JUST GROW: Co-designing justice-centric indicators and governance principles to intensify urban agriculture sustainably and equitably

Urban regions play an important role in making agriculture more sustainable, which is necessary to increase food production, improve social sustainability, better utilize resources, and become more resilient in times of crisis. The JUST GROW project focuses on equity in urban agriculture through international and interdisciplinary research in six different urban regions: the Rhine-Ruhr area (Germany), Providence (USA), Randstad (Netherlands), the Keihanshin region (Japan), the Trondheim region (Norway), and the Greater Stockholm region (Sweden). To help these urban regions develop justice and equal participation in the governance of urban agriculture, we collaborate with civil society and authorities in each area. Together, we define key indicators for equality and fairness in urban agriculture, focusing on five critical sustainability dimensions: 1) land use, 2) working conditions, 3) food security, 4) environmental impact, and 5) cultural sustainability. These indicators will only contribute to a fairer and more sustainable food production if they are actively used in decision-making processes and governance networks that have the influence to change policies, parameters, and budgets. Therefore, we create concrete pathways for how the indicators can be applied, aiming to inspire action. We do this by developing recommendations for justice-oriented policy innovations, which can help urban regions assess existing plans and guide towards more equitable participation in sustainable food production in cities. Through practical tools, urban regions gain better opportunities to plan and monitor efforts to make urban food systems more resilient, ensure that urban agriculture becomes accessible to all in a profitable way, and maintain a diverse food culture.

City regions are a major proposed site for sustainably intensifying agricultural production to meet global food needs in the 21st century. Localizing city region food systems—combining food production in cities and their peri-urban landscapes—promises to improve socio-ecological sustainability and resilience. Sustainable urban agricultural intensification (UAI) likely requires investment in technologies that decouple food production from environmental constraints including seasonal climates and available land base. Proposed technological systems range from capital-intensive approaches such as vertical farms to more knowledge-intensive approaches such as urban agroecology. Researchers have begun to question the relative resource requirements, environmental footprints, and productivity of these technological production systems, yet a major gap remains largely unacknowledged: comparatively evaluating the equity and justice implications of different pathways toward sustainable city-region food systems. For the first time, JUST GROW will center equity and justice of UAI within transnational, transdisciplinary research across 6 city regions: the Rhine-Ruhr Metropolitan Area (Germany), the Greater Providence Metropolitan Area (USA), the Randstad, Rotterdam-Amsterdam-The Hague Metropolitan Area (Netherlands), Keihanshin (Kyoto-Osaka-Kobe) Metropolitan Area (Japan), Trondheim-Trøndelag Region (Norway), and Greater Stockholm Region (Sweden). To help diverse city regions holistically design justice and equity into food system policy and governance structures, we will produce (1) Concise sets of credible and legitimate indicators that city regions can use to evaluate the equity impacts of specific UAI plans as a transition toward SSCP of food; and (2) Recommendations for transformative, justice-centric policy innovations and principles that city region governance networks should adopt to steer UAI towards equitable SSCP of food.