Agriculture in Urban Food Systems: Models and Practices

Dear Colleagues,

In light of the challenges that all cities face today, food is offered as a prism through which to read and intervene on various areas that affect the quality of life of the population: circular economy, urban metabolism, social relations, economies, and food quality. Numerous factors require a theoretical revision of the relationships that the city weaves with the surrounding territory for the purposes of food production, processing, and distribution. The de-territorialization of food systems has manifested in a very decisive manner in recent decades, with evident and dramatic consequences on the ability to manage and govern material (materials raw, processed products, and food waste) and immaterial (knowledge, traditions, and consumer-producer relations) flows related to food. Simultaneously, with a growing interest of research and institutions for urban–rural relations, cities have begun to think about how to integrate, connect, and protect green agricultural areas and the social, economic, and environmental functions they provide to the wellbeing of the population. Urban agriculture is often considered as a framework within which many solutions can be found. Nevertheless, the role that fringe and peri-urban agricultural areas can play in sustainably feeding cities is usually underestimated. Further, the relationships between agriculture and cities shape dietary patterns and intertwine environmental challenges, combining socioecological systems and food regimes.

Through this Special Issue, our aim is to contribute to two different, yet narrowly intertwined, questions: (1) What models and theories can we rely on to understand, analyze, and assess the contributions of agriculture to urban challenges? (2) Which cases do we know about the integration of agriculture within urban food policies? What are their characteristics? What are their governance models?

This Special Issue will identify promising pathways and discuss challenges that need to be addressed with priority. Topics of interest include:

• Urban and peri-urban agriculture for more sustainable food systems;
• Agriculture in urban–rural linkages;
• Innovative approaches connecting agriculture and cities;
• Monitoring and assessment models for urban food systems;
• Interactions between agriculture and nutrition;
• Agriculture and public food procurement;
• Urban food policies’ impact analysis;
• Contribution of agriculture to urban metabolism;
• Agriculture and food democracy in cities;
• Access to land and land use issues;
• Agriculture and urban ecosystem services;
• Agricultural systems in the food–water–energy nexus;
• Short food supply chains and local agriculture;
• Stakeholder analysis in urban food movements and alternative food networks;
• Agriculture, cities and dietary patterns;
• The contribution of agriculture to multiple Sustainable Development Goals;
• Urban socioecological systems and food regimes.

Prof. Dr. Davide Marino
Dr. Giampiero Mazzocchi
Guest Editors

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• urban food systems
• urban and peri-urban agriculture
• food policies
• urban–rural linkages