Grow your own food security? Integrating science and citizen science to estimate the contribution of own growing to UK food production

Societal Impact Statement Own-grown fruit and vegetable production in urban areas is increasingly assumed to increase food security, however, the evidence-base to support this assumption is lacking. By integrating remotely sensed Geographic Information System data, fieldwork, and a citizen science project (MYHarvest) we will estimate the current levels of UK own-grown fruit and vegetable production and how this could be increased if more urban land was made available for own-growing. This will provide the first comprehensive UK dataset on own-grown production for use by research scientists, policy-makers, and the public, and will highlight the importance of urban horticulture to local and national food security.