Sowing Seeds in the City – Human Dimensions
A valuable resource for understanding public health, educational and economic aspects of urban agriculture
Editors: Elizabeth Hodges Snyder, Kristen McIvor, Sally Brown
Springer
2016
Excerpt:
It is well known that Michelle Obama, the nation’s First Lady, is a supporter of these initiatives and has built a garden at the White House to teach kids (among others) about better health through increased vegetable consumption. Our introductory chapter is written by the former White House pastry chef and is a personal reflection on his experience in that garden and the effect it is having on our country and the children who have experienced it directly.
Part I addresses the potential and promise of urban agriculture to address food security and resilience in cities from a diversity of perspectives. Can urban agriculture feed our cities? Parts II and III focus on the different dimensions of human health. Part II focuses on the individual and community health benefits of urban agriculture – ranging from physical nutrition to social capital to increased nature contact.
Part III focuses on what is perhaps the biggest question around personal risk in urban agriculture – what about contaminated soil? Here, top scientists discuss both the actual risk and strategies for communicating about it.
Part IV concentrates on the ways in which urban agriculture impacts our civic life together, and covers the theoretical (and applied) concepts of democracy, ethics, and sovereignty. Part V is a compilation of research efforts that demonstrate ways that urban agriculture is affecting our communities.
Finally, Parts VI and VII explore the ways that organizations are involved with making this work happen. Part VI showcases several nonprofi ts, whereas Part VII focuses on the ways that cities, universities, entrepreneurs, and religious groups are engaging with urban agriculture.
