Mapping and Assessing Urban Agriculture in Rome

• Published in: Agriculture and agricultural science procedia 2016, Vol.8, p.774-783
• Main Authors: Cavallo, Aurora, Di Donato, Benedetta, Marino, Davide
• Format: Article
• Language: English
• Subjects: Food Planning; Rome; Urban agriculture
• ISSN: 2210-7843; 2210-7843
• DOI: 10.1016/j.aaspro.2016.02.066

The paper focus on the concept of food and agriculture as an infrastructure – which is both spatial and relational -, within the context of the urban Mediterranean phenomenon, where, with all its political, cultural, economical, social and environmental differences, there is a common relationship with food and food production in an urban setting. The aim of this paper is to explore the agricultural context of Rome, focusing on its relationships with development in the metropolitan area, within the framework of sustainable food planning. Starting from the relationship between food and city, we have mapped the foodscape, identifying a number of representative conditions - typologies - in the metropolitan area of Rome. Through a of criteria - relationships with the urban fabric, production patterns, flows, services, infrastructures, environmental characters, social behaviour linked with the production - the study tries to summarise Roman agriculture. We focus on a set of recurring elements, involving both criticalities and opportunities, that bring together city and food production. Rome has what we could call a compact structure compared to the dispersed urban model and this has encouraged the development of local agricultural systems, where both flows and landscapes involve the city. While production is organised into wedge-shaped areas, the places where exchanges occur are mainly within the municipal area of Rome, with the exception of farms involved in direct sales. Despite a strong urbanization pressure caused a reduction of 42% of the utilised agricultural area (UAA) between 1990 and 2000, this trend was reverted back between 2000 and 2010, with an increase of the UAA of 14%. The analysis of land use (CLC, 2006) reveals a system of wedge-shaped agricultural areas, where short supply chain models can be used efficiently to manage and promote the use of land and landscape. In synthesis, in terms of their production systems, there is a high number of short supply chain farms in Rome (over 40%), mostly with mixed production systems linked to multifunctional farming. The role played by the local food network in Rome is remarkable, particularly in case of farmers’ market, SPG’ and those linked to box schemes experiences have seen significant success. The increasing importance of Alternative and Local Food Networks is showed in the data: the 60% of Rome municipalities farms sell directly (Istat, 2010) it was registered an increase of + 57% Farmers’ market at m