Your visual guide to Urban Agriculture types

And 7 key features of successful urban agriculture.

There are so many inspiring food projects working and innovating successfully in urban and urban fringe areas. We were asked to have a go at creating a ‘typology’ of urban agriculture that showcases best practice models and projects, can help decision makers to understand more about what is out there that they could enable to happen in their area.

By using this typology as a tool and following its inspiration wherever it leads you, you will discover the unparalleled positive impact that moving to a localised food system can bring, and why this is so urgent. Food is where health, equity, land justice, wellbeing, land use planning, ecological recovery and climate change mitigation and adaptation, converge and intersect. Here is a treasure trove of solutions. You can download the image from here as a pdf – in Adobe or equivalent, the links are clickable from within this page and take you to sub-pages on this website.

A Guide to Urban Agriculture & Case Studies

Thanks to the wonderful illustrator Ellie Shipman for creating this with us.

This is a work in progress and can evolve over time, so we’re happy to get your feedback, additional case studies, and ideas for future versions.

Along the bottom of the map, you’ll see the key features of successful Urban Agriculture: Vision, Collaboration, Land, Training, Money, Support and Nutrition…

VISION

We must never underestimate the power or the necessity of a shared vision behind any food strategy or individual urban agriculture project or business.

When created by those who will be delivering and/or impacted by it, a vision acts as a maypole to which projects, practices and processes can align, and around which people can dance! It is a frame and a reference point that describes the kind of world which you are trying to bring into being. We have a Vision of a world in which… Work on this with your whole team at the beginning of your project and revisit it every year, and whenever you have strategic decisions to make.

COLLABORATION

Siloed ways of working are, bit by bit, breaking down. This is because we live in dynamic systems, like an ecosystem where all the parts respond to and interact with each other. If we are seeking to create resilient, healthy, beneficial systems we must recognise that the way we show up and work together is one of the most important systems.

New structures and ways of working are springing up in response to the need to a) make the most of funding, b) develop mutually beneficial relationships and build communities of practice and communities of place, c) avoid duplication of effort d) act ethically and transparently.

Frameworks such as Sociocracy or Prosocial give us tools and processes as well as deeper understanding about how humans are capable of, and innately inclined towards, doing amazing things together when we can rise above our competitive conditioning.

LAND

Access to Land and security of tenure is a key issue in setting up new food production initiatives. Land negotiations can be adversarial, but they needn’t be if approached in the right spirit and with the cooperation of local authorities and landowners. Seek to establish a constructive dialogue with the local council and landowners. Both your vision and your relationships with collaborators will help with this. It is possible to set up new projects on land owned by local authorities, the NHS or universities, and in direct arrangements with private landowners.

Seek advice from (click to open a new tab):

• Shared Assets
• The Landworkers Alliance
• Land Match England
• The Scottish Land Matching Service
• Cwmpas (Wales)
• Start to Farm – Business Wales
• The Community Land Advisory Service

TRAINING

Access to training
You will need all sorts of skills – some you’ll be aware of, some you won’t. From food growing to management plans, from advertising to food distribution. But there are lots of organisations out there that can offer help. Don’t reinvent the wheel – ask for help.

Seek advice from (click to open in a new tab):

• The Landworkers Alliance
• Black Mountains College (Brecon Beacons)
• The Apricot Centre (Devon) Education
• The Centre for Alternative Technology (north Wales)
• Roots to Work (UK Jobs bulletin for agroecology sector)

MONEY

Access to Finance. Ways to raise money include bank loans, grants & donations, share issues, & crowd-funding & Community Supported Agriculture member subscriptions.

Business planning is an essential starting point – it’s much easier to raise money when you know what you need and when you need it by.

Seek advice from:

• Community Supported Agriculture
• Real Farming Trust – Loans for Enlightened Agriculture Programme (LEAP)
• DEFRA guidance (2025)
• Business Board Network – Growth Hubs
• Landworkers Alliance – Guide to Fundraising

SUPPORT

Cultivating beneficial, communicative relationships with other practitioners and thinkers in your field, with policy influencers and local planning authorities can make all the difference. Your local council for instance is a pivotal player in developing urban food production initiatives: if there is a local food partnership in your area (link below) it’s a good idea to ask them for advice as they will have a dialogue with the council and a range of other local or regional stakeholders. If you don’t have one where you are, consider setting one up – the network will help you.

If you need evidence to assist your requests for support, browse the links below for the information you need and use our forthcoming Evidence pack which brings a lot of the key evidence and information together.

As the major local institutions, local councils and combined authorities with devolved powers will be important in developing food production initiatives, from single site to strategic policies and investment decisions. Not only will they have land that might be made available for growing, but they also control the planning agenda and land use policies. With increasing numbers of councils declaring a climate emergency, and in the long wake of Covid, now is a good time to seek a dialogue to try to embed policy support for an upscaling of urban agroecology. Again, your local sustainable food partnership is a good place to start.

Seek advice from:

• Sustainable Food Places have advice on many aspect of this vital connection
• Better Food Traders – UK wide network supporting retailers who support local producers
• The Glasgow Food and Climate Declaration
• Locality
• The Landworkers Alliance
• Sustain – The Alliance for better food and farming
• The Food Farming and Countryside Commission – cutting edge research and campaigning
• Bristol City Council, One City Plan – Goal 63: Wildlife-friendly food growing areas have been established in every ward in the city, using regenerative approaches to replenish the soil and manage water

• Open Food Network – set up an online shopfront

NUTRITION

Somewhere in the transition from locally produced food to our current global supermarket culture, we’ve lost track of one critical factor: nutrition. Lots of food in long supply chains, both fresh and processed, has less nutritional value than fresh, locally grown crops with short supply chains. It’s even worse with ultra-processed convenience foods which might fill you up with sugar, salt, fat and fibre, but contain little nutritional value.

We will be working with partners to develop a simple guide to how local food production and distribution, coupled with agroecological farming methods to build soil health, can reverse this trend and focus on the many benefits of nutrition-dense foods.

• Growing Real Food for Nutrition
• Bionutrient Food Association
• Real Food Campaign (US)