Community gardens and food

With modern cities up taking up only three percent of the world’s land surface, their ecological footprints actually cover the entire globe. In recent decades urban solutions are moving from Sustainable Cities to Regenerative Cities. A factor in this shift seeks to reduce energy use in food transport by increasing urban agriculture, thereby cutting fossil fuel dependance and misuse while building community resilience.

General introduction to approach

This cluster contains various approaches concerns aspects of food production and how its related spaces and processes can lead to various types of urban transformation in cities. Specific approaches examined included Edible City Solutions, Community-based urban farms and gardens, Aquaponics and how a community garden facilitates Social reintegration in Greece. All the projects examined are based in Europe, but some have a global outreach with city partners based in Central America, Africa and East Asia. The systemic use of urban landscapes for food production is a major step towards more sustainable, liveable and healthier cities and many approaches empower local communities to overcome social problems by their inclusive and participatory dynamics and to create new green businesses and jobs, thereby generating local economic growth and fostering social cohesion.

Shapes, sizes and applications

EdiCitNet (Edible Cities Network Integrating Edible City Solutions for social resilient and sustainably productive cities) has just started (2018 – 2023) and focuses around Edible City Solutions (ECS). A recent article introduced the conceptional framework of ECS, including different forms of urban farming combined with closed loop systems for sustainable water, nutrient, and waste management. It examined Case Studies in Rotterdam, Andernach, Oslo, Heidelberg, and Havana and found that while the implementation of Nature-based solutions (NBS) has increased in the last decade, they have not been able to significantly increase social cohesion as they mostly invite users to ‘stay and use’ passively but not to become actively involved on-site, in an ongoing fashion. Around the world and across all socioeconomic groups, cultural and generational differences Edible City Solutions are booming and demonstrate a high potential for a participatory development of social cohesion. ProGIreg (Productive Green Infrastructure for post-industrial urban regeneration) began in 2018 and is active in post-industrial urban areas that suffer from social and economic disadvantages, inequality and related crime and security problems. They use Living labs with local communities to affect change using 8 interconnected NBS. Their Community-based urban farms and gardens approach will turn unused urban land into productive community gardens, contributing to improved mental and physical health through exposure to nature and healthy sources of food and a community feeling. Additionally their aquaponics approach will be tried in 4 cities, which is combination of raising fish (aquaculture) in tanks together with soilless cultivation of plants (hydroponics) in a symbiotic environment, whereby the fish waste water provides the nutrients needed to feed the plants. This approach is easy to operate and ideal for promoting local food production in areas with contaminated or poor quality soil and will create green job opportunities. CITISPYCE (Combating inequalities through innovative social practices of, and for, young people in cities across Europe) was active from 2013-15. An approach used with young people in Elefsina, Athens, was to use a Municipal Vegetable Garden as a private initiative. Originating from an NGO called EPEKA, it aimed at the social reintegration of people facing financial difficulties through their active engagement with the vegetable garden. It resulted in 3 young people (up to 30 years old) finding employment. PATHWAYS (Exploring transitions pathways to sustainable, low carbon societies) explored the possibilities for transitions to a low-carbon, sustainable Europe between 2013 and 2016. It combined the analysis of different scientific disciplines: integrated assessment modelling, socio-technical transition analysis, and initiative based learning to provide better policy advice for European, Member State and local policymakers. The Transition case study database on their website is a valuable resource of initiatives and projects active during this period.

Summary of relevant approaches

The PATHWAYS project focused on key objectives of (2016) EU sustainability policy (moving towards a sustainable, resource-efficient, low-carbon and climate-resilient Europe). This was intrinsically linked to the success of two key transitions: 1) the energy transition and 2) the land-use transition. The Transition Case Study Database includes examples from the second section relating to the approach of “Community Gardens”.

Rosa Rose – more than just a Berlin garden

The initiative “Rosa Rose" is one of the community garden projects in Berlin. The initiative started in 2004, when a group of neighbours in the Berlin district of Friedrichshain began turning a 2000m² brownfield into a garden to create their own little oasis. The idea was to grow vegetables, some fruits and herbs and create a green space and dog area that would also be open to passers-by. But unfortunately the oasis had to be abandoned a few years later, due to a planned construction. In May 2010 they could start to develop their new site, a green public area right next to their original location proposed by the district of Friedrichshain. Since then, a contract with the district office ensures a free usage of the area for at least five years, provided that the group maintains the space.

Casale Podere Rosa

In the north-east of Rome there is an old country side building where more then 20 years ago a bunch of willing and motivated people decided to take up an abandoned area to develop an entire microcosm of activities. Over the years this has grown to include a solidarity purchasing group, an educational botanic garden, urban gardens, a farmer market twice a months, an organic restaurant, the management of a library dedicated to the ecological culture, the energy production through solar panels and more. Today the Casale Podere Rosa is a fully developed association around which revolve a community of 500 people, more than 100 families. A piece of neighbourhood benefitting from and contributing to the drive to shape the current identity and quality of the surrounding area. Its achievements, quite unique in the urban scenario where the initiative is settled, are the results of a careful management of the relationships with the local institution and of ability in taking advantage of the peculiarities of the neighbourhood, which has a history of social and environmental struggles.