Green Belts have historically functioned as instruments to limit urban sprawl. Their potential to serve as dynamic platforms for socio-ecological regeneration, however, remains underutilised. This paper examines the integration of community-based urban agriculture as a regenerative practice within Green Belts, repositioning them from static containment boundaries to dynamic spaces of metabolic repair. Drawing on Karl Marx’s theory of the metabolic rift, this study explores grassroots agricultural practices in Melbourne, Australia’s ‘Green Wedges’. These practices provide a regenerative alternative to the strict separation of towns and cities implied by conventional Green Belts planning. Grounded in a qualitative case study and ethnographic methods, the research investigates how a community agriculture initiative facilitates closed-loop systems and negotiates land-use restrictions through adaptive governance strategies. Findings reveal that community gardening in the Green Wedge repairs metabolic flows through composting, soil care and waste recycling. The analysis also illustrates how grassroots initiatives overcome institutional constraints through collaborative networks. Beyond food production, the case reveals how community agriculture fosters care, cultural, ecological and social functions, thereby expanding the interpretations of Green Belts’ multifunctionality. The paper argues that these grassroots initiatives demonstrate Green Belts’ regenerative potential, suggesting a need to reconceptualise Green Belt policy to support multifunctional and locally embedded regenerative practices. This research presents an alternative vision for Green Belts’ futures, rooted in local action, multifunctionality and the restoration of urban metabolic relations. This article is also included in The Business & Management Collection which can be accessed at https://hstalks.com/business/.
Li et al. (Sun,) studied this question.