Public Produce: The New Urban Agriculture,   ISBN:9781597265881

Public Produce makes a uniquely contemporary case not for central government intervention, but for local government involvement. In what Darrin Nordahl calls “municipal agriculture,” elected officials, municipal planners, local policymakers and public space designers are turning to the abundance of land under public control (parks, plazas, streets, city squares, parking lots, as well as the grounds around libraries, schools, government offices, and even jails) to grow food.

Public agencies at one time were at best indifferent, or at worst dismissive, of food production in the city. Today, public officials recognize that food insecurity is affecting everyone, not just the inner-city poor, and that policies seeking to restructure the production and distribution of food to the tens of millions of people living in cities have immediate benefits to community-wide health and prosperity.