Community gardening : exploring motivations, benefits and gardener experience

Abstract

A food system is a set of interrelated functions that includes food production, processing and distribution, food access and utilization by individuals, communities and populations, and food recycling, composting, and disposal (Dahlberg, 1993; Cornell University, n.d.; Community Food Security Coalition, 2009). Food systems are dynamic and complex, and reflect unique social, cultural, environmental, and economic factors and circumstance. For the better part of human history, most people ate food that was produced and distributed within local food systems (Xuereb, 2005). However, in the last several decades, there has been an increasing trend toward industrialization and globalization, and the subsequent concentration of ownership and control of food systems around the world (Koc & Dahlberg, 1999; Heffernan & Hendrickson, 2005; La Trobe & Acott, 2000; FAO, 2004; Scrinis, 2007).