Ninth International Conference on Food Studies

Abstract

Until recently, urban planners have paid very little attention to food systems. But in recent years, there has been an increasing interest in urban agriculture (UA) practice and research in the fields of urban planning and public health. In the global North as well as in the global South, researchers are interested in the environmental, social and health impacts of practices associated with agriculture or cultivation of plants in urban areas. However, these investigations present a great variety of results on the impacts of UA on the determinants of health. We present the results of a systematic literature review to describe all reported potential UA impacts on health outcomes and identify gaps to guide future UA research. Our search strategy identified 101 studies with a variety of methods (quantitative, qualitative and mixed methods). Among them, 38% and 37% reported findings from North America and Sub-Saharan Africa respectively. Quantitative studies have found positive effects of UA on food security, nutrition, social capital, physical and mental health outcomes. Qualitative studies revealed a set of perceived benefits and motivations for UA, including: contribution to social capital, food security, health and/or well-being. Lastly, it appears that research that pays particular attention to the contamination of urban soils would improve the existing literature on the potential adverse impacts of UA on health.