Urban agriculture continues to expand worldwide, yet researchers still lack reliable empirical data to assess the effects on urban ecosystems, population health, and social equity. CUNY SPH Associate Professor Nevin Cohen and colleagues from six other research institutions have begun a three-year interdisciplinary participatory research project to address this gap by measuring urban agriculture practices in five cities over two growing seasons. This winter, the research team, along with urban farmers and gardeners, identified the data to be collected and designed the Food-Energy-Water (FEW) Meter, a digital platform through which to aggregate and share this information. As spring planting gets underway, farmers and gardeners in Dortmund, Gorzow, London, Nantes, and New York will begin populating the FEW Meter with detailed information about their growing practices.
The project aims to identify relevant urban agriculture metrics and indicators and to co-design a process for reliably collecting data on garden and farm activities, from irrigation and fertilization to harvesting and post-harvest food distribution. The urban agriculture projects are diverse, ranging from allotment gardens and micro-farms to community gardens. The New York City Farms at NYCHA project, six large-scale urban farms at dense NYCHA developments, are farmed by young NYCHA residents trained and supervised by the non-profit Green City Force.
The data collected by the farmers and gardeners will be aggregated in a digital database called the Food Energy Water (FEW) Meter. Visualizations of resource flows and garden/farm outputs will enable the growers and researchers to monitor the efficiency and effects of food production and related farm-based activities and compare their practices over two growing seasons and to those in other cities. Data analysis by the research team will include a material flow analysis, estimates of production efficiency, and assessments of health risks and benefits, complemented by surveys to measure motivations of and behavioral changes among the garden and farm practitioners. One objective is to model the resource flows of farms and gardens, enabling comparison of the urban metabolism of urban agriculture and opportunities to improve efficiency and reduce negative environmental and health effects. Another is to model city-scale effects of urban food production on the nexus of food, energy, and water through material flow analysis and life cycle assessment. This research will enable planners, policymakers, and practitioners to design urban farming and gardening systems to optimize resources and produce environmental and social benefits.
The FEW Meter project is one of 15 selected through an initiative to support collaborative teams of academics and practitioners to develop innovative solutions to the resource challenges facing cities called the Sustainable Urbanisation Global Initiative (SUGI)/Food-Water-Energy Nexus. SUGI was organized by the Belmont Forum and the Joint Programming Initiative Urban Europe and the 15 projects are funded by the national science agencies in participating countries. Dr. Cohen’s colleagues are from the following institutions: Adam Mickiewicz University in Poznań (Poland); Poznan University of Life Sciences (Poland); Research Institute for Regional and Urban Development (Germany); School of Architecture, University of Kent (UK); AgroParisTech (France); IRSTV (France); and the University of Michigan, School of Natural Resources and Environment (USA).
