Innovation and sustainability in urban agriculture: the path forward
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Journal of Consumer Protection and Food Safety Journal fu¨r Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit
EDITORIAL
Innovation and sustainability in urban agriculture: the path forward Francesco Orsini1 Received: 1 June 2020 / Revised: 5 June 2020 / Accepted: 18 June 2020 © Bundesamt für Verbraucherschutz und Lebensmittelsicherheit (BVL) 2020
Urban Agriculture (UA) is experiencing an unprecedented growth throughout the world, finding applications in countries with both developing and more developed economies. While featuring a range of different forms, it commonly encompasses all activities of plant cultivation and animal rearing within cities and towns and in their immediate surroundings. In addition to its potential contribution to food security, UA also provides non-food products, plus a number of functionalities. Accordingly, ecosystem services associated with UA include the so called provisioning services (e.g. food supply), regulating services (e.g. involving the improvement of air or soil quality, plus flood control), habitat services (e.g. contributing to urban biodiversity), and cultural services (e.g. recreation, amenity or social inclusion).
Towards multifunctional urban agriculture UA projects also bring innovation in available plant cultivation systems and technologies. As agriculture moves into cities, constraints arise, mainly associated with land accessibility, access to water, legal and policy frameworks and food safety (Gasperi et al. 2016). As a consequence, agricultural technology has evolved, particularly with reference to the so-called systems for building-integrated agriculture, which is also referred to as Zero-Acreage Farming (or Z-Farming). The achievement of agricultural integration within an existing urban built environment provides several advantages that not only might include a nexus to consumers and image/aesthetic functionalities, but might also contribute to circularity and overall urban metabolism. This is especially true for instance when (1) reclaimed wastewater or harvested rainwater is used for irrigation, (2) when organic waste is composted and used for plant nutrition, or (3) even when thermal * Francesco Orsini [email protected] 1
DISTAL – Department of Agricultural and Food Sciences, ALMA MATER STUDIORUM, Bologna University, Bologna, Italy
energy and air flows are established between environments devoted to crop production and both residential and commercial buildings. Among building-integrated agriculture systems, the most promising and innovative ones are those of rooftop agriculture and vertical farming.
Farming on and inside urban buildings Rooftop farming, which may take the form of open-air rooftop systems or rooftop greenhouses, allows the recovery and productive transition of vacant rooftop spaces. Whereas open-air systems are often associated with leisure and recreational functions in the global North, they may assume a crucial role for food security in developing countries, where they often host simplified hydroponic systems for veg-etable production. Al
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