its objective is to help bridge the long-standing divide between discussion of urban agriculture in the Global North and the Global South and to demonstrate that today there are greater areas of overlap than there are differences both theoretically and substantively, and that research in either area can help inform research in the other. The book covers the nature of urban agriculture and how it supports livelihoods, provides ecosystem services, and community development. It also considers urban agriculture and social capital, networks, and agro-biodiversity conservation. Concepts such as sustainability, resilience, adaptation and community, and the value of urban agriculture as a recreational resource are explored. It also examines, quite fundamentally, why people farm in the city and how urban agriculture can contribute to more sustainable cities in both the Global North and the Global South.

Sustainability and the City

Sustainability and the City
Author: C. A. Brebbia
Publisher: WIT Press
Total Pages: 249
Release: 2018-03-28
Genre: Architecture
ISBN: 1784663212

Comprising specially selected papers, this book refers to all aspects of urban environment and provides solutions that lead towards sustainability. These research studies include contributions that have been made from a diverse range of researchers, resulting in a variety of topics and experiences. Urban areas face a number of challenges related to reducing pollution, improving main transportation and infrastructure systems and these challenges can contribute to the development of social and economic imbalances and require the development of new solutions. The challenge is to manage human activities, pursuing welfare and prosperity in the urban environment, whilst considering the relationships between the parts and their connections with the living world. The dynamics of its networks (flows of energy matter, people, goods, information and other resources) are fundamental for an understanding of the evolving nature of today’s cities. Large cities represent a productive ground for architects, engineers, city planners, social and political scientists able to conceive new ideas and time them according to technological advances and human requirements. The multidisciplinary components of urban planning, the challenges presented by the increasing size of cities, the amount of resources required and the complexity of modern society are all addressed.

Cities and Agriculture

Cities and Agriculture
Author: Henk de Zeeuw
Publisher: Routledge
Total Pages: 374
Release: 2015-09-16
Genre: Business & Economics
ISBN: 1317506618

As people increasingly migrate to urban settings and more than half of the world's population now lives in cities, it is vital to plan and provide for sustainable and resilient food systems which reflect this challenge. This volume presents experience and evidence-based "state of the art" chapters on the key dimensions of urban food challenges and types of intra- and peri-urban agriculture. The book provides urban planners, local policy makers and urban development practitioners with an overview of crucial aspects of urban food systems based on an up to date review of research results and practical experiences in both developed and developing countries. By doing so, the international team of authors provides a balanced textbook for students of the growing number of courses on sustainable agriculture, food and urban studies, as well as a solid basis for well-informed policy making, planning and implementation regarding the development of sustainable, resilient and just urban food systems.