THE URBAN GARDENS BETWEEN GREEN SPACE AND FOOD UTILITY

Daniela Matei1

1 Academia Română - Filiala Iași, Email: daniela_matei2004@yahoo.co

 Abstract: The lands within the build-up areas of the rural or urban areas are currently under the siege of residential, industrial, commercial, and agricultural employment. At present there is a larger interest in strengthening and increasing the local food production as an attempt to diminish the negative effect triggered by population growth, global climate changes or the volatility of food prices. Under the circumstances, the researchers’ attention has been drawn to a long overdue resource neglected by microeconomics, namely the rural and urban gardens. In the rural environment, the gardens are those areas located in the immediate proximity of the household buildings and intended to produce agricultural products for own consumption. They also include a sort of perception related to a supplementary system of alimentary production on a small scale managed by the members of the family. This system is constituted of a variety of species of plants and animals which mirrors the natural ecosystem. The paper has a paralleling approach of the agriculture’s ingress into the urban spaces through the multifunctional employment of the greenfield sites. Certainly, there is no question about urban agricultural replacing the traditional one as no city or town will ever be able to produce alone its entire necessary food. Yet, the urban gardens are a reality that should be seen as such since they can have a key role in the territorial land planning and designing. The value of agriculture from the urban spaces is first supported by their utility as an education and involvement tool within the community and, also backed by the fact that the products obtained offer the people involved in the process that unique sense of work value and the cultural continuity of a certain type of tradition as well.

Keywords: urban gardens, food security, urban agriculture

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