Urban organic farming in Austria with the concept of Selbsternte (“self -harvest”) – An agronomic and socio-economic analysis. (original) (raw)

Constructing Organic Food through Urban Agriculture, Community Gardens in Seville

Sustainability, 2021

The growing presence of community or allotment gardens seeks to respond to the challenges of today’s urban societies in terms of sustainability. The food dimension of this phenomenon is one of its most important aspects, with clear repercussions on improving the quality of life of the allotment gardeners and their families. Through observation and qualitative analysis of some community urban gardens in southern Spain (Andalusia), this paper notes that the people who cultivate allotments within these community gardens attribute a wide variety of different meanings to their practices. One essential contribution of this research is the finding that this plurality of meanings moves beyond the rational-technical dimension of the act of growing, while at the same time redefining the act of consuming organic food, because of its connection with productive and social activities.

Organic Farm: A Chance for Renewal (An Example from North-Eastern Hungary

Anikó Báti, 2017

The paper shows the present situation in an agricultural, multiple disadvantaged village in northeastern Hungary, where external sources have had to become involved in order to teach people, once again, the very basics of agriculture. It focuses on how a social agricultural project, based on collective approaches to combat a lack of alternatives, has been used as an innovative way of finding an effective solution to the village's infrastructural and social problems, thereby ensuring the village's ongoing viability. Most of the territory of Hungary is well suited to cultivation. 1 For centuries, agriculture has been the basis of livelihood for broad strata of Hungarian society. However, political, economic and social transformations in the second half of the 20th century utterly changed that situation. In this paper I would like to trace that process-drawing on the example of one village-to show how the present situation came about, that, in an agricultural region, external sources and specialists had to be employed in order to teach people, once again, the basics of agriculture. This paper focuses on a social and agricultural project used as an innovative way, in which to find a solution in collective approaches, to combat a lack of economic alternatives in the village in question. In the first part of my paper, I shall briefly outline the economic and social historical background to the national processes affecting the whole of agriculture during the twentieth

THE IMPORTANCE OF ORGANIC AGRICULTURE

Applied Studies in Agribusiness and Commerce – APSTRACT, 2010

Many farmers, in addition to normal farming activity, have already turned to agritourism as a source of additional farm income and opportunities. There are numerous benefits from the development of agritourism: it may strengthen local economy, create job opportunities and new businesses; develop and promote training and certification programs to introduce young people to agriculture and environment. Agritourism helps preserve rural lifestyles and landscape and also offers the opportunity to provide "sustainable" or "green" tourism. Organic agriculture is a cultural evolution that finds its origins in a environmentalist culture. Furthermore the focus on these products is due to demand on healthy foods with high quality standard limiting chemical substances usage. It’s clear the link of the organic agriculture with agritourism and tourism services. They have a considerable role in the future development of rural areas. The purpose of this paper was to identify and examine those factors that have helped rural communities successfully develop agritourism, in particular organic agritourism and its entrepreneurship opportunities. Several focus groups were conducted with local business persons and leaders about a applicative case of South Italy area.

Self-provisioning, Sustainability and Environmental Consciousness in Brno Allotment Gardens

This paper seeks to contribute to the topic of alternative food production, which has attracted the attention of both scholars and practitioners in the last years, together with the increasingly stronger critique of the current food system. In the past, allotment gardens played an important role in cities’ food self-sufficiency, however they are often omitted from the current food production debate. In the Czech Republic, as well as other Central and Eastern European (CEE) countries, food selfprovisioning is still widespread. Traditional practices, often burdened with rather negative connotations from the socialist era, are nowadays interacting with the efforts of the local food movement and urban gardening trends rediscovered in Western Europe. Based on research from allotment gardens at Kraví hora, Brno, this paper investigates the socio-economic and environmental facets of the selfprovisioning of fruits and vegetables within this specific context and its relation to alternative food networks, reflecting on Smith and Jehlička’s notion of “quiet sustainability”. The different uses of allotments are described, as are the functions and needs they fulfil. Using the method of consumer diaries, the presented research aims to quantify the amount of fruits and vegetables produced at Kraví hora. Furthermore, gardeners’ motivations and their level of environmental consciousness are outlined. The respondents’ declared relationship towards nature is contrasted with their respective attitudes and behaviour patterns towards the natural environment. The conclusion is that allotment gardens not only improve the urban environment and provide space for community building in cities, but they also offer significant potential for food provisioning, which can be supported within the framework of alternative food networks and urban sustainability.