Written by Vasilis Margaras with Popi Michelogiannaki.
Urban agriculture is the practice of producing, processing and distributing food within cities and built-up peri-urban areas. A growing phenomenon worldwide in recent decades, it encompasses a wide range of food production activities, but also includes urban greening and delivers social, educational and recreational benefits. Despite growing interest and the rise of projects and networks across cities, urban agriculture remains largely confined to local or regional levels, with limited coverage in EU policies or funding programmes.
Background
Urban agriculture has been essential since the first cities were established, ensuring food security through practices such as irrigation and composting. The 18th-century Industrial Revolution in Europe separated agriculture from cities and re-purposed land for industrial purposes, limiting urban agriculture to small-scale gardens. During the two World Wars, urban gardens – for instance ‘victory gardens‘ – addressed food security for urban populations. In the late 20th century, sustainability efforts revived urban agriculture, emphasising fresh food production, local food chains, waste composting, environmental benefits and proactive social initiatives. In Europe, urban agriculture is driven primarily by environmental and social goals, including preserving biodiversity and addressing the demand for local, high quality foods.
Most definitions of urban agriculture share the common element of food production within urban boundaries, situated close to urban residents. Urban agriculture can be divided broadly into two types: systems centred on food production, and those centred on social or community action. Food production-centred types, such as urban farms and zero acreage farms, focus primarily on growing and producing food. Urban or peri-urban farming refers to the practice of agriculture contributing to ‘traditional materials and architectural styles, buildings, crop and breed varieties, and techniques of cultivation’ within cities and their surrounding areas. Zero acreage farms comprise all types of innovative building-related food production, such as rooftop gardens and vertical farms, and do not require additional land. By contrast, social and community-oriented systems, including social farms and urban community gardens, combine food production with additional functions such as education, health, environmental benefits and community engagement.
In scientific research, ‘urban gardening’ is often defined as non-profit, community-focused food production with low economic dependence on material outputs, where the primary aim is to achieve social goals. By contrast, profit-driven activities are typically referred to as ‘urban agriculture’ or ‘urban farming’, and offers local or regional agricultural products and services. This distinction highlights the differing objectives of these practices within the broader context of urban agriculture.
In its EU biodiversity strategy for 2030, published in May 2020, the Commission called on towns and cities of at least 20 000 inhabitants to develop ambitious urban greening plans by 2021, including ‘measures to create biodiverse and accessible urban forests, parks and gardens; urban farms; green roofs and walls; tree-lined streets; urban meadows; and urban hedges’. The strategy also states that ‘green urban spaces, from parks and gardens to green roofs and urban farms, provide a wide range of benefits for people. They also provide opportunities for businesses and a refuge for nature. They reduce air, water and noise pollution, provide protection from flooding, droughts and heat waves, and maintain a connection between humans and nature’. The strategy aimed to put Europe’s biodiversity on a path to recovery by 2030, and contained specific actions and commitments, including some relating to urban ecosystems.
Certain EU-level funding programmes and projects have engaged with urban agriculture themes. These include URBACT, proGIreg, SiEUGreen and FUSILLI. Urban agriculture is also mentioned in an ex-ante assessment of the ‘food‘ thematic area under the EU’s Urban Agenda. The European Commission also acknowledged the role of urban agriculture in the context of the European Green Capital Award and the European Green Leaf Award and the rules for applicant cities. Another recent project is the European Forum on Urban Agriculture (EFUA), which ran from 2020 to 2024 funded by Horizon Europe. EFUA’s objective was to tap into urban agriculture’s potential ‘by achieving better knowledge, better deployment, and better policies in this field’. For instance, one EFUA project was the Cascais municipality-led urban agriculture initiative in Portugal, emphasising community gardens, school projects, and innovative programmes – like market gardening – to promote sustainability, biodiversity and social inclusion. Another project is MicroFlavours Brussels, a start-up focused on producing microgreens through vertical farming in the cellars of a former brewery.
Many cities have developed food initiatives and urban agriculture-related projects. The Milan Urban Food Policy Pact gathers cities from all over the world committed to advancing on the common goal of sustainable, inclusive and resilient urban food systems. Eurocities has also been working on the topic of food systems, presenting activities from a number of cities that are active in the field of urban food policy.
Views from advisory bodies, academia and stakeholders
In its 2023 opinion on sustainable water management and climate emergency, the European Economic and Social Committee stated that ‘promoting urban and peri-urban agriculture can reduce the need to transport food from rural areas, reducing the carbon footprint (process of decarbonising agriculture) as well as water use in agriculture. In addition, urban irrigation systems can take advantage of rainwater and water from irrigation recycling systems’. The Committee of the Regions has also adopted numerous opinions on this subject, including one on sustainable food systems, which highlights the important role of regional and local authorities in food systems, and asking for measures to facilitate access to healthy food options such as seasonal food markets and support for sustainable producers.
According to Eurocities, the European structural and investment funds, the second pillar of the EU’s common agricultural policy – the European Agricultural Fund for Rural Development (EAFRD), and other types of EU funding should recognise the importance of urban-oriented agriculture, and urban and peri-urban food production. They should also support experimentation with vertical farming and other forms of urban food production. Furthermore, EFUA mentions that urban agriculture has yet to be fully integrated in EU policy and practice. Large gaps in urban agriculture knowledge, awareness and best practice still exist. Significantly, urban agriculture can help to deliver on the Sustainable Development Goals that underpin the United Nations 2030 agenda for sustainable development.
An academic study produced for the European Parliament’s Committee on Agriculture and Rural Development recommends enhancing territorial integration through aligning urban and peri-urban areas by means of regional cooperation, and restoring urban-rural relationships to overcome fragmented governance. It emphasises sectoral integration through urban food strategies to address diverse objectives, such as environment, health and food production. It also calls for societal demands to be built into policy action, through knowledge platforms and public consultation, fostering collaboration and dialogue so as to address urban agriculture challenges comprehensively. A comparative cities study partly funded by Horizon Europe calls for institutional recognition for urban agriculture on political agendas and in dedicated policy frameworks. It advocates that the necessary conditions be created for urban agriculture within land-use frameworks, more efficient and balanced support be given to less-developed forms of urban agriculture (community gardens) and that long-term economic incentives be established for urban agriculture activities.
Parliament’s position
In its 2021 resolution on the EU’s biodiversity strategy, Parliament expressed support for the Commission’s plan to set up an EU platform for urban greening. It also called on the Commission to ‘set specific ambitious binding targets on urban biodiversity, nature-based solutions and ecosystem-based approaches, and green infrastructure, benefiting both humans and wildlife and contributing to the overall biodiversity targets’. Parliament stressed the need to include measures such as a minimum share of green roofs on new buildings, support for urban farming, a ban on the use of chemical pesticides and reduced fertiliser use in EU urban green areas, and a greater number of green spaces per number of inhabitants. In its 2017 resolution on the state of play of farmland concentration in the EU, Parliament called on the Member States ‘to provide incentives for urban farm development and other forms of participatory farming and land-sharing arrangements’. It also urged Member States to address limited access to farmland in rural areas, and the growing interest in urban and peri-urban agriculture.
Read the complete briefing on ‘Urban agriculture: State of play‘ in the Think Tank pages of the European Parliament.
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