157 inclusion, employment and collaboration within common spaces. Social and environmental benefits, thus. These are the conclusions drawn during the two years of studies, some of which have become research subjects reported in the journal Sustainability, whose one6 in particular represents a precise act of calculation, born of the assumptions of various studies aiming to be scientifically demonstrated through the cultivation and management control of an urban garden in Padua, in Northern Italy, during the course of an entire calendar year. Conducted by the ResCUE-AB − Research Center on Urban Environment for Agriculture and Biodiversity, by the Department of Agricultural Sciences of the University of Bologna and by DAFNAE - Department of Agronomy, Food, Natural resources, Animals and Environment of the University of Padua, these are the raw data: 30.6 sqm of vegetable garden divided into several portions, for a total of 25 sqm of production area; 21 cultivation cycles and sustainability management control through the SimaPro software, by means of the ReCiPe survey method, upon ISO 14040-44 standard line. From seed to disposal, every cost has been considered. From the impact on climate change, to the consumption of every single organic matter, up to marine eutrophication, every data has been recorded. Through different and variable cultivation techniques based on the life cycle of the vegetables, beans, lettuce, tomatoes, chicory, spinach, fennel, beets, cabbage, celery, peas, zucchini were planted. The overall final harvest was 161.8 kg. The balance sheet is comforting. An In-house vegetable production is economically and environmentally sustainable. In terms of impact on the planet, the less was recorded by the spring and summer crops of chicory, tomatoes and aubergines, and by the winter harvest of beets. The summer-autumn crop of chicory, the winter harvest of peas and the two green bean cultivation cycles were more impactful. In terms of cash, the average cost for the production of a kilogram of vegetables is 1.57 euros, within an open range going between 0.46 and 3.56 euros. The urban garden works. And by complying with the WHO guidelines and the consumption data, the urban garden cultivated in Padua can guarantee the necessary nutrients for 1.11 people, resources for 1.31 and it can cover the consumption of 2.10 people. But let's stick with the method: if those 30 sqm in Padua, 25 of them cultivated, were able to provide the nutritional contribution for 1.11 people, then 22.6 sqm represent the requisite area for a person's needs. As a result, 36.16 sqm would be needed to feed one million six hundred thousand inhabitants of Manhattan – twelve times higher than Central Park, more than half of the entire borough. The urban garden practice as a positive approach in order to protect the environment is correct, but a correlation method can identify its weak sides and can lead to repairs. The outcome of the research is clear, connoting urban garden as sustainable, but at the same time it highlights its large-scale impracticability. It therefore cannot be seen as a solution, but rather as an integration to the current production systems. Its development requires a more articulated and rigorous method, through which analyzing a problem starts the path towards its solution. So that, from green, there won’t be any more danger of falling into grey. 6 Esther Sanyé-Mengual, Daniela Gasperi, Nicola Michelon, Francesco Orsini, Giorgio Ponchia, Giorgio Gianquinto, Eco-efficiency assessment and food security potential of home gardening: a case study in Padua, Italy, in: Sustainability, 21/06/2018 – available online @ www.mdpi.com
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