Urban Agriculture & The Co-Development of Environment, Culture, & Community

Abstract

Systemic disruptions of place can have significant impacts to the cultural fabric of urban communities. The divisions of race and class that manifest through these disruptions of place are often represented by literal lines in the built environment, and are indicative of the figurative barriers to connection that can persist across cultural communities. Across the arc of its temporality, urban agriculture has historically been viewed and utilized as a vehicle through which environmental and sociocultural fissures within and across urban communities can be repaired. As such, the convergence of environment and foodways­ through urban agriculture- has the capacity to foster a culturally democratic process of co-development in which the growing and sharing of food in an environment that connotes sense of place can serve to both sustain pre-existing cultural communities and inspire the emergence of new forms of community aligned with sustainability.