Urban farming

It’s growing in Gothenburg

Did you know that there are several hundred urban farms in Gothenburg? The movement is growing and it’s hard to keep up. With the”Grow Gothenburg” platform it will be easier for you to find your way to the many times hidden urban gardens and farms. This spring we arranged two Urban Farming Safaris for the public and release an interactive map of Gothenburgs urban farms. Meet some of the city’s pioneers and visit the urban farms you did not even know existed!

Grow Gothenburg

The urban agriculture movement has exploded in Gothenburg in recent years and the city has become renowned as Sweden’s best city for urban farming. But today it is difficult to get an overview of the city’s urban farming initiatives – for the curious citizen, tourist or potential grower. Therefore we are developing a platform called “Grow Gothenburg” – in collaboration between Gothenburg Green World, The Foodprint LAB and the City of Gothenburg. As a first step to make these urban farming initatives visible and accessible for the public, we have developed an interactive map of the urban farms of Gothenburg. The Grow Gothenburg-map that will be published online shortly will include everything from small and large community gardens, colony (allotment) gardens, educational school gardens and organisations and startups engaged in social farming and commercial urban agriculture in and around Gothenburg.

Urban Farming Safari

This spring, we also organized two Urban Farming Safaris. An urban farming Safari is a guided tour around the city’s urban farms and gardens, a tradition since 2011 in Gothenburg. Visit and hear the stories behind a number of the city’s most exciting urban farms. The safari complements the map, by giving direct insight into the urban farming movement. We learn how urban gardening contributes to crucial social, environmental and health values of the city, putting the future of food production on the agenda and creating new business models for a green economy and sustainable urban development. The safaris will be held on a saturday (between 11am-5pm) on May 28th and June 11th. The safari will also provide the opportunity to buy the urban produce such as organic shiitake.

Hundreds of city farms – thousands of city farmers

The mapping has just begun, but already around 150 farms have been identified, and more and more are discovered every week. “We have probably only scratched the surface. I think there is at least around 200 urban farms in Gothenburg “says Jonathan Naraine, project manager for the ” Grow Gothenburg” initiative. A thousand Gothenburgers’ grow their own vegetables together in a community garden  around the city and more than two thousand students have an educational garden in their school. Three thousand households have their own colony gardens, and even more have access to an allotment. And last but not least urban farming also creates jobs! Urban agriculture has created at least 200 new jobs and internships thanks to the two dozen social cooperatives or small commercial urban farms now being run in Gothenburg. These farms can be found on the Grow Gothenburg map.

The “Grow Gothenburg” platform is made as a collaboration between Gothenburg Green World, Gothenburg 2021, Fastighetskontoret and The Environmental Department in the City of Gothenburg.
, who develops the map and arranges the safaris is an architecture team with a mission to facilitate inhabitants initiatives around sustainable food & greening the city. After having arranged Urban Farming Safaris in Gothenburg for five consecutive years and studied the mapping of urban agriculture in place in New York, the organization has built up a good basis for a mapping the urban agriculture movement in Gothenburg.