Abstract
Urban agriculture could play a central role in local and regional food sovereignty in developed countries, but in many cities, a lack of space and competition with other land uses limit production. Options for meaningfully advancing food sovereignty goals include sustainable intensification of existing urban farms and gardens; 2) expansion of production into interstitial and other underutilized spaces undevelopable for other purposes; and 3) expansion of production in protected environments. Observational studies suggest that--like smallholder agriculture in the Global South--urban home, community, and market gardens in the developed world can be highly productive--but often are not. Scale-appropriate, agroecosystems-based research and outreach to urban agriculturalists are needed to help them grow more food, more sustainably. This replicated, long-term trial is addressing this need—and a dearth of experimental, normative research on urban agriculture—by evaluating the yield performance and impact on soil quality of four different systems of small-scale food production in Rhode Island, the second most densely populated state in the United States and a potential model for the development of sustainable urban food systems. Systems are modeled on vernacular systems in Providence, RI and Chicago, IL and on the scholarly and grey literature on sustainable intensification. They differ in soil management practices and nutrient sources. Results from the first three years of data collection indicate all four systems can be highly productive, with varying tradeoffs in terms of their sustainability and impacts on soil quality. While total marketable food yields were relatively modest compared to those reported in the grey literature for biointensive agriculture—2.22 to 2.96 kg m-2 averaged over three summer growing seasons compared to 4.64 kg m-2 for the “low end” of biointensive production—yields for individual crops exceeded—and often far exceeded—regional averages and, for most crops and systems, national averages, without a loss in soil quality. In addition to demonstrating the high productivity of small-scale systems compared to commercial farms, the study establishes a framework for conducting normative, experimental research that can help to guide practice. It also offers more reliable yield estimates for modeling the production potential of cities than do observational studies and agronomic experiments on monocultures.
Highlights
Planners, academics, and food activists in developed countries increasingly recognize the potential role of urban to periurban agriculture in increasing local, state, and regional food sovereignty (Alkon and Mares, 2012; Heynen et al, 2012; Tornaghi, 2017)
Average marketable food yield for the compost-only treatment increased 86% between 2018 and 2019, from 1.47 to 2.74 kg m−2, and was not significantly different from average yield for the control in 2019
While total marketable food yields were relatively modest compared to those reported in the gray literature for biointensive agriculture−2.22–2.96 kg m−2 averaged over 3 years in this study compared to 4.64 kg m−2 for the “low end” of biointensive production (Gittleman et al, 2012)—yields for most individual crops far exceeded regional averages based on reports from over 2,000 New England vegetable producers (USDA, 2019) and, for most crops and systems, national averages (Campbell-Nelson, 2020)
Summary
Academics, and food activists in developed countries increasingly recognize the potential role of urban to periurban agriculture in increasing local, state, and regional food sovereignty (Alkon and Mares, 2012; Heynen et al, 2012; Tornaghi, 2017). In the United States, New England’s 50 by 60 plan, for example, calls for meeting 50% of food needs through regional production by the year 2060 (Donahue et al, 2014). Land-based urban production in more land-starved regions may be limited to fragmented interstitial and other underutilized spaces, including residential lots. Existing production at this scale appears already to make a far larger contribution to urban food systems than larger scale agroecosystems, such as urban farms (Taylor and Lovell, 2012)
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