Food and beyond. Multifunctional farms in the metropolitan context of Rome.
Stefano Grando, Roberto Henke, Livia Ortolani, Francesco Vanni, Thomas Aenis, Andrea Knierim, M. C. Riecher, R. Ridder, Harold H. Schobert, Holger Fischer
Urban Farm DB summary
Noting that urban and peri-urban farms cannot feed a city's entire population in either quantity or variety, but can provide a base for products and services that enhance the ecological, social and economic sustainability of metropolitan areas, this study analyzes farms in the countryside surrounding Rome, Italy. It first identifies market-oriented farms within the municipality of Rome and classifies them into three categories — traditional, adaptive and reactive peri-urban farms — then examines two cases of "reactive" farms in depth to identify the factors that shaped their successful trajectories and drove their renewed, multifunctional role in Rome's peri-urban agriculture.