The contribution of household fruit and vegetable growing to fruit and vegetable self‐sufficiency and consumption

Societal Impact Statement Household fruit and vegetable (F&V) production in allotments and gardens can provide sustainable access to nutritious food. The present study demonstrates that UK household F&V production supplies more than half of the vegetables and potatoes and 20% of the fruit that growers consume annually. Importantly, study participants ate 6.3 portions of their recommended 5-a-day F&V (70% higher than the UK national average), and their wasted F&V was 95% lower than the national average. This provides key evidence to demonstrate the role household F&V production could play in providing access to fresh F&V, which is key to a healthy, food-secure population. Summary Improving access to and consumption of fruits and vegetables (F&V) is crucial to a healthy and food-secure population, as current low intakes are linked to high rates of non-communicable diseases, premature death and increased healthcare costs. Household F&V production could improve diet quality and food system resilience, however, quantitative evidence for its potential is limited. We studied year-long F&V production, purchases, donations and waste in UK food-grower households (N = 85) using a food diary approach. Median year-round household self-sufficiency was 51% in vegetables, 20% in fruits and 50% in potatoes. The median daily per capita F&V intake was 507 g, which is the equivalent of 6.3 portions of F&V and 70% higher than the UK national average. On average, own production accounted for half of each household's annual 5-a-day F&V requirements. F&V waste was negligible, equivalent to 0.12 portions per day and 95% lower than the UK average F&V waste. We demonstrate that promoting household F&V production could improve food system resilience, diet-related public health and sustainability

Increasing city resilience through urban agriculture: challenges and solutions in the global north

Cities, which now host the majority of the global population, are vulnerable to environmental and socio-economic disturbances, which are likely to increase in number and severity in the near future. Urban agriculture (UA) could help increase the resilience of cities to a range of pressures and acute shocks by improving food security and public health, building social capital, and promoting circular economies. However, comprehensive assessments of its potential are still lacking. Here, we use a systematic review of the literature on UA in the global North to identify factors that determine its success in providing resilience benefits, explore challenges that can limit this, and develop a conceptual model to highlight the ways in which it could be enhanced through research, policy, and practice. We define the success of UA in increasing city resilience as determined by five factors, which in turn depend on the amount of institutional and public support for UA, the presence of a sufficient knowledge base, communication and collaboration among different actors, and resourcefulness in finding alternative ways to use space and other resources efficiently. We close with a discussion of specific directions for research and practice based on the conceptual model developed here

Feeding a city – Leicester as a case study of the importance of allotments for horticultural production in the UK

The process of urbanization has detached a large proportion of the global population from involvement with food production. However, there has been a resurgence in interest in urban agriculture and there is widespread recognition by policy-makers of its potential contribution to food security. Despite this, there is little data on urban agricultural production by non-commercial small-scale growers. We combine citizen science data for self-provisioning crop yields with field-mapping and GIS-based analysis of allotments in Leicester, UK, to provide an estimate of allotment fruit and vegetable production at a city-scale. In addition, we examine city-scale changes in allotment land provision on potential crop production over the past century. The average area of individual allotment plots used to grow crops was 52%. Per unit area yields for the majority of crops grown in allotments were similar to those of UK commercial horticulture. We estimate city-wide allotment production of >1200 t of fruit and vegetables and 200 t of potatoes per annum, equivalent to feeding >8500 people. If the 13% of plots that are completely uncultivated were used this could increase production to >1400 t per annum, feeding ~10,000 people, however this production may not be located in areas where there is greatest need for increased access to fresh fruits and vegetables. The citywide contribution of allotment cultivation peaked in the 1950s when 475 ha of land was allotments, compared to 97 ha currently. This suggests a decline from >45,000 to <10,000 of people fed per annum. We demonstrate that urban allotments make a small but important contribution to the fruit and vegetable diet of a UK city. However, further urban population expansion will exert increasing development pressure on allotment land. Policy-makers should both protect allotments within cities, and embed urban agricultural land within future developments to improve local food security

Assessing the direct resource requirements of urban horticulture in the United Kingdom : a citizen science approach

Interest in urban food production is growing; recent research has highlighted its potential to increase food security and reduce the environmental impact of food production. However, resource demands of urban horticulture are poorly understood. Here, we use allotment gardens in the United Kingdom to investigate resource demands of urban horticultural production across the country. We conducted a nationwide citizen science project using year-long allotment ‘diaries’ with allotment gardeners (n = 163). We analysed a variety of resources: transportation; time; water use; inputs of compost, manure and topsoil; and inputs of fertilisers, pest control and weed control. We found that, overall, an allotment demands 87 annual visits, travelling 139 km to and from the plot; 7 fertiliser additions; 4 pest control additions; and 2 weed control additions. On average, each kilogram of food produced used 0.4 hours’ labour, 16.9 L of water, 0.2 L of topsoil, 2.2 L of manure, and 1.9 L of compost. As interest in urban horticultural production grows, and policy makers build urban horticultural spaces into future sustainable cities, it is of key importance that this is carried out in a way that minimises resource requirements, and we demonstrate here that avenues exist for the diversion of municipal compostable waste and household-level city food waste for this purpose

How much heat can we grow in our cities? Modelling UK urban biofuel production potential

Biofuel provides a globally significant opportunity to reduce fossil fuel dependence; however its sustainability can only be meaningfully explored for individual cases. It depends on multiple considerations including: life‐cycle GHG emissions, air quality impacts, food versus fuel trade‐offs, biodiversity impacts of land use change, and socio‐economic impacts of energy transitions. One solution that may address many of these issues is local production of biofuel on non‐agricultural land. Urban areas drive global change, for example they are responsible for 70% of global energy use, but are largely ignored in their resource production potential; however under‐used urban greenspaces could be utilised for biofuel production near the point of consumption. This could avoid food versus fuel land conflicts in agricultural land and long‐distance transport costs, provide ecosystem service benefits to urban dwellers, and increase the sustainability and resilience of cities and towns. Here, we use a GIS to identify urban greenspaces suitable for biofuel production, using exclusion criteria, in ten UK cities. We then model production potential of three different biofuels: Miscanthus grass, short rotation coppice willow and short rotation coppice poplar, within the greenspaces identified and extrapolate up to a UK‐scale. We demonstrate that approximately 10% of urban greenspace (3% of built‐up land) is potentially suitable for biofuel production. We estimate the potential of this to meet energy demand through heat generation, electricity, and combined heat and power (CHP) operations. Our findings show that, if fully utilised, urban biofuel production could meet nearly a fifth of demand for biomass in CHP systems in the UK’s climate‐compatible energy scenarios by 2030, with potentially similar implications for other comparable countries and regions

Negative effects of urbanisation on diurnal and nocturnal pollen‐transport networks

Pollinating insects are declining due to habitat loss and climate change, and cities with limited habitat and floral resources may be particularly vulnerable. The effects of urban landscapes on pollination networks remain poorly understood, and comparative studies of taxa with divergent niches are lacking. Here, for the first time, we simultaneously compare nocturnal moth and diurnal bee pollen-transport networks using DNA metabarcoding and ask how pollination networks are affected by increasing urbanisation. Bees and moths exhibited substantial divergence in the communities of plants they interact with. Increasing urbanisation had comparable negative effects on pollen-transport networks of both taxa, with significant declines in pollen species richness. We show that moths are an important, but overlooked, component of urban pollen-transport networks for wild flowering plants, horticultural crops, and trees. Our findings highlight the need to include both bee and non-bee taxa when assessing the status of critical plant-insect interactions in urbanised landscapes

Grow your own food security? Integrating science and citizen science to estimate the contribution of own growing to UK food production

Societal Impact Statement Own‐grown fruit and vegetable production in urban areas is increasingly assumed to increase food security, however, the evidence‐base to support this assumption is lacking. By integrating remotely sensed Geographic Information System data, fieldwork, and a citizen science project (MYHarvest) we will estimate the current levels of UK own‐grown fruit and vegetable production and how this could be increased if more urban land was made available for own‐growing. This will provide the first comprehensive UK dataset on own‐grown production for use by research scientists, policy‐makers, and the public, and will highlight the importance of urban horticulture to local and national food security

Urban Tree Effects on Soil Organic Carbon

Urban trees sequester carbon into biomass and provide many ecosystem service benefits aboveground leading to worldwide tree planting schemes. Since soils hold ~75% of ecosystem organic carbon, understanding the effect of urban trees on soil organic carbon (SOC) and soil properties that underpin belowground ecosystem services is vital. We use an observational study to investigate effects of three important tree genera and mixed-species woodlands on soil properties (to 1 m depth) compared to adjacent urban grasslands. Aboveground biomass and belowground ecosystem service provision by urban trees are found not to be directly coupled. Indeed, SOC enhancement relative to urban grasslands is genus-specific being highest under Fraxinus excelsior and Acer spp., but similar to grasslands under Quercus robur and mixed woodland. Tree cover type does not influence soil bulk density or C:N ratio, properties which indicate the ability of soils to provide regulating ecosystem services such as nutrient cycling and flood mitigation. The trends observed in this study suggest that genus selection is important to maximise long-term SOC storage under urban trees, but emerging threats from genus-specific pathogens must also be considered

The Broader Autism Phenotype in Mothers is Associated with Increased Discordance Between Maternal-Reported and Clinician-Observed Instruments that Measure Child Autism Spectrum Disorder

Autism spectrum disorder (ASD) diagnosis relies on parent-reported and clinician-observed instruments. Sometimes, results between these instruments disagree. The broader autism phenotype (BAP) in parent-reporters may be associated with discordance. Study to Explore Early Development data (N = 712) were used to address whether mothers with BAP and children with ASD or non-ASD developmental disabilities were more likely than mothers without BAP to ‘over-’ or ‘under-report’ child ASD on ASD screeners or interviews compared with clinician observation or overall impression. Maternal BAP was associated with a child meeting thresholds on a maternal-reported screener or maternal interview when clinician ASD instruments or impressions did not (risk ratios: 1.30 to 2.85). Evidence suggests acknowledging and accounting for reporting discordances may be important when diagnosing ASD