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When the perception and development of Urban Rooftop Farming depend on how Urban Agriculture is defined: Examining diverging stakeholders' experiences and views in Barcelona, Spain

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Urban Agriculture (UA) is growing in popularity in the Global North and UA practices has also colonized buildings through Urban Rooftop Farming (URF), which aims to take advantage of unused spaces in current cities. Rooftop farms and greenhouses are spreading as local community or private (i.e., companies) projects, particularly in North America. However, URF usually requires higher resources than soil-based UA and perceptions around these systems are divergent. In this context, the current paper explores how stakeholders perceived URF in Barcelona. Special attention is paid in the conceptualization of UA, the drivers for promoting both UA and URF, and their position in supporting URF. Results show that stakeholders conceptualize UA in three different ways and that the different conceptualizations determine the way URF is perceived and supported. First, periurban stakeholders identify UA as an " unreal " agriculture, since UA is not performed by professionals and does not take place on agricultural soil. These stakeholders are thus against both UA and URF. Second, some stakeholders (i.e., urban gardeners, local administration, environmental NGOs, coops users) can identify UA as agriculture but only for social purposes. These actors support UA but are against URF as the low potential for food production does not balance the required extra resources. Last, new stakeholders involved in URF 490
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... Semistructured interviews were used to explore the discourses behind the implementation of UA and the potential integration of rooftop agriculture in the development and planning of Barcelona. The results unveiled a strong relationship between the perception and acceptance of rooftop farming and the preconceived definitions and concepts of UA (Sanyé-Mengual et al. 2014a). Some stakeholders highlighted the social role of UA in cities like Barcelona, undervaluing at the same time the potential contribution of UA to urban food security. ...
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