Does urban agriculture contribute to food security, and how might this be achieved?

Abstract

Objective: Food system challenges exacerbate inequalities in access to fresh healthy food and threaten food security. Lack of food security, referred to as food insecurity, is associated with poorer physical and mental health outcomes and has been identified as a key challenge to address by calls for food system transformation. Increasing food production through urban agriculture, the production of fruit and vegetables in urban areas, has been identified as a potentially effective contributor to food system transformation, but the effect of this on household or UK-level food security is unclear. This paper reviews international evidence of urban agriculture’s impact on food security. Design: Narrative review. Setting: This paper reviews international evidence of urban agriculture’s impact on food security. Participants: Previously published international research. Results: Whilst findings are mixed, available evidence suggests that urban agriculture makes a modest, yet positive, contribution to food security by facilitating the availability of and access to fresh fruit and vegetables to food insecure households. Conclusions: Capitalising on the potential for urban agriculture to benefit food security requires government investment and support at both the national and local levels; therefore, increasing access to land for food growing, reducing costs of related resources and collaboration with existing community groups to enhance sharing of skills and expertise are identified as avenues for exploration that may help to achieve this. This review also highlights opportunities for future research in this field that may strengthen the quality of the evidence supporting urban agriculture’s impact on food security.