Urban food: exclusive or accessible? Exploring inclusiveness of urban foods initiatives in their accessibility for local residents

Abstract

Our current food system is one of the most polluting industries in today’s world. At the same time, it is struggling with providing food for an increasing urbanised society. Urban agriculture is one of the solutions when addressing urban sustainability issues. However, these urban food practices seem to be more accessible for high-educated and high-income consumers, although, it can potentially have positive benefits for vulnerable groups. Therefore, this research focuses on how urban food initiatives address accessibility and how inclusive this accessibility is in practice for local residents. The urban food initiatives studied in this research are all located within the municipality of Nijmegen. In order to research accessibility, a framework is created based on literature on food justice, food security and food sovereignty. Both initiator and participant perspectives are important in this research, therefore qualitative and quantitative methods are used. By exploring inclusiveness of urban food initiatives in their accessibility for local residents, this research aims to come up with strategies to overcome accessibility barriers.