Urban agriculture has the potential to change our food systems, enhance habitat in our cities, and to morph urban areas into regions that maximize rather than disrupt ecosystem services. The potential impacts of urban agriculture on a range of ecosystem services including soil and water conservation, waste recycling, climate change mitigation, habitat, and food production is only beginning to be recognized. Those impacts are the focus of this book. Growing food in cities can range from a tomato plant on a terrace to a commercial farm on an abandoned industrial site. Understanding the benefits of these activities across scales will help this movement flourish. Food can be grown in community gardens, on roofs, in abandoned industrial sites and next to sidewalks. The volume includes sections on where to grow food and how to integrate agriculture into municipal zoning and legal frameworks.

Urban agriculture has the potential to change our food systems, enhance habitat in our cities, and to morph urban areas into regions that maximize rather than disrupt ecosystem services. The potential impacts of urban agriculture on a range of ecosystem services including soil and water conservation, waste recycling, climate change mitigation, habitat, and food production is only beginning to be recognized. Those impacts are the focus of this book. Growing food in cities can range from a tomato plant on a terrace to a commercial farm on an abandoned industrial site. Understanding the benefits of these activities across scales will help this movement flourish. Food can be grown in community gardens, on roofs, in abandoned industrial sites and next to sidewalks. The volume includes sections on where to grow food and how to integrate agriculture into municipal zoning and legal frameworks.

Preface.- Chapter 1. Introduction: Ecosystem Services from Urban Agriculture in the City of the Future.- Part I: Soil and Water Resources.- Chapter 2: Soil Formation and Nutrient Cycling.- Chapter 3: A Guide to Types of Non Potable Water and the Potential for Reuse in Urban Systems.- Chapter 4: Graywater Reuse For Irrigation: Benefits and Potential Hazards.- Chapter 5: Planting Abundance: Alternative Water Sources for Urban Farms.- Part II: Ecosystem Services – Waste Treatment.- Chapter 6: The Role of Organic Residuals in Urban Agriculture.- Chapter 7: Municipal Food Waste Management Options: Climate and Economic Impacts.- Chapter 8: Food Waste Composting in Seattle: The Political Perspective.- Chapter 9: Cedar Grove Compost: Developing a Combined Food- Yard Waste Centralized Composting Program.- Part III: Ecosystem Services – Climate Regulation.- Chapter 10: Soils and Climate Change.- Chapter 11: Soil Carbon Sequestration and Organic Wastes.- Chapter 12: Lettuce to Reduce Greenhouse Gases: A Comparative Life Cycle Assessment of Conventional and Community Agriculture.- Part IV: Ecosystem Services – Habitat.- Chapter 13: Basics of Microbial Ecology and Function in Urban Agriculture.- Chapter 14: Urban Microbiomes and Urban Agriculture: What Are The Connections and Why Should We Care?.- Chapter 15: Wild Bees in Cultivated City Gardens.- Chapter 16: Urban Agriculture as Habitat for Birds.- Chapter 17: Improving the Suitability of Urban Farms for Wildlife.- Part V: Ecosystem Services – Food Production.- Chapter 18: How Much Can You Grow? Quantifying Yield in a Community Garden Plot: One Family’s Experience.- Chapter 19: Applying Permaculture in Alaska: The Williams Street Farmhouse.- Chapter 20: Seed Libraries.- Chapter 21: Recirculating Aquaculture Systems (RAS) and Aquaponics for Urban Food Production, with a Pictorial Guide to Aquaponics.- Part VI: Integration into Municipal Infrastructure – Location Options.- Chapter 22: Community Garden Basics.- Chapter 23: Up on the Roof: Considerations for Food Production on Rooftops.- Chapter 24: Brownfields as Sites for Urban Farms.- Chapter 25: Curbside Gardens.- Part VII: Integration into Municipal Infrastructure – Zoning and Legal Considerations.- Chapter 26: Zoning and Urban Agriculture in Michigan.- Chapter 27: Urban Agriculture in Portland, Oregon: 2002-2012.- Chapter 28: Legalizing Commercial Agriculture in Boston: A Logical Step Towards Integrating Farming Into Urban Life.