Growing food in cities has many positive effects on the environment and lots
of urban agriculture projects have clear environmental objectives as part of their primary aims.
Many urban agriculture projects are fundamentally community focused being run by local people for local people and, as well as producing food, focus actively on addressing issues that affect community cohesion.
The conference inlcuded an unexpected appearance from London's major Boris Johnson who publicly announced his support for
urban agriculture projects in the capital.
See for example the staff training courses on multi-stakeholder policy design and action planning in the Cities Farming for the Future programme; the Regional training courses
on urban agriculture project and policy development for IDRC supported city teams; the Staff training on policy influencing for staff on the Focus City project in Tunis; and the Staff training on research - to policy outreach for staff of the Sarnissa and Papussa projects.
John Hantz, CEO of the Hantz Group, a financial services company based in Southfield, Mich., is underwriting the country's most
ambitious urban agriculture project — a plan to create urban farms on 5,000 acres of vacant or unused land in distressed neighborhoods in Detroit.
For information about Sustain's report on the visit, click Edible Cities, It looks at examples of
urban agriculture projects in cities including New York, Milwaukee and Chicago (where green rooftops have become a common feature of the landscape, to reduce energy bills and cool the city - see Chicago City Hall below), and identifies a series of opportunities that other cities could be adopting.
Activities such as holding communal events, regenerating run down areas, engaging isolated individuals and empowering local people to be involved in decision making are all part of
many urban agriculture projects and have marked positive effects on the social environment.
His cuisine focuses on highly seasonal and under — utilized vegetables,
urban agriculture projects, and wildcrafted ingredients.
Urban agriculture projects are therefore often used by schools and linked to the curriculum to teach subjects from biology to maths.
Evaluation of
the urban agriculture projects supported by Heifer International, and strategy advice
In such analysis, design, implementation and monitoring, RUAF always incorporates proper attention to gender issues (see also the research project Designing guidelines for mainstreaming gender in
urban agriculture projects and the book Women Feeding Cities that was produced by the RUAF Foundation in cooperation with the CGIAR - Urban Harvest programme.
A more liberal situation in the US than in the UK to encourage composting, but less willingness than in the UK to include animals in
some urban agriculture projects;
San Francisco is home to many types of
urban agriculture projects.
This visit is the subject of a report: Edible Cities: A report of a visit to
urban agriculture projects in the U.S.A