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This chapter shares insights from a reflexive research process about ideal visions, aspirations,choices and compromises made along the way in the establishment of the Brussels-based Cycle Farm. We show why and how three of the chapter’s authors, together with two urban farmers,
collectively explored these issues, and what can be learned in terms of...
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... whole research project was built around its adaptation by Cycle Farm to the Brussels context. In this perspective, we had identified the four key features of the SPIN Farming model that Cycle Farm had explicitly adopted and adapted (see Figure 4). Our work in SPINCOOP also focused on a fifth characteristic that Cycle Farm had added to their project in its early conceptualisation, although it was not in the SPIN Farming model: the creation of a cooperative for food production. ...
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... incorporates inspirations from agroecology, permaculture practices ( Mollison and Holmgren, 1981), and even further according to the two farmers, inspirations from natural farming (Fukuoka, 1992) and living soil 13 practices, among others. Concurrently with formulating Cycle Farm's principles, the process allowed us to look deeper into the main features Cycle Farm had taken up from the SPIN Farming model (Figure 4), why and how. It revealed the fundamentally hybrid nature of urban agricultural models such as Cycle Farm's, as will be developed hereunder. ...
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... SPIN-Farming, production focuses on a few high-value crops. Similarly, Cycle Farm focuses on (i) quick-growing, high value, high yield popular crops, and (ii) mainly marketed through highranked local restaurants (Figure 4). Cycle Farm production choices, closely linked with this commercial strategy, carry a tension between the mission to "feed locally", producing a wide variety of all sorts of vegetables at an affordable price, and an attraction to high-value production and high-ranked restaurants in order to improve financial viability. ...
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... with this principle, local marketing has been predominant in Cycle Farm activities from the outset (Figure 4). Similar to Stone's SPIN-farming model, Cycle Farm started their commercial activity early on by soliciting and building commercial relationships with local (high-ranked) restaurants. ...
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... Overall, the most significant barriers for cover crop use were a lack of time, and not being able to fit cover crops into crop rotations. This is consistent with the characterization that small-scale vegetable farms tend to plant very intensively, using season extension and succession planting to efficiently produce high yields on a small scale, leaving limited windows for cover crops and fallow periods [19]. ...
Soil health is at the root of agricultural sustainability, and small-scale vegetable farmers are becoming an increasingly important part of the US food system. These farmers face unique challenges when it comes to managing soil on their farms. These challenges include reliance on intensive production practices, the use of primarily organic inputs with difficult to calculate nutrient concentrations, and lack of access to formal education tailored to their needs. We surveyed farmers at 100 small-scale vegetable farms in Minnesota to (1) develop a better baseline understanding of how small-scale vegetable farmers utilize key soil health practices including nutrient management, cover crops, and tillage; (2) explore how farm demographics influence the adoption of soil health practices; and (3) determine educational priorities to better support these growers. Here, we report a lack of understanding about the nutrient contributions of compost, which is often applied at very large volumes without guidance from soil test results, with implications for nutrient loading in the environment. Farmers in our study had high rates of cover crop adoption relative to other farmers in the region despite several barriers to using cover crops. More experienced farmers were more likely to utilize more tillage, with more use of deep tillage implements on larger farms. Overall, organic certification was correlated with higher adoption of soil health practices including utilization of soil tests and cover crop use, but it was not correlated with tillage. Other demographic variables including land access arrangement and race did not meaningfully influence soil health practices. Our findings suggest a need for more research, outreach, and education targeted to vegetable farmers about how to interpret laboratory soil test results, and how to responsibly utilize organic inputs including vegetative compost and composted manure at rates appropriate for crop production in a diversified farm setting. We also report a need to compensate farmers for their labor to incentive cover crop use on small farms, and a need for more research and support for farmers in the 3–50-acre range to utilize reduced tillage methods.
... The ecological value of local production and short food miles remains secondary to land revenues, and land values (and politics) remain strongly connected to speculative powers and development opportunities. The availability of farmland only at full market prices (either, from the onset, or within a short timeframe) means that new local farmers struggle to set up new businesses, given the competition with mainstream food available at a fraction of their costs (Maughan et al., 2021;Tornaghi, 2017). More support tends to be available when urban agriculture is practiced with explicit social benefits, for example, the employment of young offenders, or for community building. ...
Building on 15 years of research in the field of urban agriculture, this chapter discusses key issues that refrain urban agriculture from achieving its full potential, in terms of human and non-human health, and offers a few pointers for informing policy and practice. First, the author offers a brief overview of how the key challenges of western urbanisation (climate change, people’s health and the destruction of nature) intersect with urban agriculture and what promises lay ahead for this rediscovered practice. The second part highlights a number of shortcomings in urban planning policy, including (i) the failure to consider urban agriculture as a food-producing practice, (ii) the invisibility of soil and lack of understanding of the role of living soils and (iii) the failure to consider the role that soil-cares and food-producing specialists (farmers!) can play in advising on healthy public land design and soil management. Part three discusses how agroecological considerations can deepen and expand the ambition of urban agriculture in public space and bring about more-than-human health. The conclusions offer a summary of the challenges, critical issues, and learning points discussed in the previous three sections and highlight their connection to the concept of ‘agroecological urbanism’.
... Accordingly, market gardening refers to a way of production characterized by small-scale farming structures, direct marketing, and intensive soil and plant cultivation. These management techniques include seasonal extension, high crop densities, optimized timing of transplanting and harvesting, standardized bed sizes, foresighted weed control, new hand tools, and light machinery for rapid and frequent cultivation, as well as high organic fertilizer application [7]. This bio-intensive approach can produce high yields [8,9], which, together with high margins from direct marketing, allow farmers to make a living despite small land holdings [10]. ...
... With relatively low investment costs for small acreage and low-level machinery, market gardening is also attractive for start-ups [9]. Consequently, the pertinent literature on market gardening does not only provide information on cultivation methods or small-scale equipment but also picks up the discussion on socio-economic aspects and lifestyles, aiming to demonstrate to (young) people small-scale farming as an attractive option or career change [7]. Motivated by this, many lateral entrants can be found among market gardeners who do not have an agricultural background and are relatively new to vegetable production on a commercial scale [6,7,9,11]. ...
... Consequently, the pertinent literature on market gardening does not only provide information on cultivation methods or small-scale equipment but also picks up the discussion on socio-economic aspects and lifestyles, aiming to demonstrate to (young) people small-scale farming as an attractive option or career change [7]. Motivated by this, many lateral entrants can be found among market gardeners who do not have an agricultural background and are relatively new to vegetable production on a commercial scale [6,7,9,11]. For them, reference books, social media, and peer-to-peer exchanges with other growers are critical elements of their training [6,7,11]. ...
Market gardening is a widespread practice of bio-intensive vegetable production characterized by direct marketing, small-scale farming structures, high crop densities, and innovative cultivation approaches. Currently, deep compost mulch (DCM) is a popular trend among related growing techniques. The combination of no-till and a permanent mulch of compost aims to improve soil fertility, regulate soil temperature, retain soil moisture, and control weeds. To address the problem of perennial weeds in organic no-till, deep mulch layers of typically 150 mm are used. The amount of compost required and the associated N inputs are immense and carry the risk of environmentally harmful N surpluses that can be lost through nitrate leaching or denitrification. The aim of this study is to evaluate the use of compost as mulch and to investigate N dynamics under DCM. For this purpose, a literature review was conducted, and soil inorganic nitrogen (Nmin-N) was measured under on-farm conditions up to a soil depth of 900 mm in a market garden with DCM in Germany for one year. Furthermore, based on the collected data, the different N pathways were calculated using the N-Expert and NDICEA models and simulated for two additional scenarios. Results from field measurements showed a strongly increased N-surplus not taken up by the crops and a shift of Nmin-N to deeper soil layers for municipal organic waste compost (MW), with an average accumulation of 466 kg Nmin-N ha⁻¹ at 600–900 mm depth. N inputs from DCM can be significantly reduced by the use of green waste compost (GW) with low bulk density or wood waste compost (WW) with an additional high C/N ratio.
... Strongly but not exclusively focused on urban market gardening of vegetables and berries, they sell their produce through short circuits in town (de Lestrange et al., 2021). As most if not all start-ups are run by neo-farmers, their newness to the joys and sorrows of farming generates a host of tensions between their aspirations and the realities they are discovering on a day-by-day basis (Plateau et al., 2019;Maughan et al., 2021). Especially access to land and financial viability are problematic. ...
