The spaces and times of community farming

Abstract

This paper uses a multiple case study approach to researching people's everyday lives and experiences of six community farms and gardens in diverse settings in China and England. We argue that collective understandings of community are bound up in everyday action in particular spaces and times. Successful community farms and gardens are those that are able to provide suitable spaces and times for these actions so that their members can enjoy multiple benefit streams. These benefits are largely universal: in very different situations in both England and China, CSA members make strong connections with the land, the farmers and other members, even in cases where they rarely visit the farms and gardens. This suggests that community farming and gardening initiatives possess multi-dimensional transformational potential. Not only do they offer a buffer against industrialised and remote food systems, but they also represent therapeutic landscapes valued by those who have experienced time spent at or in connection with them. Our findings indicate that-regardless of location or cultural context-these benefits are durable, so that people who have been engaged in multiple activities at a community farm or garden continue to enjoy these benefits long after most of their engagement has ceased.

Community Supported Agriculture Farmers’ Perceptions of Management Benefits and Drawbacks

“…This is particularly relevant for HU farmers, who highlight the importance of their role in securing safe local food and providing opportunities for networking and reconnecting with the rural life. This result agrees with earlier findings that emphasize the appreciation of the economic dimension of US CSA farming [12,56].…”

“…Environmental benefits Reducing food miles [4,5,16,22,23,57,75,82,83] Increasing seasonal food eating in the community [22,24,76] Saving water quality [16,56] Saving air quality [19,82] Growing more varieties to safeguard environment [4,7,25] Protecting biodiversity [4,16,77,83] Making less/no use of chemicals [4,8,58] Saving soil quality [4,78] Farming with traditional method [4,16,25,26,81,84] Experiencing farm life Opportunity of working on the farm for consumers [4,24,29] Opportunity of growing their own food for consumers [4,22] Opportunity of staying in nature for consumers [19] Opportunity for consumers' children to improve knowledge on food origins [82] Emotional values Providing consumers' stress relief [4,11] Providing consumers' life enrichment [4,58] Providing consumers th...…”

Middle Class, Tradition and the Desi-Realm—Discourses of Alternative Food Networks in Bengaluru, India

“…Newly developed Southern AFNs in particular are at risk of remaining a niche development as their consumers are often part of very specific middle-to upper-class groups [2,14]. Furthermore, in much of the Global South, farmers' livelihoods are uncertain, so improvement of livelihoods should probably take priority over producer-consumer relationships [15]. However, strengthening these relationships could be particularly important to gain trust especially on the consumers' side.…”

“An Be Jigi”: Collective cooking, whole grains, and technology transfer in Mali

“…She said it translated into an increased self-confidence. Work in the UK on community gardening shows a similar pattern of therapeutic learning where participants have had new insights about themselves by participating in shared gardening and then transfer these new skills into new situations (Liu et al 2017). …”