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Urban Farming
Urban farming is the agricultural production (livestock and crops) within urban as well as peri-urban spaces for food and other utilizations, the related processing, transportation, and marking of the farm produce and other agricultural services offered by the urban agriculturalists (agro-tourism, landscape management, urban greening, water storage, among others). Urban farming makes a positive contribution to nutrition and food security by increasing food production. It is a source of direct income for between 100 and 800 million individuals globally. Urban farming initiatives foster gender and social integration, as well as poverty reduction. Further, urban agriculture promotes civic engagement, community building, minorities, and youth empowerment, environmental education, as well as psychological and physical relaxation (Feola et al. 3). On the other hand, urban farming is linked to environmental and health risks. It can be affected by contaminants evolved by other urban-related activities (e.g., water and air pollution or heavy metals uptake in soils). It can also pollute urban spaces when it fails to adhere to best practices (e.g., excess nitrate and agrichemical residues in water supplies and watercourses). Certain diseases, including beef and pork tapeworm, anthrax, campylobacter, trichinosis, and tuberculosis, could also be transmitted from farm animals to individuals, with the threats being high within urban environments where farming is contiguous to highly populated residential neighborhoods. Finally, urban farming is also linked to occupation health threats (e.g., agrochemicals handling), and potential conflicts with non-agricultural neighbors who could raise issues concerning smell, noise, and dust emanating from urban farms (Feola et al. 4). The primary challenges facing urban farming are categorized into normative, procedural, and systemic. In terms of normative challenges, divergent visions concerning sustainable development undermine urban farming, particularly due ...