Community gardens, the feel-good darlings of the growing season, are great for raising awareness about sustainability—but they’re just scratching the surface of a much larger harvest, according to a University of Alberta researcher.
Community gardens, the feel-good darlings of the growing season, are great for raising awareness about sustainability—but they’re just scratching the surface of a much larger harvest, according to a University of Alberta researcher.
They and other ag-based initiatives bring a bounty of benefits to cities by drawing people together, creating common spaces, boosting biodiversity, adding to local food production and in some cases, like the U of A’s Green and Gold Garden, raising money for good causes. But while those benefits should be celebrated, there are bigger-picture questions to consider, said Michael Granzow, who is studying the issue for a PhD in sociology through the Faculty of Arts.
“To deal with problems like food insecurity and address underlying issues, we need to also consider factors like income inequality and availability of affordable housing,” he said.
Although projects like community gardens and vertical farming—where produce is grown stacked in layers—are great, we have to be careful not to overstate their ability to feed cities, he believes.
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Image via University of Alberta.
