TY - JOUR
T1 - Towards sustainable urban food systems
T2 - Analyzing contextual and intrapsychic drivers of growing food in small-scale urban agriculture
AU - Alemu, Mohammed Hussen
AU - Grebitus, Carola
N1 - Funding Information:
This work was supported by EASM-3: Collaborative Research: "Physics-Based Predictive Modeling for Integrated Agricultural and Urban Applications", USDA-NIFA (Grant Number: 2015- 67003-23508) and NSF-MPS-DMS (Award Number: 1419593). Dr. Carola Grebitus was the grand holder. The funders had no role in study design, data collection and analysis, decision to publish, or preparation of the manuscript.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2020 Public Library of Science. All rights reserved.
PY - 2020/12
Y1 - 2020/12
N2 - Small-scale urban agriculture is associated with positive health and environmental outcomes. Previous studies examined factors that drive people to grow foods in urban areas mainly drawing on qualitative data. This research investigates quantitatively what determines consumer preferences for growing foods in community gardens, informing efforts to upscale urban agriculture. We conducted choice experiments in North America and performed latent class analysis of contextual and intrapsychic factors affecting consumers' preferences for growing foods in cities. Results show that providing tools and guidance are the most important contextual factors affecting community garden participation. The preferences of proponents of growing foods are explained by their high subjective knowledge about growing foods and reasons tied to the benefits of participating in community gardening. Opponents of growing foods at community gardens are characterized by low knowledge. The findings can be used to design policies that promote sustainable food systems in urban areas.
AB - Small-scale urban agriculture is associated with positive health and environmental outcomes. Previous studies examined factors that drive people to grow foods in urban areas mainly drawing on qualitative data. This research investigates quantitatively what determines consumer preferences for growing foods in community gardens, informing efforts to upscale urban agriculture. We conducted choice experiments in North America and performed latent class analysis of contextual and intrapsychic factors affecting consumers' preferences for growing foods in cities. Results show that providing tools and guidance are the most important contextual factors affecting community garden participation. The preferences of proponents of growing foods are explained by their high subjective knowledge about growing foods and reasons tied to the benefits of participating in community gardening. Opponents of growing foods at community gardens are characterized by low knowledge. The findings can be used to design policies that promote sustainable food systems in urban areas.
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U2 - 10.1371/journal.pone.0243949
DO - 10.1371/journal.pone.0243949
M3 - Article
C2 - 33362258
AN - SCOPUS:85099077549
SN - 1932-6203
VL - 15
JO - PloS one
JF - PloS one
IS - 12 December
M1 - e0243949
ER -