Networks of Nature Integrating Urban Farming in the City Fabric

This book explores how the global environmental crisis has posed several challenges in heavy urbanised cities. Among those are the need to provide food security to all citizens, the need to reduce the urban pollution caused by urban activities, and urban spaces that contribute to the mental health and wellbeing of people. Urban farming has the

potential to help solve some of those challenges, thus providing many benefits to surrounding communities, for instance, access to healthy food, increased physical activity, community development and education, and food system ecology awareness. Nevertheless, although the benefits of urban farming have been widely acknowledged by practitioners and scholars, there are still fundamental gaps in the implementation of urban farming projects in the city fabric. For instance, how to ensure sustainability and active engagement of city dwellers with urban farming initiatives, and to what extent do people feel empowered or inclined to initiate or develop such initiatives?