Greening Cities by Growing Food

This book examines how urban agriculture (UA) is valued in the sustainable city. Through a comparative examination of UA projects in four cities across the Americas Rosario, Argentina; Toronto, Canada; Medellín, Colombia; and Charlotte, USA the book illustrates local manifestations of the socio-ecological dimensions of the global food system, and traces theoretical and empirical explanations for the impact of global political economic structures (sustainable neoliberalism) on local efforts to promote social and environmental goals through UA. The study contributes to literature on UA, sustainability, and urban geography through examining the ability of marginalized communities to compete for land on which to grow produce in contribution to their food security, livelihoods, communities, and environments, and will be of interest to UA practitioners, students, and scholars of geography, sociology, sustainability studies, environmental studies, and food studies.
This project is distinctive for its global - local orientation that uses local cases to shed light on global phenomena relating to sustainability, neoliberalism, and policy mobilities. It is also important for its qualitative approach to understanding the perceived value of UA. Throughout the research, stakeholders emphasized the qualitative values of UA (such as social integration for new immigrants) that are not easily captured in statistical representations of the economic value of a given piece of urban land. As such, this book seeks to contribute to understanding about the contributions UA makes to a city beyond the food produced, and fill gaps in literature regarding the local manifestations of global policy in UA projects seeking to address both sustainability and social justice objectives.

Dr. Colleen Hammelamn is an Assistant Professor in the Department of Geography and Earth Sciences at University of North Carolina-Charlotte. Her research broadly considers questions of social justice in urban food systems and currently proceeds along three fronts. One project, Digging for justice in urban gardens across the Americas, focuses on the contestations of urban agriculture in the sustainable neoliberal city. A second project is concerned with Latinx foodways in North America. This research investigates such foodway construction and its displacement to better understand the evolution of migrant place-making over space and time. Finally, a new project explores ways in which migrant communities use food practices to animate public spaces and struggle to participate in the work of making cities.¿

Chapter 1-Introduction.- Chapter 2-Entanglements of social justice, sustainability governance, and land tenure: A review of the literature.- Chapter 3-Producing uneven development through a focus on market gardens.- Chapter 4-It is not about the food: Qualitative valuations of urban agriculture.- Chapter 5-Stewarding the environmental commons.- Chapter 6-A way forward.