Scientists Offer A Potential Roadmap For Sustainable Urban Agriculture
University of Florida scientists partnered with researchers from multiple institutions to seek information and build a theoretical framework and roadmap for urban agriculture development.
by WTFCF Staff
Jan 8, 2024
Excerpt:
The study, “Scaling up urban agriculture as a transformative change to advance social-ecological resilience and sustainability,” is published in the journal Nature Food. Collaborating scientists first took a deep dive review of existing research to determine the complex implications of urban agriculture across individual, community and societal factors.
“Within this framework, we developed a three-phased pathway for scaling up urban agriculture, illustrated with real-world examples, and discussed crucial factors that influence the upscaling processes,” he said.
Among the takeaways derived as benefits, urban agriculture could promote a positive influence on supplementing food supply, fostering water-quality improvements, potentially decreasing carbon footprints, promoting health benefits through consumption of fruits and vegetables and promoting ways to mitigate climate change.
“These benefits could translate to positive social well-being outcomes such as food security and community development,” said Qiu.
Among the potential risks revealed in the literature review were increased disease and pest incidents to crops, exposure to soil contamination and environmental pollution, from urban agriculture practices.
“Economic status and factors may also affect the profitability of urban agriculture and lead to disproportionate distribution of food,” explained Qiu.
The researchers further propose a multiphase pathway to illustrate potential implementation of urban agriculture upscaling through a variety of processes and influential actions.
