Rankings of selected social or ecological services by group (rank of 1 = highest)
| Social or ecological service | Project leaders | Stakeholders | General public |
|---|---|---|---|
| improvement of attitudes and outlooks | 8 | 1 | 4 |
| provision of food | 4 | 15 | 8 |
| provision of raw materials | 22 | 25 | 15 |
| improvement of physical health | 5 | 4 | 7 |
| enhancement of pollination | 1 | 7 | 12 |
Esther Sanye-Mengual, Kathrin Specht, and their team surveyed three groups of people in Bologna, Italy—leaders of urban agriculture projects, stakeholders in urban agriculture (e.g., food researchers and urban farming associations), and the general public—to compare their views about the extent to which urban agriculture contributes to 25 social or ecological services that the team identified. The researchers used these ratings to rank the services for each group, with a rank of 1 indicating the service judged to contribute the most. Reviewing the rankings, a city planner concludes that both stakeholders and the general public regard the improvement of attitudes and outlooks as an important benefit of urban agriculture.