New Forms of Urban Agriculture in Metropolitan Areas: Examples from Italy

In Europe, the dynamics of urban development has been a significant driver of high consumption of land and agricultural resources, producing complex landscapes with a highly heterogeneous mix of urban and non-urban uses. Within the mosaic of these non-urbanized areas, cultivated land and farmlands are ecosystems able to supply all three major categories of ecosystem services: provisioning, regulating and cultural services. Apart from the most tangible services (food and fiber), other relevant services are provided by agriculture, such as the maintenance of soil fertility, water regulation, carbon sequestration and cultural services (rural viewscapes, cultural heritage). In this scenario of landscape transformations, new forms of urban agriculture (NFUA) are emerging worldwide as practices that aim at meeting local demand for food, protecting farmlands from urban development and offering cultural opportunities for people living in urban and metropolitan areas. In this chapter, some exemplar and recent examples of different types of NFUA (urban farms, community-supported agriculture, allotment gardens and agricultural parks) implemented in Italy are presented, as representative and concrete attempts to plan new sustainable planning scenarios for contemporary metropolitan landscapes.