The Politica Economy of Urban Agriculture

The aim of the paper is to contextualise the phenomenon of urban agriculture in the process of contemporary capitalist change by exploring the relation between farming, food, territory, and society. To this aim, the paper explores the interplay between the spatial distribution of agricultural/food production and the patterns of food consumption and the relations between urban areas and rural areas, distinguishing the case of developed/industrialised countries and developing/emerging countries. As far as developed/industrialized countries are concerned, the paper interprets the role of urban agriculture keeping into account the change in the spatial distribution of resources since the Fordist crisis and its impact on food production and food consumption. On the production side, the focus is on three main changes: i) from product specialization to local production; ii) from scale economies to environmental concern; iii) from the use of chemicals to the re-naturing of agriculture and food production. On the demand side, the focus is on three main shifts: i) from mass production to production differentiation; ii) from low-cost food consumption to ‘quality’ goods; iii) from nutrition to ‘relational food’. As far as developing and emerging countries are concerned, the focus is on the change since the decolonization. As the paper argues, urban agriculture is a solution to a livelihood problem created by the failure of development policies: on the one side, the agricultural sector has not been able to ensure the livelihood in the countryside, enhancing urban migration; on the other side, the industrial development in urban areas has been lagging behind, while there has been a large increase of the informal sector: a low productivity/low wage sector inhabited by consumers with a low purchasing power. The paper intends to contribute to debate on the following issues: i) the roles of urban agriculture in contemporary capitalism ii) the interplay of urban agriculture and lifestyles iii) the factors and processes accounting for the increasing importance of urban agriculture as a livelihood strategy iv) the change in the role of urban agriculture from food provider to leisure activity and local food provision in greening urban areas.