Did you miss our final meeting in April 2022 where we shared results, discussed what the Rurban Revolution has meant to our stakeholders and highlighted the new shoots of research that have grown from the project? Good news is our wrap-up webinar is now available to watch again.

As we launch a new BBSRC Impact Acceleration Award supported project focused on strengthening Liverpool’s growing communities, we are thrilled to welcome Clara Steiner to the team. Learn more about Clara and the work to come below, and to get involved email Charlotte.Hardman@liverpool.ac.uk.

Who are you?

Hello, I’m Clara. This summer I graduated with a degree in BA Geography from the University of Exeter. I am particularly interested in attitude and behaviour change, food sustainability and urban futures. I have recently moved back to Liverpool and am looking forward to working with the Liverpool Food Growers Network.

How did you become interested in urban food sustainability?

Last summer I stumbled upon a TED Talk about a farm located underground in Liverpool city centre. This caught my fascination. I began volunteering at Farm Urban, helping out with harvesting, and transplanting, putting together customer boxes, and meeting an amazing group of creative and inspirational people. This inspired my final year research project which focused on the framings and future expectations of urban vertical farming in the UK media. Though this I was able to delve deeper into discussions about urban futures, environmental sustainability, food justice and urban food geographies. Furthermore, my family and I have always grown food in our garden, including apples, plums, raspberries, lettuce, rhubarb, and cherries (although the pigeons took a particular liking to those this year). Despite being a rather small garden, I spent much of my childhood observing countless bees, worms, insects, and birds that called our garden their home, exemplifying that no patch of land is too small to make a difference. Therefore, it is safe to say that over the years my general fascination in all thing’s food has grown immensely and I am delighted to be given the opportunity to explore this further.

Why is urban agriculture important to you?

I believe creating an inclusive and sustainable food system is the basis of resilient and healthy communities. As food production has become increasingly marginal and alien to the contemporary urban landscape, we must reconnect people with the food they buy and consume. Urban food production plays a vital role in constructing traceable and fairer food systems, whilst also encouraging green spaces, community development, various health benefits and sustainable land-use. Therefore, breaking down the barriers that many communities and individuals face when engaging in urban agriculture is key to producing resilient communities and food systems. According to Feeding Liverpool, it is “home to three of the ten most deprived food deserts (areas with poor access to food) in England” meaning that food security should remain at the forefront of the city’s agenda. Furthermore, urban agriculture presents a key step in encouraging healthier food choices and making ‘good’ food accessible to those who need it most. Therefore, the benefits that urban food production provides can help tackle a range of issues our cities face today.

What will your role within the Liverpool Food Growers Network be?

Over the next 6 months I will be focusing on strengthening the networks between various food growers. This will involve creating a database and mapping the multitude of urban food growing communities in Liverpool. I will also be conducting research with local food growers to better understand their needs and priorities, and how our network may be optimised to support their long-term security. Another focus of mine will be our social media so make sure to be following our pages for exciting updates and events!

What are you looking forward to the most?

I am mostly looking forward to meeting and getting to know the wide range of people interested in urban food production and exploring what this city has to offer. From underground farms and back alleyways to allotments and community gardens, Liverpool is filled with imaginative and creative food growing groups that are challenging the contemporary food system. Therefore, I am very excited to be joining the Rurban Revolution team at the University of Liverpool and to be given the opportunity to delve deeper into Liverpool’s incredible food growing community.

 

 

 

Photo: Courtesy of Gina Frausin

Learn more about our new Rurban Revolution spin-off project, Rurban Hope Spots, from lead researcher Rachel Marshall.

Imagine walking down your street in autumn and being able to pick apples and plums from a small community orchard or buy tomatoes from a newly established market garden on the edge of the city. Imagine you’re someone who is trying to set up their own growing business, or a group of people who don’t have outside space at home and instead want to set up a community garden.

Across the UK there are increasing numbers of people and communities who want to grow food – some just for pleasure, some a means to live more healthily and sustainably and some simply to create better places to live and work. However, one of the biggest barriers facing any of these possibilities is access to land. In fact, in many cases the challenge starts with a lack of data and mapping on what land is available, appropriate and even who it is owned by. Even when data about these matters is accessible, how might communities best use it to map their locality in ways that open up opportunities for food production?

The Rurban Hope Spots project aims to develop a transferable approach for taking open data and identifying urban spaces where food growing projects could be good for crops, good for people and good for ecosystems.

It is based on an original idea from the Experiments Team at Friends of the Earth England Wales and Northern Ireland which identified ‘Hope Spots’ based on data that could be flexed to reflect different criteria for natural regeneration or social amenity. Building on this approach we are using Lancaster District as a test bed for examining what data is needed to inform the process of identifying land for food projects and businesses – places that would be good for food growing, good for people, good for ecosystems and good for business –  whilst also testing the reality of accessing land identified.

Using data from the Rurban project, and from project partners, we will incorporate aspects that need to be considered to identify land suitable for food growing. This includes physical aspects such as slope, aspect and altitude, as well as factors like flood risk, contamination and soil quality. Within the methodology we aim to account for the different needs of a range of growing projects-from community spaces to commercial small-scale plots. For instance, the location of community projects might be configured around existing access to green space or growing areas, whilst factors such as water supply and access to markets might be key for small businesses. In early autumn we’ll be consulting with representatives from these communities to better understand how to constrain the models for their needs.

The biggest challenge is likely to be around accessing data on land ownership and legal status. Land ownership within the UK is notoriously opaque. Access to data via the Land Registry can be expensive and even then there are many parcels of land that are not listed. As part of the project, we’ve committed to delivering a land audit to support the work of North Lancashire’s Food Partnership- FoodFutures. In this we’ll identify potential sites for food growing and we’ll dig into the legalities and practicalities of accessing these sites. Throughout this process we’ll be capturing our learnings to share with other communities across the UK looking to access land in their locality.

The overarching aim of the project will be to provide a transferable methodology that better enables the potential of land for food growing to be characterised and visualised. A central theme to this work will be to explore how we can use and visualise information effectively to better bridge the gap between data and action. What features or aspects within the huge quantities of data collected currently are most useful for shaping the future of our places and our communities engagement with that- and what is missing?

Rurban Hope Spots is a collaborative project between Lancaster University (The Future Places Centre and Centre for Global Eco-Innovation), Friends of the Earth experiments team, North Lancashire FoodFutures, Lancaster City Council and the Urban Agriculture Consortium. It is jointly funded by the Future Places Centre and the ESRC Impact Acceleration Account at Lancaster University.

 

Rachel Holden: Rurban Summer Intern

Who are you?

Hello, I’m Rachel. I am going into the third year of my Psychology degree at the University of Liverpool, and over the summer I am doing an internship with Dr. Bethan Mead and Dr. Charlotte Hardman, within the area of nature exposure and food-related choices. I am very interested in the impact that having access to green spaces and urban agriculture, can have on the health-choices that individuals make. Over the (several) lockdowns we have had over the past 18 months, I have become increasingly more in tune with nature and its benefits to my physical and mental health, and so it is an area that I am thrilled to have the opportunity to explore further.

What research are you conducting within your internship?

We are conducting an online study with the aim to investigate if exposure to nature and urban agriculture scenes have similar or different effects on dietary food choices, and perceived restorativeness. To our knowledge, the combined effects of nature and urban agriculture scenes have not yet been directly compared within an empirical, online setting.  Therefore, it is important to study said effects, to shed light on possible interventions and policies that may serve to improve nationwide health choices. I am delighted to have the opportunity to consider and learn about what influences everyday health behaviours, and the ways in which they can be positively improved.

What do you hope will come from your research?

With the rates of obesity rapidly increasing worldwide, so are the rates of mental health problems, and global public health concerns. In line with the inspiring research that the Rurban Revolution team conduct, the present study hopes to find more evidence to support the transformative potential of nature exposure, and exposure to urban agriculture. More specifically, we hope that participants will have a greater desire for healthy food options after viewing scenes of nature and urban agriculture, compared to urban scenes, as well as have greater perceived restorativeness. I hope this research can add to the growing realisation that nature and nutritious food have the great potential to heal, and that being exposed to such relatively simple aspects of life, can help to improve both our physical and mental health.

What inspires you?

Learning and discovering what can help people, truly inspires me. Although I am just starting out in my Psychology career, I have a burning desire to find out why; why people act the ways in which they do, why people are more prone to certain things or lifestyles than others, why do people have certain mindsets or opinions etc., and more importantly, I have a desire to learn how to help people change all of those things if they wish to. So, what better way to help people than to conduct research into areas that can inform them, and provide them with substantial knowledge, so that they can make informed changes and decisions!

Natalia Falagán: Rurban Researcher and Agricultural Engineer 

Who are you?

I am Natalia, an agricultural engineer from Spain and member of the Rurban Revolution team. I love travelling, hot chocolate and sunny days.

What does rurbanisation mean to you? 

Urban food production has been providing us with fresh produce and protecting green spaces in our cities for centuries. However, consumers are disconnected from their food supply, sometimes not knowing where fresh produce comes from and the amount of effort and resources involved in its production. Rurbanisation is bringing the rural environment to cities to expose consumers to green areas; involve the consumer in food production; reduce the carbon footprint of food transportation from conventional farming; and reduce the burden of intensive systems on our rural soils.

What five big challenges does urban food production face from your perspective? 

1. Lack of suitable land/space for urban agriculture in cities.
2. Soils might be contaminated in urban agriculture; minimising risks is a challenge.
3. Urban growers are generally not very experienced in labour and management of crops.
4. Energy and infrastructure costs can be high.
5. Currently people are interested in urban agriculture. It is important not to lose momentum and guarantee long-term sustainability.

What motivates you? 

I am driven by curiosity. I always want to understand how systems work, especially living structures.  This is why I pursued a career in research, to give me the tools to seek the answers.

 

Dan Evans, Researcher in Environmental Sciences

Who are you?

Hello, I’m Dan. I’ve recently completed a PhD in Soil Science at Lancaster University, where I have been studying soils their long-term capacity to deliver ecosystem services. I was brought up in the heart of the Norfolk Broads, surrounded by a patchwork quilt of farmland, and so one could say I’ve been ‘close’ to food production for most of my life! I enjoy nature and travel writing, visiting antique shops and garden centres, afternoons spent reading beside rivers and under the boughs of ancient trees, and producing documentary-style films!

What research are you doing as part of the Rurban Revolution project?

I am delighted to join the team to consider the ecosystem services that a rurbanised world may provide and maintain, and how we might go about valuing these services. Like your local garden centre catalogue, there is a vast range of growing and greening techniques available, and many different types of spaces in our urban environments in which we can deploy them. Just as you might deliberate over a plant for that new border or bed in your garden – “that one will attract more insects”, “yes, but that one is edible and could be used on our salads” – valuing the benefits of different growing and greening options for urban areas is not singularly a monetary issue. The provision of ecosystem services ranges from producing food and purifying water, to regulating climate and safeguarding cultural heritage, and each of these might be valued to different extents, by different people. As a result, I will be working on developing a holistic valuation framework that can be used to explore the benefits and disbenefits of different techniques, and considering the question: growing or greening?

What does rurbanisation mean to you?

The first thing that springs to mind when I see the word ‘rurbanisation’ is a builder standing beside the drum of a cement mixer, combining ‘one part rural’ to ‘one part urban’. Until recently, the planning and construction of our towns and cities have largely ignored the rural environment, and the ecosystem service opportunities that they can provide. If in doubt, take a walk along a city canal; start from the ruralised suburbs, and note between each lock how greening and growing spaces become less proximal and accessible. For me, the ideal rurbanised area would host greening and growing spaces as abundantly and as accessibly as the surrounding rural communities, thus providing the rurbanised population the lifestyle opportunities that these spaces can host. With this rural-urban spirit, it would also be fascinating to explore whether rural areas could learn any lessons from our towns and cities. Vertical farming on our rural farms?

Are you an urban food grower or an urban greener?

Well, for most of my childhood, I lived in the countryside, and was both an avid food grower and an enthusiastic greener. I am proud of the 20 year old Oak Tree that stands at the back of our garden, and is now taller than the house! I planted that from an acorn when I was very young, and watching it grow over the years, and indeed admiring the diversity of garden wildlife that pass the hours on its leafy branches, still brings a lump to my throat.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever done as a food systems researcher?

I wasn’t a food systems researcher at the time – or maybe I was? – but my undergraduate dissertation involved me growing 250 carrots, 250 turnips, and about 750 potato tubers! I was investigating the effect of these root crops on the physical, chemical, and biological properties of the soil. My field site was only a few minutes away from my parents’ cottage in Norfolk, and I have fond memories of being up there as early as 4:30am, and as late as 11:00pm, over the course of a summer. Evening de-slugging sessions now seem particularly weird, but perhaps the craziest aspect of it all, is that I manually measured the length and width of these 1,250 crops in my garage-lab. Needless to say, I grew to hate the taste of carrots, turnips, and potatoes for a while afterwards, but now whenever I crunch and munch into them, I recall great memories of long, summer days spent watering and weeding.

Lockdown measures to slow the spread of coronavirus began on 23^rd March in the UK. By then we were already seeing unprecedented demand for food as the UK stocked up ready for lockdown. Pictures of empty shelves and limits on buying in supermarkets became common, and a lack of food in the shops seems to have increased levels of food insecurity.

The Food Foundation estimates that the number of UK adults experiencing food insecurity has quadrupled since the lockdown began. We still don’t know how this will impact health and well-being going forward, but this got us thinking: how is the outbreak affecting food access and well-being, and is there a role for urban agriculture here?

Two days after lockdown began, we launched a new phase of research to help us understand how urban food growing may change people’s food access and well-being under lockdown. We ran an online survey to look at people’s levels of food insecurity and well-being during the coronavirus outbreak, and the ways they were accessing food. In less than two weeks we had responses from 477 people from all over the UK. Almost everyone who took part was in some form of isolation or lockdown, and 152 of the people who took part were already growing their own fruits and vegetables.

We’re analysing the data now to look if there’s differences in food insecurity and well-being between people who do or do not grow their own food, and if food insecurity might make people more open to growing food. Watch this space for the results!

At the beginning of March the Rurban team met with new collaborators and partners at the Storey Institute in Lancaster for a couple of days of brainstorming. We met to discuss what was needed to enable a Rurban transformation – a world where urban farming is strategically expanded to support our health and wellbeing and address our urgent climate and environmental crises. We had a productive and enjoyable two days, with time spent thinking and talking in the early spring sunshine in the Storey’s Garden.

We hadn’t factored in a global pandemic. Two months on from this meeting the World has changed. Meeting face-to-face has become a past mode of working, and the gates to the Storey Garden stand shut for the time being.

Yet the concept of rurbanisation we discussed and developed together is more important now than ever. Food, access to nature, mental health and wellbeing, local living are all high on the global agenda and at the forefront of our daily lives.

The potential power of rurbanisation as a solution has been confirmed by some new research from the team, undertaken shortly after we entered lockdown. The early results suggest that those who have been engaged in urban farming have felt more shielded against food shortages and stress – underlining the importance of this activity as a means for creating resilience and supporting health.

Many households it seems have recognized that urban growing has something to offer our diets and peace of mind, with many turning to home growing to help during the lockdown. But will these new growers be enjoying the same benefits as those who had the skills, knowledge, networks and resources firmly established? What can we do to support these new growers, and how can we enable this surge in food growing to be just, environmentally sustainable and maintained?

We’re considering these questions, and would welcome thoughts and collaboration with those that are thinking about them too.

In the meantime, the Rurban team sends our best wishes and thoughts to those who came together in our March meeting, and – like the Storey garden – whilst we might be safely locked away for the time being, we hope our ecosystem and collaborations can continue to grow.

Co-investigator in Psychology 

Who are you?

I’m a psychologist researching people’s food choices and eating behaviours. In a nutshell, I look at why we choose to eat the foods that we do. I’m also a part-time runner, cyclist, and mum to 2 children.

What do you like best about being a food systems researcher?

The sheer breadth and variety of working in food systems research and the number of different projects and people you meet, from plant scientists through to medics. I also really enjoy engaging with stakeholders and members of the public. We all need to eat food and therefore all members of society play a meaningful role in the food system and can contribute to research and practice.

What’s the weirdest thing you’ve ever done as a food systems researcher?

In my first research assistant position, I did direct observations of children’s fruit and vegetable intake in school canteens. This involved standing next to the bins and painstakingly recording how much every single child had eaten. Some kids weren’t great at scraping their leftovers into the bin, so as well as recording data, we also needed to watch out for flying food debris (wearing white was not a good idea!).

What one piece of advice would you give to other researchers?

Don’t be afraid to step outside of your immediate area of expertise – working in an inter-disciplinary context is immensely valuable to our understanding of something as complex as the food system. Remember, you’re an expert in your area. Others will learn from you and you will learn complementary skills and expertise from others – it’s a win-win situation.

Which of your research findings has surprised you most?

The new findings coming out of Rurban Revolution are fascinating. Watch this space for lots of exciting results on where and what we could grow in urban areas in the UK and what this means for our food system. The findings from our dietary survey are also revealing new insights into the extent of urban food growing practices in the UK and the characteristics of urban growers. For example, it’s often assumed that urban growing is a relatively niche activity, for more affluent people who have time on their hands. Our results suggest otherwise!