This book explores the critical role of urban food production in
strengthening communities and in building ecosocialism. It integrates
theory and practice, drawing on several local case studies from seven
countries across four continents: China, Cuba, Ghana, Italy, Tanzania,
the UK, and the US.
Research shows that the term "urban agriculture" overstates the limited
food-growing potential in cities due to a shortage of land required for
growing grains, the basic human food staple. For this reason, the book
suggests "urban cultivation" as an appropriate term which indicates
social and political progress achieved through combined labours of
urbanites to produce food. It examines how these collaborative
food-growing efforts help raise local social capital, foster community
organisation, and create ecological awareness in order to promote urban
food production while also ensuring environmental sustainability. This
book illustrates how urban cultivation constitutes a potentially
important aspect of urban ecosystems, as well as offers solutions to
current environmental problems. It recentres attention to the global
South and debunks Eurocentric narratives, challenging capitalist
commercial food-growing regimes and encouraging ecosocialist
food-growing practices.
Written in an accessible style, this book is recommended reading about
an emergent issue which will interest students and scholars of
environmental studies, geography, sociology, urban studies, politics,
and economics.
