Better Gardens, Better Homes? The Role of Urban Agriculture in Building Inclusive Communities
Thursday, March 29, 2021
Zoom – 12:30pm- 1:30pm
Please register for the event at the link below: https://rcit.rutgers.edu/apps/payment/register.php?event_id=628
In less than a decade urban agriculture has gone from, at best, a niche interest of sustainable urbanism advocates (at worst, a phenomenon viewed as completely backward by policy makers, who see no place for agriculture in contemporary cities) to a serious consideration when constructing or rehabilitating communities. Once viewed as a competing land use which ultimately reduced housing availability, nonprofit and for-profit developers, along with public housing agencies, are chipping away at this false duality and instead view quality, affordable housing and urban farming as complementary. But to what extent, and under what circumstances are these truly complements? What are the contextual factors that allow the two to develop together? And when put into practice, do they accomplish similar things and simply reinforce their mutual benefits, or do they each generate positive outcomes that the other cannot deliver alone?