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Can shrinking cities harness population decline to improve their sustainability by repurposing land use, for example, for localizing food production? Whether such a transition is feasible depends on the pre-shrinkage state of urban agricultural land use, including ongoing trends in local land use change. This study examined agricultural land use from 2007–2017 in Kyoto City, Japan. Kyoto is on the brink of a large projected population decline (~190,000 or ~13% until 2040) and serves as a representative for a large number of regional Japanese cities in a similar situation. Analysis was based on a public 2007 land use data set, aerial and satellite imagery and ground truthing. Results showed a decline of 209 ha or 10% in agricultural land use over ten years, but also highlight the diversity of ongoing agricultural land use types not captured by standard categories. The main post-agricultural land uses were residential (40%) and vacant land (28%). These results have implications for planning and policy. Kyoto City is currently not set to benefit from the projected shrinking process through localizing food production, despite a tradition of vegetable production. Future research should analyze drivers of change for observed agricultural land use.

In many US states, the power to regulate urban agriculture (UA) rests in local governments. Although there has been increased interest in UA, some local governments have been slow to adopt policies or ordinances to foster food production in urban areas or have actively sought to limit UA in their municipalities. To learn more about the disconnect between resident interest and local government policy, University of Florida, Institute of Food and Agricultural Sciences Extension and Center for Public Issues Education conducted a statewide survey of local government stakeholders (LGS) to assess their attitudes toward UA, subjective knowledge of UA, perceived benefits of and barriers to the implementation of UA and educational needs. Responses were collected using 5-point semantic differential and Likert-type scales. Overall, respondents displayed positive attitudes and moderate knowledge of UA, and they identified a number of benefits of and barriers to implementing UA in their communities. The findings of this study support the hypothesis that lack of basic knowledge about UA is one difficulty in fostering UA. Despite being positively disposed toward UA, LGS may not fully understand how to effectively develop and implement policies to foster UA. This finding may also help explain reluctance to adopt local government policies to support UA. Efforts to provide LGS key information and enhance their knowledge of UA may support the development of UA activities.

Background The composition of the average diet for the Canary Islands’ population has been the subject of concern for the region’s authorities and nutrition specialists. In this study, the composition of the average diet in the Canary Islands is estimated. Method The approach is based on secondary data on local production and external trade. The breakdown of the total volume of apparent food consumption into specific product categories marketed to the consumers is achieved by applying hypotheses about losses in the distribution process. The estimation of food intake is obtained by making assumptions about the rates of food wastage in the final stage of consumption. This consumption is expressed not only in terms of edible weight and the market value associated with different food groups according to their local or imported origin, but also in terms of their energy and nutrient content. Results The results obtained suggest a high-calorie diet, close to three thousand kilocalories per person per day, with an average cost of around eight euros per person per day. Imported products, with a lower average cost per unit of energy, provide most of the carbohydrates and fats. Conclusion This study provides a complementary approach to survey-based evidence and also offers the possibility of evaluating the contributions of local or imported food to the diet.

The global trend of urbanization coupled with an increasing awareness of the importance of food systems resilience, has led to an increasing interest in urban agriculture to sustainably feed the rapidly growing urban population and mitigate against food supply chain disruptions. While home and community gardens have been long studied, there has been relatively little empirical research focused specifically on commercial urban agriculture (CUA) operations. The purpose of this study was to characterize commercial urban farms, and to identify their primary barriers to business development and expansion, their perceptions of future opportunities, and their specific informational needs. Because CUA has received relatively less attention in previous empirical research, a qualitative approach was used for this needs assessment to collect rich, contextualized information to help differentiate the specific barriers, opportunities and needs of CUA operations as opposed to their rural counterparts. We conducted semi-structured interviews (n = 29) of CUA producers in Florida. These interviews revealed that CUA operations face many of the same barriers that are common to establishing and growing small farms, with additional barriers due to local government regulations and tensions associated with farming on land that is not traditionally used for agriculture. Despite these difficulties, CUA operators believe their urban location is a key benefit to their operation and they see a variety of opportunities for future business and market expansion.

Soilless crops are commonly used in rooftop agriculture (RA) because they easily adapt to building constraints. However, acceptance of the produce derived from this system may be controversial. This paper evaluates consumers’ acceptance of food from RA in Mediterranean cities, focusing on the quality of the product, production system, and consumers’ motivations. We surveyed 238 respondents on the UAB university campus as potential consumers. The survey was distributed via an Internet-link that was provided along with a sample of tomatoes from RA. The results showed that most people approved the quality of RA products and perceived them to be local and fresh (94%). The respondents exhibited acceptance of soilless-produced tomatoes and considered them to be environmentally better than conventionally produced ones (69%). Cluster analysis revealed that consumers with high income levels and a university education had a better perception of the quality and proposed a higher price for RA products, but no difference was found regarding their environmental perception of this products. Moreover, people who possessed more information about the product also had a higher perception of the quality and production system (it was perceived to be environmentally friendly) and would pay more for them. The main concerns of consumers were related to food safety and the social impact of RA. Additional research is needed to improve the sustainability of RA, and the applied measures should be communicated to potential consumers to enhance their acceptance and success.

In the expanding urban agriculture phenomenon in Europe, home gardens are a traditional form that have kept agriculture within cities, even becoming crucial in certain historical periods (e.g., war periods). However, horticultural practices in home gardens can also have negative consequences. The goal of this paper is to assess the eco-efficiency of home gardens as a type of urban agriculture. To do so, a case study in Padua (Italy) was evaluated following life cycle assessment and life cycle costing methods. A home garden of 30.6 m2 and 21 crop cycles were evaluated. The functional unit of the assessment was 1 kg of harvested fresh vegetable at the consumption point, and the ReCiPe method was employed for impact assessment. Environmental assessment indicated that organic fertilization, use of tap water, mineral fertilization and pesticides were the most contributing elements of the entire life cycle. Furthermore, the relevance of garden design and crop selection was a determinant in the eco-efficiency results. The assessed home garden could satisfy the food requirements of between 1 and 2 members of the household. Crop management and design recommendations are provided to improve eco-efficiency and food security potential of home gardens.

Wellington, New Zealand, is highly vulnerable to disaster-induced food security crises due to its geography and geological characteristics, which can disrupt transportation and isolate the city following disasters. Urban agriculture (UA) has been proposed as a potential alternative food source for post-disaster scenarios. This study examined the potential of urban agriculture for enhancing post-disaster food security by calculating vegetable self-sufficiency rates. Specifically, it evaluated the capacity of current Wellington’s community gardens to meet post-disaster vegetable demand in terms of both weight and nutrient content. Data collection employed mixed methods with questionnaires, on-site observations and mapping, and collecting high-resolution aerial imagery. Garden yields were estimated using self-reported data supported by literature benchmarks, while cultivated areas were quantified through on-site mapping and aerial imagery analysis. Six post-disaster food demand scenarios were used based on different target populations to develop an understanding of the range of potential produce yields. Weight-based results show that community gardens currently supply only 0.42% of the vegetable demand for residents living within a five-minute walk. This rate increased to 2.07% when specifically targeting only vulnerable populations, and up to 10.41% when focusing on gardeners’ own households. However, at the city-wide level, the current capacity of community gardens to provide enough produce to feed people remained limited. Nutrient-based self-sufficiency was lower than weight-based results; however, nutrient intake is particularly critical for vulnerable populations after disasters, underscoring the greater challenge of ensuring adequate nutrition through current urban food production. Beyond self-sufficiency, this study also addressed the role of UA in promoting food diversity and acceptability, as well as its social and psychological benefits based on the questionnaires and on-site observations. The findings indicate that community gardens contribute meaningfully to post-disaster food security for gardeners and nearby residents, particularly for vulnerable groups with elevated nutritional needs. Despite the current limited capacity of community gardens to provide enough produce to feed residents, findings suggest that Wellington could enhance post-disaster food self-reliance by diversifying UA types and optimizing land-use to increase food production during and after a disaster. Realizing this potential will require strategic interventions, including supportive policies, a conducive social environment, and diversification—such as the including private yards—all aimed at improving food access, availability, and nutritional quality during crises. The primary limitation of this study is the lack of comprehensive data on urban agriculture in Wellington and the wider New Zealand context. Addressing this data gap should be a key focus for future research to enable more robust assessments and evidence-based planning.

Florida, like much of the southeastern United States, is rapidly urbanizing. With this urbanization, there is an increasing interest in commercial urban agriculture (CUA) as an important sector for agriculture in the state. The U.S. Department of Agriculture Census of Agriculture does not report data about CUA operations, thus limiting the knowledge about the status of CUA operations regarding basic features such as farm size, operator demographics, production systems, sources of revenue, barriers to business operations and profitability, and future opportunities for development. Because previous research has found differences in urban farmers’ demographics and their perceptions of barriers and opportunities, the purpose of this research was to characterize CUA operations in Florida and to understand the urban farmers’ perceptions of the primary needs, barriers, and opportunities for developing CUA, as well as CUA operators’ informational needs and preferred informational formats. We performed a cluster analysis to identify salient groups of urban growers in Florida to identify subgroups based on shared characteristics that revealed three distinct groups of urban farmers with differing perceptions of barriers, opportunities, informational needs, and preferred informational formats.

Urban agriculture is a global and growing pursuit that can contribute to economic development, job creation, food security and community building. It can, however, be limited by competition for space with other forms of urban development, a lack of formalized land use rights and health hazards related to food contamination. The use of green roof technology in urban agriculture has the potential to alleviate some of these problems, without adversely affecting the benefits provided by urban agriculture. It would not only enable the use of land for development and agriculture, but may also facilitate the formation of formal space and water use agreements, and enable redistribution of ground-level resources among urban farmers. This could decrease the use of contaminated land and water at ground level and alleviate health concerns. Before green roof technology can be incorporated into urban agriculture on a larger scale, installation costs must be reduced, roof weight limitations should be assessed, and appropriate management practices should be developed which will ensure that the benefits of green roofs, such as energy savings and storm water management, are still provided to urban communities.

Fresh-water food production/agriculture for both plants and animals utilizes some 70% of the planets’ fresh water, produces some 26% of greenhouse gas emissions and has a longish list of other societal-related issues. Given the developing and extant shortages of arable land, fresh water and food, along with climate/ecosystem issues, there is a need to greatly reduce these adverse effects of fresh-water agriculture. There are, especially since the advent of the 4th Agricultural Revolution, a number of major frontier technologies and functionality changes along with prospective alternatives which could, when combined and collectivized in various ways, massively improve the practices, adverse impacts and outlook of food production. These include cellular/factory agriculture; photosynthesis alternatives; a shift to off-grids and roads/back-to-the-future, do-it-yourself living (aka de-urbanization); cultivation of halophytes on wastelands using saline water; insects; frontier energetics; health-related market changes; and vertical farms/hydroponics/aeroponics. Shifting to these and other prospective alternatives would utilize far less arable land and fresh water, produce far less greenhouse gases and reduce food costs and pollution while increasing food production.