Among those benefits, growing food in backyards, community gardens or urban farms can shrink the distance fruits and vegetables have to travel between producers and consumers – what’s known as the “food mile” problem. With transportation’s greenhouse gas emissions eliminated, it’s a small leap to assume that urban agriculture is a simple climate solution.

But is urban agriculture really as climate-friendly as many people think?

Our team of researchers partnered with individual gardeners, community garden volunteers and urban farm managers at 73 sites across five countries in North America and Europe to test this assumption.

We found that urban agriculture, while it has many community benefits, isn’t always better for the climate than conventional agriculture over the life cycle, even with transportation factored in. In fact, on average, the urban agriculture sites we studied were six times more carbon intensive per serving of fruit or vegetables than conventional farming.

However, we also found several practices that stood out for how effectively they can make fruits and vegetables grown in cities more climate-friendly.

Community gardens like Baltimore’s Plantation Park Heights Urban Farm provide a wide range of benefits to the community, including providing fresh produce in areas with few places to buy fresh fruits and vegetables and having a positive impact on young people’s lives. (Photo:  Keres/USDA/FPAC)

What makes urban ag more carbon-intensive?

Most research on urban agriculture has focused on a single type of urban farming, often high-tech projects, such as aquaponic tanks, rooftop greenhouses or vertical farms. Electricity consumption often means the food grown in these high-tech environments has a big carbon footprint.

We looked instead at the life cycle emissions of more common low-tech urban agriculture – the kind found in urban backyards, vacant lots and urban farms.

Our study, published Jan. 22, 2024, modeled carbon emissions from farming activities like watering and fertilizing crops and from building and maintaining the farms. Surprisingly, from a life cycle emissions perspective, the most common source at these sites turned out to be infrastructure. From raised beds to sheds and concrete pathways, this gardening infrastructure means more carbon emissions per serving of produce than the average wide-open fields on conventional farms.

Capturing rainwater from gutters to feed gardens can cut the need for fresh water supplies. Water pumping, treatment and transportation in pipes all require energy use. (Photo: Minnesota Pollution Control Agency)

However, among the 73 sites in cities including New York, London and Paris, 17 had lower emissions than conventional farms. By exploring what set these sites apart, we identified some best practices for shrinking the carbon footprint of urban food production.

1) Make use of recycled materials, including food waste and water

Using old building materials for constructing farm infrastructure, such as raised beds, can cut out the climate impacts of new lumber, cement and glass, among other materials. We found that upcycling building materials could cut a site’s emissions 50% or more.

On average, our sites used compost to replace 95% of synthetic nutrients. Using food waste as compost can avoid both the methane emissions from food scraps buried in landfills and the need for synthetic fertilizers made from fossil fuels. We found that careful compost management could cut greenhouse gas emissions by nearly 40%.

Capturing rainwater or using greywater from shower drains or sinks can reduce the need for pumping water, water treatment and water distribution. Yet we found that few sites used those techniques for most of their water.

2) Grow crops that are carbon-intensive when grown by conventional methods

Tomatoes are a great example of crops that can cut emissions when grown with low-tech urban agriculture. Commercially, they are often grown in large-scale greenhouses that can be particularly energy-intensive. Asparagus and other produce that must be transported by airplane because they spoil quickly are another example with a large carbon footprint.

By growing these crops instead of buying them in stores, low-tech urban growers can reduce their net carbon impact.

3) Keep urban gardens going long term

Cities are constantly changing, and community gardens can be vulnerable to development pressures. But if urban agriculture sites can remain in place for many years, they can avoid the need for new infrastructure and keep providing other benefits to their communities.

Taqwa Community Farm in the Bronx, New York, has provided space to grow fresh vegetables for the community for over three decades. The farm composts food waste to create its own natural fertilizer, reducing its costs and climate impact. (Photo: Preston Keres/USDA/FPAC)

Urban agriculture sites provide ecosystem services and social benefits, such as fresh produce, community building and education. Urban farms also create homes for bees and urban wildlife, while offering some protection from the urban heat island effect. The practice of growing food in cities is expected to continue expanding in the coming years, and many cities are looking to it as a key tool for climate adaptation and environmental justice. We believe that with careful site design and improved land use policy, urban farmers and gardeners can boost their benefit both to people nearby and the planet as a whole.

Jason Hawes is a Ph.D. Candidate in Resource Policy and Behavior at the University of Michigan; Benjamin Goldstein is Assistant Professor of Sustainable Systems at the University of Michigan, and Joshua Newell is Professor of Environment and Sustainability at the University of Michigan.

This article is republished from The Conversation under a Creative Commons license. Read the original article.

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A new study from the University of Sussex conducted a two-year survey of urban farmers in Brighton and Hove, neighboring seaside towns in England with a combined population of around 300,000. A total of 34 people were surveyed on their yields, some using backyards, others using community gardens, balconies and other ways that urban gardeners squeeze in space for growing crops.

On average, the farmers were able to harvest about one kilogram of fruits and vegetables per square meter of land, which is on the low side for small-scale farmers, according to one Rutgers University study. But it is still roughly comparable to small farmers, and the Sussex researchers do note that some spaces were far more productive, up to 10 kilograms per square meter—depending on the skill, experience and specific crop choices of the home gardener. It’s also worth noting that those 34 were the minority of those who actually reported their findings; 160 originally signed up to do this, and it seems sensible that only the most serious gardeners would file their reports.

RELATED: This Urban Farm Is Small But Mighty

Urban farming has been studied in the past, with similar findings. Small-scale urban gardeners tend to have surprisingly high yields, use much less pesticide and fertilizer than commercial farms, and are very efficient in their use of small spaces. But they’re also extremely inefficient in their use of materials (like inputs) and labor. A home gardener laboring over a few Swiss chard plants might get pretty good results, but the cost of those plants—which were maybe bought as seedlings and are more expensive than seeds—means that the overall efficiency is not especially high.

This new study focuses on the upside: high yield, high-quality crops. But there’s an equally interesting extra component here. The researchers also asked the respondents to mark down pollinators they found, and they found a lot, somewhere around 2,000 pollinators. It isn’t particularly likely that urban farming, especially in those very dense cities where space is at an extreme premium, like New York City, can make any holistic dent in food security. But the pollinator aspect is fascinating and urban gardens could provide a lifeline for pollinators that would otherwise struggle.

The post Urban Farming Can Actually Be Pretty Productive appeared first on Modern Farmer.

I owe tremendous gratitude to my friend, Laura Marie Neubert from Up Front and Beautiful, who spent hours upon hours teaching me not only about basic gardening techniques but also introducing me to the science behind urban permaculture. We decided it would be a great experience to create a permaculture garden on my property. Laura designed my gardens and was the project manager, creating three separate areas that each had a specific objective.

The upper garden was designed as a heat sink with a glass roof, perfect for growing tomatoes—and tomatoes we grew. There were six different varieties, including my favorites, Cascade and Sungolds. We also planted cucumbers and squash and included other features such as a rainwater collector, native bee houses and a worm compost, which were all intended to complement our plants the way nature intended.

In the lower garden, we planted Romano beans from the same seeds my father brought over from Italy some 60 years ago. We put in a few radish plants and Elysium flowers to attract beneficial insects. On my back deck, we planted a variety of leafy vegetables and herbs in stainless steel planters.

Our gardening experience was an overall success. I enjoyed my fresh tomatoes, cucumber salads and green beans, steamed with garlic and olive oil just like my mom used to make. It was convenient having my herb spiral close to my kitchen entrance, too.

We did learn a few things, however, that will come in handy for next season. We’re now preparing to plant winter vegetables. I’ve been told that when designing a permaculture garden, one needs a full year of experience to fully understand the landscape, all aspects of the weather, temperature and ecosystem before deciding what should grow where. As this was our first year, we didn’t have the benefit of hindsight.

We discovered that we weren’t getting as much sunlight in the section with tomatoes as we had originally thought. We cleaned up the dead foliage from the plants to allow light in and ripen the remaining tomatoes. However, next season, we plan on planting some of the vining tomatoes elsewhere (with the exception of the cherry and Sungolds, which did very well) and use a lower bed in the upper garden for other vegetables such as onions, beets, garlic and squash. We will plant the other tomato varieties on my back deck, which gets more sunlight exposure, and perhaps plant earlier in the season. We did plant squash this year, but it didn’t pollinate, perhaps because there were too few bees. Next season, we will hand-pollinate them. Some of our tomatoes also experienced a minor deformity that was likely due to stress caused by the extreme heat we experienced in Western Canada this past summer.

The soil may have been an issue and Laura Marie is having the soil tested for some hard-to-pronounce bacteria. It’s more likely that it was just a case of too much saline in the soil. Given that we only created the soil beds in the spring, it may take a winter season of rain to clean the surplus salts out. Top-composting the soil in the fall should help.

We also plan to plant more pollinator-friendly plants and introduce native bee cocoons next March and April. This will be especially important if I plant dwarf fruit trees next spring as I intend on doing. Over the winter, we will be putting up walls under the heat sink in the upper garden. It won’t create a true hothouse, but it will protect the plants from wind, rain and extreme cold.

The Romano bean plants were a huge success. I harvested all I could eat during the two weeks they were at their peak. I vacuum-sealed and froze the rest, and I left some bean pods on the plants in order to harness their seeds for next season.

We are turning off the drip irrigation for the winter and will be using water from the rain collection barrel when needed. We will be planting our winter vegetables as soon as the new walls are up, likely sometime this month. Laura Marie has been nursing the seedlings in her hothouse. We will include arugula, winter kale, mustard greens, broccolini and radicchio. I am especially looking forward to the rapini (also called broccoli rabe), one of my favorite greens. I like to cook it simply with salt, garlic and olive oil.

All in all, it was a great first season. I learned a lot and, although I still have a lot more to learn, it is an enjoyable kind of learning. I am more and more convinced that gardening is a great way to relax. I feel a sense of immense achievement and satisfaction growing my own food. You can, too.

Visit MillionGardensMovement.org to learn more about the movement and/or to join it.

The post What I Learned During My First Year of Gardening appeared first on Modern Farmer.

Australian academics Bill Mollison and David Holmgren are credited with creating the concept of permaculture in the 1970s. Mollison, an ecologist and university professor, defined permaculture as “the conscious design and maintenance of agriculturally productive ecosystems which have the diversity, stability, and resilience of natural ecosystems.” Holmgren, for his part, went on to coin 12 design principles of permaculture in his book, Permaculture: Principles and Pathways beyond Sustainability. Before your eyes glaze over at the seeming complexity of all of this, let me point out that urban permaculture is really quite simple to understand and practice. 

My friend Laura Marie Neubert introduced this method to me. She’s a permaculture designer, gardener and chef, who has studied permaculture, as well as soil biology, mycology, regenerative farming and culinary anthropology. 

Neubert adopted Holmgren’s principles and adapted them for urban and suburban environments.

Urban permaculture embraces the ethos of permaculture and encourages interpretation of these same principles and ethics—using them as a guide to help us design our city lives.

Neubert was inspired by her maternal grandparents’ connection to the natural world. She would spend weekends at their ranch, filling her days with chores, such as mucking stalls where the cows and horses were kept. I was amused by the fact that to this day, the smell of manure brings her a curious kind of comfort.

Like many of us, Neubert worries about the future of our planet and hopes that the example of her garden can teach her children to honor nature and live sustainably. “I believe that in the space that lies between today and an unsustainable future, there exists [a] huge possibility to learn from a time not so long ago when the concept of charming side yard vegetable and fruit gardens, and even grand potagers enjoyed an enviable commonplace,” she says. 

After touring her garden and learning some of the many ways she mimics nature to produce beautiful looking vegetables in a sustainable way, I’m both inspired and motivated to do the same.

Stay tuned for our upcoming video series about urban permaculture tips I learned from Neubert in her garden. 

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