Allotments are great for soil quality (journal)

Urban cultivation in allotments maintains soil qualities adversely affected by conventional agriculture  

Maintenance and protection of our soil resource is essential for sustainable food production and for regulating and supporting ecosystem services upon which we depend. This study establishes, for the first time, that small-scale urban food production can occur without the penalty of soil degradation seen in conventional agriculture, and maintains the high soil quality seen in urban greenspaces. Given the involvement of over 800 million people in urban agriculture globally, our findings suggest that to better protect soil functions, local, national and international urban planning and policy making should promote more urban own-growing in preference to further intensification.