Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems ( IF 2.6 ) Pub Date : 2019-11-17 , DOI: 10.1080/21683565.2019.1690615 Alana Bowen Siegner 1 , Charisma Acey 2 , Jennifer Sowerwine 3
Despite a growing civic movement to create spaces for urban agriculture (UA) in U.S. cities, public investment remains both inequitable and inadequate to support the diverse practices and practitioners growing food locally. As a result, outcomes of UA initiatives are uneven, ad hoc, and often the result of resistance and concerted advocacy. This is due, in part, to agriculture not being a standard urban land use designation or central focus of urban policymaking, despite decades of research demonstrating health, food, environmental and educational benefits of growing food in cities. Agroecology is a robust framework for urban food justice advocates and policymakers in the U.S. to identify synergistic ecological, socio-cultural and economic benefits of UA. In this paper, we analyze survey responses from 35 East Bay urban farms through an agroecology lens, documenting how the diverse farms form part of a fragile system that produces important spaces of food, community, health, and culture. With land use and affordability challenges rising in contexts like San Francisco Bay Area, we contend that urban agroecology as both scientific mode of inquiry and set of agricultural practices can improve urban food research-action projects aiming to protect urban farms as vital city infrastructure.
中文翻译:
在东湾生产城市农业生态学:从土壤健康到社区赋权
尽管为在美国城市中为城市农业(UA)创造空间而开展的公民运动日益增多,但公共投资仍然不公平,也不足以支持当地种植粮食的各种实践和从业人员。结果,UA计划的结果是不平衡的,临时的,并且通常是抵抗和一致倡导的结果。这部分是由于尽管数十年的研究表明农业在城市种植粮食不但对健康,食品,环境和教育都有好处,而且农业还不是城市土地使用的标准名称或城市政策制定的重点。农业生态学是美国城市食品司法的倡导者和政策制定者的有力框架,可用于确定UA的协同生态,社会文化和经济利益。在本文中,我们通过农业生态学角度分析了35个东湾城市农场的调查答复,记录了多样化农场如何构成脆弱系统的一部分,该脆弱系统产生了重要的食物,社区,健康和文化空间。鉴于旧金山湾区等地区的土地使用和可负担性挑战不断增加,我们认为,城市农业生态学既是科学的研究模式,又是农业实践的集合,可以改善旨在保护城市农场作为重要城市基础设施的城市食品研究行动项目。