City Farming Could Supply Nearly 30% of Europe’s Fruit and Vegetable Needs, Study Finds

An urban garden in A Coruña, Galicia, Spain. —Gustavo de la Paz/Europa Press—Getty Images

Most of the time, an urban rooftop is not a pretty place—a tarpaper or concrete griddle in summer, a windswept waste in winter. But if a new study in the journal Sustainable Cities and Society is correct, city roofs—along with vacant lots and urban greenspaces—could become something else entirely: farms. Deployed and reclaimed just right, the researchers found, urban gardens could meet up to 28% of the fruit...