Abstract

With the global population set to reach 9.8 billion by 2050, there are concerns that health services are beginning to be stretched beyond working limits, particularly in the Global North, where many nations face ageing populations and similar obstacles. One suggested radical method to tackle these issues would be to provide access to Green Infrastructure (GI) interventions, including the development of social farms, particularly within urban areas and across deprived communities; enabling conventional health services to be supplemented by nature-based therapy. Social farms incapsulate this ideology, by enabling spaces for farming practices to also be used for therapeutic outcomes: providing care, rehabilitation, and even educational programmes. The focus here is around the concept of social prescribing, with activities within social farms, amongst other spaces such as community gardens and urban farms, acting as non-medical approaches to aid people with mental health or related conditions. Currently, research across social farming and social prescribing is relatively novel and therefore tends to be based in Scandinavian countries or the USA, in which these spaces are more readily available. This paper focuses on the concept of social farming, which has received increased attention in the UK context, particularly within the Department for Environment, Food, and Rural Affairs (DEFRA) recent 25-year Environment Plan. The paper argues that there is a need for development of this practice within urban settings, with findings showing an agglomeration of sites in the rural context. In addition, we discuss tools for development and barriers, to illustrate opportunities for the future.

Highlights

  • Global populations are growing, life expectancy is increasing, and health services show signs of being stretched beyond working limits

  • Research across social farming and social prescribing is relatively novel, with this article focusing on the United Kingdom (UK) context, while advo­ cating for development in urban set­ tings

  • An introduction to social farming As urban populations rise and more pressure is placed on conventional medical services, key actors, such as central/local government, planners, public health professionals, and others, are beginning to explore other innovative means to care for people in need (European Commission, 2012; Perrott & Holland, 2005)

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Summary

Authors Type URL Published Date

Enabling urban social farming : the need for radical green infrastructure in the city Mitchell, L, Houston, L, Hardman, M, Howarth, M and Cook, PA Article This version is available at: http://usir.salford.ac.uk/id/eprint/61876/ 2021. USIR is a digital collection of the research output of the University of Salford. Full text material held in the repository is made freely available online and can be read, downloaded and copied for non-commercial private study or research purposes. Please check the manuscript for any further copyright restrictions

Cogent Social Sciences
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