I really don’t understand why people are so quick to dismiss community gardens as nothing more than a hobby. There’s actually quite a bit of research showing just how much food you can grow in relatively small spaces.

A 2022 review of 200 studies found that urban agriculture can produce as much, and sometimes considerably more, per square metre than conventional farming. There’s also research from Sheffield showing that urban growing could potentially cover more than half of the city’s fruit and vegetable needs.

And that’s without really getting into what’s possible with greenhouses, hydroponics, vertical growing or simply preserving what you harvest.

Of course you’re not going to replace an entire supermarket with a few vegetable beds, but why is that even the standard we’re using? If a community can grow a meaningful part of its own food and spend less on groceries, isn’t that already a pretty good reason to do it?

I find it strange how quickly people jump from “it can’t solve everything” to “it’s completely pointless.”

Sources:

pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC9540868/

www.nature.com/articles/s41598-020-62126-4

pubmed.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/24751664/