Description
Book SynopsisUrban agriculture offers promising solutions to many different urban problems, such as blighted vacant lots, food insecurity, storm water runoff, and unemployment. These objectives connect to many cities’ broader goal of sustainability, but tensions among stakeholders have started to emerge in cities as urban agriculture is incorporated into the policymaking framework.
Growing a Sustainable City? offers a critical analysis of the development of urban agriculture policies and their role in making post-industrial cities more sustainable. Christina Rosan and Hamil Pearsall’s intriguing and illuminating case study of Philadelphia reveals how growing in the city has become a symbol of urban economic revitalization, sustainability, and increasingly gentrification. Their comprehensive research includes interviews with urban farmers, gardeners, and city officials, and reveals that the transition to sustainability is marked by a series of tensions along race, class,
Trade Review"This book is a solid contribution to this growing field and will be informative to those interested in the topic of urban farming, especially anybody working in public policy who intends to implement programs in their own city." -- John Harner, University of Colorado-Colorado Springs * The AAG Review of Books, Spring '19 *
"The book supports the following idea: urban agriculture is a city planning challenge for land use and who gets to access it. A key take-away is that urban agriculture is not merely a contemporary food systems trend, but an under-developed mechanism for city sustainability. The authors conclude with helpful suggestions on how city planners and organizers might better integrate urban food production into social and environmental sustainability city planning." -- Alana N. Chriest, Ohio State University * Agriculture and Human Values no 36 *
Table of ContentsChapter 1. Introduction: The Garden in the Urban Imaginary Chapter 2. Since the 1800s? A Historical Case Study of Urban Agriculture Chapter 3. Urban Agriculture as a Way towards a Better, Brighter Future Chapter 4. A New Generation of Growers Chapter 5. The Reality of Growing in the City Chapter 6. The Politics of Urban Agriculture Chapter 7: Conclusion
