Sustainable Urban Food Systems Research Articles

Food sharing in a pandemic: Urban infrastructures, prefigurative practices and lessons for the future

The outbreak of COVID-19 raised critical questions about the functionalities of urban infrastructures, and in particular, practices of food provision, consumption and distribution. This paper focuses on the actions of non-commercial collaborative food sharing practices in Dublin city, incorporating surplus food redistribution initiatives, community kitchens, and community gardens, during the first wave of the pandemic in 2020. Whilst initially curtailed under conditions of strict lockdowns, many of these food sharing initiatives became characterised as essential services as the crisis unfolded, offering infrastructures of mobility, accessibility and care. Focusing on urban food infrastructures, qualitative content analysis of online media debates around food sharing in Dublin during this period was conducted to explore how non-commercial food sharing initiatives have been affected by, and responded to, the COVID-19 outbreak in Dublin. The paper analyses forms of improvisation, institionalisation and impact that emerged through food sharing actions and reflects on whether food sharing initiatives prefigure more sustainable urban food systems.

A balancing act: the interplay of food supply chain resilience and environmental sustainability in American cities

Global food systems must be a part of strategies for greenhouse gas (GHG) mitigation, optimal water use, and nitrogen pollution reduction. Insights from research in these areas can inform policies to build sustainable food systems yet limited work has been done to build understanding around whether or not sustainability efforts compete with supply chain resilience. This study explores the interplay between food supply resilience and environmental impacts in US cities, within the context of global food systems’ contributions to GHG emissions, water use, and nitrogen pollution. Utilizing county-level agricultural data, we assess the water use, GHG emissions, and nitrogen losses of urban food systems across the US, and juxtapose these against food supply resilience, represented by supply chain diversity. Our results highlight that supply chain resilience and sustainability can simultaneously exist and are not necessarily in competition with each other. We also found a significant per capita footprint in the environmental domains across Southern cities, specifically those along the Gulf Coast and southern Great Plains. Food supply chain resilience scores ranged from 0.18 to 0.69, with lower scores in the southwest and Great Plains, while northeastern and Midwestern regions demonstrated higher resilience. We found several cities with high supply chain resilience and moderate or low environmental impacts as well as areas with high impacts and low resilience. This study provides insights into potential trade-offs and opportunities for creating sustainable urban food systems in the US, underscoring the need for strategies that consider both resilience and environmental implications.

Food mapping approaches for understanding food system transformations in rapid-growth city regions in the Global South

The world’s food systems are rapidly changing due to socioeconomic, environmental, and demographic changes, globalization, and urbanization. Urban regions connect urban food consumption with rural food production and are associated with rapid dietary transitions in developing counties. Despite urbanization being a key driver of city-regional and global food system transformations, city-regional food systems (particularly in developing countries) are under-researched. Although the importance of dynamic urban and peri-urban food systems has led to new frameworks and approaches for mapping food flows within urban regions, our study highlights both opportunities and limitations to food mapping in high-growth city regions in the Global South. We review existing approaches to food mapping using three contrasting city-regional food systems as case studies, namely, Bahir Dar (Ethiopia), Hanoi (Vietnam), and Cali (Colombia), and identify priorities for future progress. These include temporal dimensions of food access; nutritional outcomes of food flows; economic, cultural, and ethnic factors affecting consumer behavior; and how consumption of healthier foods could be enabled by decision-making throughout food supply chains. In addition, the roles of food loss and waste could also be more specifically considered. We conclude that providing a more comprehensive and nutrition-sensitive understanding of city-regional food systems can guide evidence-based interventions and activities to enable transitions to healthier, equitable, and more sustainable urban food systems.

Citizens driving the transition to sustainable urban food systems

Reaching a sustainable future in which cities characteristics meet all needs and expectations of citizens is an ambitious challenge at a global level. The present study aimed to identify appropriate ways to transform cities into “greener-cities” using a citizen science approach. In a three phases-project, co-design dynamics were conducted with different citizens' groups: consumers, chefs, producers/suppliers, and experts in different scientific disciplines. First, four focus groups were carried out for diagnosing the food system of the city (Donostia-San Sebastián) and identify potential solutions. Then, two workshops with mixed participants from different stakeholders' groups were carried out to co-design suitable initiatives previously identified in the first phase. Finally, the co-designed initiative was presented and tested: an immersive experience where participants could taste a local and seasonal dish presented by a Chef in a 360° video room with projections of an organic farm. Results showed that innovative educational activities or programs, such as the developed “Gastronomic Journey”, could be used to engage citizens and move forward to a greener city. The experience was considered as an opportunity to discover the city's flavor and culture, and to bring awareness to citizens about challenges of the food system through the chef's speech.

Co-creating sustainable food systems

This Special Issue is preoccupied with the question: ‘How can citizens play an active role in co-creating sustainable food systems?’. The issue presents four distinct empirical research studies that explore participatory actions, co-creation and citizen science in moving towards more sustainable urban food systems at the intersection of design and sustainability. The various contributions explore the role of co-design with citizens to create sustainable food systems by addressing issues related to food production, processing, transportation and consumption. The issue covers diverse topics in distinct settings, from co-creation with agri-food smallholders in Vietnam to a design-led systemic action against homelessness-related food poverty in Turin, Italy.

Inclusive diets within planetary boundaries

Inclusive diets within planetary boundaries

Food Producers in The Peri-Urban Area of Mexico City. A Study on the Linkages between Social Capital and Food Sustainability

Small producers in peri-urban areas have been identified as key actors in building more sustainable urban food systems, but they often have limited capacities to develop and consolidate their initiatives. This article describes the conditions of peri-urban farmers in Mexico City who work with agroecological schemes, analyzing the role of social and cultural capital in their ability to consolidate their economic-productive projects and establish links with consumers in the city. The research was developed from an anthropological perspective based on field visits and interviews conducted in 60 production units located in the peri-urban area of Mexico City. The article discusses the literature on peri-urban agriculture and the contextual particularities of the case study and then describes a typology constructed based on the analysis of the documented cases, considering the objectives of the initiatives and the different types of social and cultural capital on which their activities and marketing strategies are based are considered. The discussion argues that the social and cultural capital of the production units are key elements in determining the viability of the agroecological transition, reaffirming the importance of social articulation and other sociocultural aspects for the promotion of sustainable food projects.

Towards Sustainable Urban Food Systems: Potentials, Impacts and Challenges of Grassroots Initiatives in the Foodshed of Muenster, Germany

Solving fundamental sustainability challenges in our food systems requires political, institutional and socio-technical transformations. Indeed, sustainability transitions are needed. In this paper, we explore the role of civil society in the form of bottom–up grassroots initiatives in the transition towards a sustainable urban food system and examine their potentials, impacts and challenges in the foodshed of Münster in Germany. To this end, relevant initiatives in Münster have been researched and mapped according to explicit criteria, and case studies have been compiled for two of them using questionnaires, interviews and desk research: a community-supported agriculture (CSA) farm Entrup 119 and an urban gardening initiative GrüneBeete e.V. The results indicate that many initiatives in Münster focus on education and information, i.e., raising awareness, rather than offering material alternatives. Six initiatives were studied in more depth using desk research and a questionnaire. Key leverage points identified by the initiatives are in policy, education, networks and communication. Two of these were studied as cases. We see these transition pioneers as paradigmatic role models, providing room for experimentation, social learning and empowerment.

Urban and peri-urban agriculture as a strategy for creating more sustainable and resilient urban food systems and facing socio-environmental emergencies

ABSTRACT Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) is one of the most interesting phenomena of land management and transformation in recent decades. Thanks to its multiple functions, it can become an effective strategy to create more sustainable and resilient cities and food systems as well as to cope with global emergencies such as climate change, ecological degradation, food insecurity and economic crises. This paper analyzes the various functions of urban and peri-urban agriculture, the ways in which these functions connect and feed each other, the obstacles to its large-scale implementation, and the important role that it may have in the transition to an alternative economic and social paradigm.

Seeds of change? Social practices of urban community seed sharing initiatives for just transitions to sustainability

ABSTRACT The sharing of seeds is a practice with ancient roots. However, the structures of global agri-food trade in late modernity have drastically reconfigured practices of exchange and reshaped matters of legal ownership, resulting in constrained access to seeds for many. Scholars and activists are increasingly concerned about the negative impacts these changes are having from a justice and sustainability perspective. To date, seed sharing research has predominantly occurred as one element of wider seed sovereignty debates, and particularly in relation to farmers in low- and middle-income countries. Seed sharing beyond these contexts has received limited attention. To broaden understanding of seed sharing and its diverse practices, this paper provides a foundational landscape level analysis of urban community seed sharing initiatives from 100 urban locations globally. It outlines the rules, tools, skills and understandings that shape seed sharing practices and teases out commonalities with, and differences between, these urban activities and those that currently dominate the landscape of seed sharing research. In conclusion, further research is proposed to build on these foundations and establish the contributions, actual and potential, that urban seed sharing provides for just transitions to more sustainable urban food systems.

City-to-city learning processes in the development of sustainable urban food systems: Insights from South American cities

City-to-city learning processes have gained importance around the world. However, few cities have given systemic thought to which knowledge travels and in which way. This paper analyzes the traveling of ideas in a city-to-city learning arena. Using a qualitative case study approach, and addressing a gap in empirical cases, it explores the travel of ideas between stakeholders in urban food systems from Quito and Lima. Data have been collected through online interviews and document analysis. The results show that stakeholders perceived city-to-city learning as an important mechanism to build better urban food systems. They demonstrate that the success or failure of these exchanges depends on the urban stakeholders involved and the political, social, environmental context of each city. Despite the promising first steps, the process experienced a rupture, influenced by the start of the pandemic crises and four interrelated challenges (context specificity, the high staff turnover, leadership, and the availability of information). These challenges also provide a better understanding of the complexity of city-to-city learning processes among cities in South America. The city-to-city learning process between Quito and Lima still needs to mature to reach tangible outcomes. These cities have not been able to transform information into knowledge that can be applied in their process toward more resilient and sustainable food systems. However, they have learned the process should not only rely on local governments but also on representatives from the civil society to decentralize urban food systems and learning processes. The eventual success of the ongoing process between Quito and Lima will depend on the institutional maturity, social and political environment, resources, and the willingness of local authorities to work on this topic.

Barriers to Urban Food Action: Relevance of Food Pedagogies

Cities strive to feed growing populations while at the same time minimize the environmental impacts of their food systems. To support cities to achieve their goals, they require systematic and practical actions, including identification of the needs and capacities of food practitioners to guide and support food-related policies and initiatives. This study aims to explore barriers to food-related actions in everyday settings and the potential of a food pedagogy framework to overcome such barriers. Semi-structured interviews were conducted with 39 experienced food leaders from diverse food-related areas in Australia. Thematic analysis identified six key themes related to weaknesses in food-related actions, including lack of: a broad understanding about food; acknowledgement of values of food in everyday lives; a broad pedagogical lens; a responsible entity; organizational supports; and coordination between stakeholders and communities. Existing national and global food initiatives were reviewed using a pedagogical framework to identify presence of these barriers to actions, together with strategies that aimed to avoid or diminish such barriers. The findings confirm that a pedagogical approach has potential to enhance the roles and capacities of food practitioners and provide support for government and community structures to achieve a common vision of healthy and sustainable urban food systems.

A tale of two labs: Rethinking urban living labs for advancing citizen engagement in food system transformations

Citizen engagement is heralded as essential for food democracy and equality, yet the implementation of inclusive citizen engagement mechanisms in urban food systems governance has lagged behind. This paper aims to further the agenda of citizen engagement in the transformation towards healthy and sustainable urban food systems by offering a conceptual reflection on urban living labs (ULLs) as a methodological platform. Over the past decades, ULLs have become increasingly popular to actively engage citizens in methodological testbeds for innovations within real-world settings. The paper proposes that ULLs as a tool for inclusive citizen engagement can be utilized in two ways: (i) the ULL as the daily life of which citizens are the experts, aimed at uncovering the unreflexive agency of a highly diverse population in co-shaping the food system and (ii) the ULL as a break with daily life aimed at facilitating reflexive agency in (re)shaping food futures. We argue that both ULL approaches have the potential to facilitate inclusive citizen engagement in different ways by strengthening the breadth and the depth of citizen engagement respectively. The paper concludes by proposing a sequential implementation of the two types of ULL, paying attention to spatial configurations and the short-termed nature of ULLs.

Transformative potential from the ground up: Sustainable innovation journeys, soft change and alignment of interests in urban food initiatives

This paper utilises the ‘sustainable innovation journeys’ concept to trace how people organise and design urban food initiatives and influence city-region food policy. We evaluate whether designs succeed or fail and monitor the exchange of ideas that takes place between stakeholders. Tracing these interactions reveals the transformative potential of innovative projects, particularly if the food system changes they bring to the fore are aligned with policy interests. Three case studies provide on-the-ground insights to assess how small and medium-sized enterprises at the micro-level induce sustainability shifts. The case studies are businesses in the city-regions of Rotterdam, The Netherlands (urban farm and circular food economy); Vigo, Spain (food, forest and multi-functional land use); and Zurich, Switzerland (organic food and short supply chains). Each initiative was studied in-depth over a two-year period, with follow-up analysis for a further four years to monitor change over time (2013–2018). The cases promote the adoption of micro-level innovation practices: locally designed transition pathways that bring the benefits of change to the city-region (i.e. from the micro-level initiative to meso-level policy). The analysis highlights the importance of ‘soft change’. This can be something as simple as visiting an inspiring urban food initiative and meeting with stakeholders to generate mutual understanding, from where interests align to influence food chain practices and policy. Soft changes act as ‘seeds of transition’ for a shift towards more sustainable urban food systems, but we observe too potentially negative impacts due to lack of alignment at the micro- (initiative) or meso- (city-region) levels.

From Schnitzel to Sustainability: Shifting Values at Vienna’s Urban Farmers Markets

This paper presents an empirically grounded investigation of the values and practices of farmers markets (FM) in Vienna, Austria and their linkages to wider alternative food practices of ecological, social and economic sustainability. If the FMs are to play a vibrant role in the Viennese alternative food system, enhancing urban–rural connections and urban resilience, they must re–align their values to this system. A values-based conceptual framework is used to examine the structures and functions of six Viennese FMs and the alignment of values and practices among FM managers, farmers/vendors and consumers. Data from qualitative interviews, participant observation and dot surveys were collected at each FM. Value alignment is discovered as necessary to support and perpetuate alternative values. Governance is found to be significant for aligning values related to FM sustainability. Current structures and functions of Viennese FMs cannot be easily aligned with participant values and practices. As one of the first examinations of Viennese FMs, this work illustrates concrete challenges, priorities and emphasizes the role that governance and social organizing plays in successful markets as contributors towards sustainable urban food systems. Lessons learned can be applied to municipal FMs and other food system actors that face similar challenges.

Planning for sustainable urban food systems: an analysis of the up-scaling potential of vertical farming

Food production and consumption related environmental challenges have come to the forefront of policy discourse in the past decade. This links primarily to concerns in terms of agriculture fueling climate change, but also in terms of long-term food security and availability for growing populations. A proposed solution to these pressures at the urban scale is Vertical Farming (VF), in the understanding of this article, a high-yield form of controlled environment agriculture, staked on multiple layers, which promises to produce leafy greens and vegetables within cities, with potential to reduce the resource intensity of urban food production and consumption. The particular contextual conditions required for VF to be sustainable have not as of yet been holistically assessed. Accordingly, by analyzing these contextual conditions in the Global North, this research assesses how VF can be up-scaled for the sake of sustainability – particularly climate mitigation – by viewing urban food systems through the Multi-Level Perspective. The article presents three findings in relation to the up-scaling potential of VF. Firstly, singular VF interventions in cities should have further functions integrated at the scale of the farm for the sake of viability. Secondly, VF interventions carry the most potential for climate mitigation if they are viewed through urban-level systemic food planning, which sheds light on the contextual conditions needed for VF to contribute to sustainability. Finally, the globalized dynamics of the neoliberal political economy, and in turn the localized effects for food systems, have implications for VF that need to be taken into consideration in framing up-scaling policy.

Towards sustainable urban food systems: Analyzing contextual and intrapsychic drivers of growing food in small-scale urban agriculture.

Small-scale urban agriculture is associated with positive health and environmental outcomes. Previous studies examined factors that drive people to grow foods in urban areas mainly drawing on qualitative data. This research investigates quantitatively what determines consumer preferences for growing foods in community gardens, informing efforts to upscale urban agriculture. We conducted choice experiments in North America and performed latent class analysis of contextual and intrapsychic factors affecting consumers’ preferences for growing foods in cities. Results show that providing tools and guidance are the most important contextual factors affecting community garden participation. The preferences of proponents of growing foods are explained by their high subjective knowledge about growing foods and reasons tied to the benefits of participating in community gardening. Opponents of growing foods at community gardens are characterized by low knowledge. The findings can be used to design policies that promote sustainable food systems in urban areas.

Daring to build fair and sustainable urban food systems: A case study of alternative food networks in Australia

ABSTRACT Food systems are under pressure from population growth, climate change, resource scarcity and increasing urbanization. Alternative food networks are initiatives related to food provision that operate at a local level and are concerned with both environmental stewardship and social justice. This paper presents a case study of alternative food networks operating in Brisbane and Melbourne in order to analyze: i) their socio-economic and environmental contributions to the resilience and sustainability of urban food systems; and, ii) the limitations that alternative food networks are facing. The cases researched include examples of urban agriculture, food hubs, buyers’ groups, and specialist retailers. The results indicate that alternative food networks can improve access to healthy food, provide fairer conditions for farmers, reduce food loss/waste, increase environmental protection, and facilitate climate change adaptation. The limitations to the expansion of alternative food networks are also discussed, including the restricted access to land for growing food, low public engagement, and the dependence on volunteer labor. The paper concludes by summarizing the contribution of alternative food networks to urban food systems and identifies issues for future research.

Modeling the Potential Productivity of Urban Agriculture and Its Impacts on Soil Quality Through Experimental Research on Scale-Appropriate Systems

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.

Organizing Joint Practices in Urban Food Initiatives—A Comparative Analysis of Gardening, Cooking and Eating Together

The topic of food is highly relevant to the UN sustainable development agenda. The agenda particularly challenges cities to take on more responsibilities and to initiate processes that change unsustainable food practices. The recent emergence of urban food initiatives, such as community-supported agriculture, urban gardening, food sharing or community kitchens, promises great potential in leveraging sustainability. Although a great deal of research is already available on the societal impacts of food initiatives, little is known about organizational aspects surrounding them. The following study aims to address this gap by systematically analyzing how joint practices of gardening as well as cooking and eating are organized in different urban food initiatives, taking five initiatives in two smaller cities in southern Germany as case studies. Data were acquired through qualitative research methods including interviewing, participatory observations and document analysis. The analysis covers five key dimensions: institutional integration, recruiting mechanisms, goal-setting, time management and types of knowledge. Based on these dimensions, the results portray two distinctive organizational profiles of urban food initiatives. The article concludes with a reflection on how local governments can support food initiatives and thus contribute to sustainable urban food systems.