Urban food production has grown considerably over the last forty years, whether through the development of urban farms or through various forms of community gardens. Following on from the tradition of allotments of the early 20th century, community gardens are now complex social, technical and political projects. The different forms of urban agriculture and the social and environmental benefits of gardens (e.g. social cohesion, increased biodiversity) are extremely diverse. The potential of urban agriculture to provide key ecosystem services is well described (provisioning services, regulating services, social services). Cultural services are rather less well known. Certain criteria however such as the agronomic quality of soils, the risk of contamination of harvested products or the implementation of environmentally friendly and production efficient practices, could result in disservices. Community gardens deserve to have the option of developing and stabilising forms of urban agriculture in the open ground or even above ground. Cities may encourage planners and developers to reserve land for cultivation or food growing in new developments. This brings the issue of the sustainability factors of gardens to the forefront from the perspective of the resilient city. However, other difficulties can arise in the whole life chain of a community garden or an urban farm. Once the creation process is over and implementation has been carried out, the stabilisation phase (setting up the organisation, sustainability) can be long and even lead to failure. This session aims to collect feedback on ecosystem services in urban food production (urban vegetable gardens, urban farms, foodscapes…) which are ecological, social, and also cultural. Associated activities (e.g. cooking workshop, gardening education...) are particularly interesting as they involve citizens in food production and in the development of a community around urban gardening. There is particular interest in presentations that address the sustainability of gardens, including the exploration of factors such as governance and foodscape strategies. Presentations could address the implementation of the gardens or farms, citizen ownership and/or include their evaluation in terms of ecosystem services. Experts in NBS, stakeholders and social innovation promoters are welcome.
This work aims to explore the role of business incubators in supporting smart cities in the transition towards sustainability. It does so through an inductive case study and interviews based on the analysis of the business model of Quintessa and its incubated startups. Quintessa is a business incubator, operating in Sao Paulo, Brazil, which is a change maker supporting innovative solutions for social and environmental challenges. Quintessa is also a reference for innovation in large companies, within the Ecco Communities program, of the BRF (Brazil Foods) Institute, which aims to support solutions for the reduction of food losses and waste in Brazil, one of the biggest producers of food in the world. Food waste is a long-chain problem that the municipality must take care of. Not only do the householders waste food, but there are losses all over the production and distribution process, especially because of urbanization and the distance created between the urban population and the practices such as growing your own food, composting, or feeding farm animals with leftovers. In this sense, it is currently possible to avoid the harm caused by this scenario with the solutions proposed by startups dedicated to reducing food waste. In parallel, many municipalities are becoming smart cities, meaning that substantial challenges and opportunities emerge in the field of urban design and one of them is waste management. Mobility, logistics, and technology are also indicators of smart cities that relate to waste prevention and treatment, nevertheless, it is not yet in deep explored in the literature on smart cities the agency capacity of incubators for this purpose. Smart cities are a complex environment that aims for the orchestration of actors to work properly. The main objective of the study is to analyze if the incubator can create a network orchestration in which the participants' business can survive into the liability of newness and smallness and interact and share in the value creation of sustainable smart cities. Besides this, this article proposes some useful directions for city and business incubator managers to support sustainable practices for food waste reduction, by training small producers; creating solutions to reduce waste in stores and school feeding management, and generating income from the use of food.
Dhanasai, C., & Parkhe, A. (2006). Orchestrating Innovation Networks. Academy of Management Review, 31(3), 659–669.
Nations, F. and A. O. of the U. (2021). World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2021. World Food and Agriculture – Statistical Yearbook 2021. Rome. https://doi.org/10.4060/cb4477en
Sawhney, S. N. M. (2011). Orchestration Processes in Network-Centric Innovation: Evidence From the Field. Academy of Management Perspectives, 25(3), 40–57.
Sodiq, A., Baloch, A. A. B., Khan, S. A., Sezer, N., Mahmoud, S., Jama, M., & Abdelaal, A. (2019). Towards modern sustainable cities: Review of sustainability principles and trends. Journal of Cleaner Production, 227, 972–1001. https://doi.org/https://doi.org/10.1016/j.jclepro.2019.04.106
We thank Fundação de Amparo à Pesquisa e Inovação do Estado de Santa Catarina for the support.
The human relationship with the procurement of food has changed dramatically over time. Historically, we followed the food supply, living a nomadic lifestyle. With the emergence of settlements, the agricultural revolution was triggered and humans began to dictate where food would grow. Yet, today, in reality, many humans do not know where their food comes from, beyond the supermarket or the food they are served. With increased migration to urban centers from rural areas, there is more pressure to provide accessible food sources within our cities. In 2011, the FAO reported that 1.3 billion tonnes of food is lost or wasted during the food cycle (FAO, 2011). New data suggests this figure now stands at 2.5 billion tonnes (WWF, Tesco and Anthesis, 2021). With these two considerations in mind, this paper tackles the question of understanding how, through inclusive architectural design solutions, we might be able to embed urban food production within the architecture itself, offering multiple ecosystem services.
With the analysis of 50 architectural state of the art projects focusing on food production and ecosystem services, we can observe that most solutions rely upon building new infrastructure to grow food. This results in a greater need for new land and resources. However, our cities already have large surface areas on which nature-based solutions can be implemented for food production, bringing food closer to where it is needed.
Through the case study of the project Plant Your Future, this article demonstrates how static buildings can transition into living systems through nature-based retrofitting solutions aimed at food production and re-greening, implemented through community based interaction. The design strategy was applied to a “generic” building in the first Superblock of Barcelona, to demonstrate the scalability and replicability of the strategy. The process began with an extensive environmental analysis, in particular radiation levels, to define three key design decisions:
minimising construction to the existing building by implementing all new elements external to the building envelope;
the subdivision of the facades based on radiation levels for the various plant species and biodiversity;
a secondary skin that would provide an external access to the facades used to grow food.
This was integrated into a holistic strategy that engages with the use of readily existing growing and planting products, as well as utilising the rooftop structure, harvesting air humidity and producing algae.
The system presents a circular design that can be maintained by the community, to bring food production back to our doorsteps, and empower positive environmental, social and economic change. Finally, these impacts were analysed in order to quantify the provision per capita, as well as demonstrating replicability and scalability. The strategies proposed, allow us to redefine the urban tissue, break the current linear food model and involve people in local and circular food production, transitioning towards inclusive and ecologically driven cities.
Bibliography:
FAO (2011). Global Food Losses and Food Waste. Rome.
WWF, Tesco and Anthesis (2021). Driven to Waste: The Global Impact of Food Loss and Waste on Farms. [online] WWF. Available at: https://wwfint.awsassets.panda.org/downloads/wwf_report_driven_to_waste___the_global_impact_of_food_loss_and_waste_on_farms_1_1.pdf.
Urban allotment gardens (UAG) and community gardens have always had a crucial role in building urban resilience in periods of crisis. This has been the case in the dawn of the Industrial Revolution, in the two World Wars, the Great Depression, and more recently in the Covid 19 pandemic.
This paper presents first a brief synopsis of the role of UAG since the Industrial Revolution, including their part in several utopic urban models. Then it makes an inventory and discussion of the role of urban allotment gardens during the Covid 19 pandemic in Europe.
The method used in this research is a narrative bibliographic review in which scientific and informative materials on the subject were investigated, with a special emphasis on case-studies.
Results showed that UAG have always had great importance in terms of food security, social cohesion, and physical and mental well-being. More recently, they have also gained importance in promoting food safety and environmental justice. Due to all these benefits, UAG has been considered a Nature-Based Solution (NBS) due to its ability to provide diverse ecosystem services fundamental to urban resilience and urban quality of life (Artmann & Sartison, 2018).
During the Covid 19 pandemic, there was a general increase in the appeal and demand for UAG, as reported in several European countries such as Germany, England, and Portugal, leading to initiatives to increase the supply of UAG providing for food security and emotional support to the populations. In Nantes, France, public green spaces were even transformed into cultivation land, like in the two world wars, through the Paysages Nourriciers project, joining forces between municipal gardeners and local leaders to cultivate 23 green areas spread over 11 districts in the city. The first edition, in 2020, allowed the harvesting of 22 tons of fresh vegetables distributed to 2,500 homes in great precariousness.
As a result of the demand for UAG and the evidence that this typology of green spaces is crucial in building urban resilience, many cities are including edible green spaces in their urban or municipal green infrastructure. The Porto municipal master plan proposes the implementation of UAG in several documents, namely, to improve soil permeability and mitigate some of the effects of climate change, and to improve quality of life (CMP1, 2021). UAG are proposed in several preliminary studies for the Porto Green Structure, namely for Aldoar, Viso-Requesende-Prelada, Currais and Contumil, Asprela and Antas (CMP2, 2021). Despite this advance, the municipality does not acknowledge yet the full role that UAG can have in building urban resilience.
References:
Artmann, M & Sartison, K. (2018). The Role of Urban Agriculture as a Nature-Based Solution: A Review for Developing a Systemic Assessment Framework. Sustainability 2018, 10, 1937. Available in: https://doi.org/10.3390/su10061937
Câmara Municipal do Porto (CMP1) (2021). Plano Diretor Municipal. Avaliação Ambiental Estratégica. Relatório Ambiental. Maio 2021. Available in: https://pdm.cm-porto.pt/documentacao
Câmara Municipal do Porto (CMP2) (2021). Plano Diretor Municipal. Estudos Urbanísticos Municipais. Maio 2021. Available in https://pdm.cm-porto.pt/documentacao
Growing urban populations worldwide are expressing a demand for reconnection with nature, reinforced by the COVID crisis. Indeed, the stay-at-home and social distancing requirements led to an increase in the demand of parks and gardens access (Geng et al., 2021). The development of urban gardening makes it possible to meet some of these needs. A growing number of citizens are committing themselves to grow food in cities. This activity is also beneficial to their well-being and to the urban environment providing ecosystems services but also presents social, economic, cultural benefits (Guitart et al., 2012; Colding and Barthel, 2013).
To learn more about the environmental, economic and social cost and benefits of growing food in the city the FEW-meter project - an integrative model to measure and improve urban agriculture shifting it towards circular urban metabolism, was developed. Indeed, while urban agriculture is expanding, the evidence of its impact and potential effects remains limited. The project aims to study the resource efficiency of urban agriculture by measuring food produced as well as energy and water use (FEW nexus) in five countries (France, Germany, Poland, UK and the US) (Caputo et al., 2021; Kirby et al., 2021) over two growing seasons. It also aims to through analysis of this data to identify opportunities to improve the performance of urban farms and gardens.
The research team has recruited various gardeners and farmers to participate in the project. The typology comprises: urban farms, community farms, community gardens, school gardens, home gardens and allotment gardens. A citizen science approach, based on farmers and gardeners involvement, was used to collect data on food production and resource use (water, energy, fertilisers and any phytosanitary product, with any material used to support food growing). Moreover, the research team has surveyed practitioners and volunteers to define social indicators (Kirby et al, 2021). A diary was designed to transcribe quantities of crops harvested and resources used. Workshops were organized to present the results to the gardeners and farmers.
The communication will be focused on the process of involvement of gardeners from an allotment garden in Nantes (Nantes Nord neighborhood), the follow-up of diaries to collect the data and the organization of sessions to share the analyses of the results with the gardeners.
S. Caputo et al, 2021. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening 58, 126934. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2020.126934
J. Colding and S. Barthel, 2013. Ecological Economics, 86, 156-166. https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ecolecon.2012.10.016
D. Geng et al, 2021. Journal of Forestry Research. 32, 553–567. https://doi.org/10.1007/s11676-020-01249-w
D. Guitart et al., 2012. Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 11, 364-373, https://doi.org/10.1016/j.ufug.2012.06.007.
C. K. Kirby et al, 2021. Landscape and Urban Planning 212, 104110 https://doi.org/10.1016/j.landurbplan.2021.104110