Author

Bryton Calder

Date of Award

2022

Document Type

Thesis

Degree Name

Bachelors

Department

Social Sciences

First Advisor

Dean, Erin

Area of Concentration

Environmental Studies

Abstract

Urban agriculture is the practice of cultivating and harnessing agriculture within cities, in order to provide for the people who live there. Our urban populations are sustained from the produce of industrial agriculture, grown far from where it is needed most. As urban populations expand many communities are being left behind, deprived of access to healthy and fresh produce. Urban agriculture offers a way to bring food production back to these communities and change urban landscapes into conduits for their own livelihoods. The act of growing and processing food within communities was the foundation of urbanization, and although cities today have abandoned urban agriculture, with new knowledge and technologies we can bring food to those who need it most. In this thesis, I consider two possibilities for urban agriculture, controlled environment agriculture and community gardening. While both offer opportunities for improving food distribution and community health, I suggest that the optimal solution might lie in a combination of the two ideas, an approach I call decentralized controlled environment agriculture

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