ABSTRACT
Urban agriculture has the potential to reestablish lost connections between food production and consumption and to restore the social, economic, and cultural ties once embedded therein. By decreasing the physical distance food needs to travel and by sharing out knowledge and experience, community-initiated urban agricultural programs reduce the divide between producers and consumers in the current food system. Indeed, community support systems are as vital as growing systems to the success of an urban agricultural initiative, and it is helpful for designers to gain some familiarity with methods to facilitate community interaction. This chapter investigates different approaches to community involvement, from bottom-up movements to collaborative consumption and cogovernance models, demonstrating how communities and interest groups can be instrumental in creating and operating urban agricultural projects.
