Tangible and Intangible Benefits of the Urban Agriculture Practice

Vulnerable consumers who face difficulties in accessing quality food may live in a kind of food desert. To overcome these difficulties, community urban gardens, as initiatives related to urban agriculture activities, may emerge as solutions. This paper has used practice theory as a lens to understand how individuals involved in the production and consumption of urban community gardens can have their lives transformed through the emergence of a new social practice. For this, an exploratory research and qualitative methodological strategy was carried out in the community garden of the city of Betim, state of Minas Gerais, Brazil. The results were divided into two categories of analysis, which were: a) health as a tangible benefit of the practice and b) well-being as an intangible benefit of the practice. That is, the individuals who were involved with the practice of urban agriculture in the studied context had positive changes in their lives with regard to health and the feeling of general well-being.