community food forestry

the community food forestry initiative (cffi) takes a unique and innovative approach to address the challenge urban and community tree canopy loss due to re/development by providing planners, developers, policy-makers, designers and practitioners a comprehensive set of resources that integrate food-producing trees and plants into the urban landscape. in addition, it will help raise public and professional awareness around the issue of using urban places to grow food.


development and redevelopment is happening at an unprecedented rate and more often than not, established trees and forests are pushed out in favor of more buildings. cffi offers a unique way forward that makes urban forests indispensable amenities in the urban landscape.

We will accomplish this in several ways:
1) by suggesting forests that are comprised of food producing plants;
2) by demonstrating ways to integrate these tightly into a wide variety of interventions within the re/development; and
3) by creating easily accessible resources and tools that anyone, but particularly practitioners, planners, developers, etc. can use to implement these food forests into the re/development projects.


our intended audience is anyone who is a planner, practitioner, policy-maker or stakeholder in development or redevelopment projects.

the resources and tools in particular are likely to be used mainly by professional audiences (developers, planners, architects, engineers, etc.). However, the tools will be easy enough for non-professionals such as community activists, non-profits, or average citizens.


The following are the deliverable product(s): each one is meant as a complimentary toolbox that will benefit all recipients/stake holders discussed above.

code module

cffi will document all the possible ways to integrate food forests into every type of public and civic space, using graphical representations and descriptions to succinctly communicate the relative placement, form and the functions of each component in the planted space.

the code module will be universal in nature and not specific to any region or species. it will enable users to easily integrate food-based plantings into almost any situation within the urban landscape in their communities.

index of edible and useful plants

 organized by climactic region and cross-listed by form and function within the landscape,
this index will allow users to pick and choose appropriate trees and plants for each situation in their food forest planting that fulfills each particular role within the planting and is appropriate to the climate and microclimate of each planting situation.

edible/useful plants knowledge base

this repository of information (a wiki of sorts) will contain thousands of entries relating to Edible/Useful Plants (images, audio, video, pdf) that will be available to users to access and understand the uses, culture, characteristics, significance, productivity and other significant traits of each species.

i-tree integration

i-tree is a leading vehicle to deliver the science used to estimate urban tree benefits to a wide range of audiences. integration of our work will provide an additional, highly-visible method to market the value of food-producing trees and plants at the decision maker level. users of i-Tree will gain an even more comprehensive understanding of the value of the species in their urban and community forests guiding their planning and management activities with more complete knowledge when making choices for their plantings.

multi-level indicators

indicators will measure success at various levels from the landscape to the individual plant that measure resistance, resilience and appropriateness of planting.

users will be able to easily evaluate which components of their plantings will have synergistic effects that create greater value and lower-maintenance interventions in the landscape.

planting scenarios/templates

design and document a representative set of planting scenarios for various types of public and civic spaces rendered in the code module in varying climate zones throughout the US.

templates will be developed for each of the various scenarios applicable to each region.


a platform accessible through an online portal for users to access the initiative’s resources and tools, as well as share their experiences with community food forestry within multiple communities of practice, continually growing the knowledge base in this fairly new field within the larger movement.

workshops/training/ technical assistance 

a series of workshops, and professional training, to be delivered online or at conferences and gatherings that ensure user groups across the country make full use of the proposed resources so they may effectively leverage these in their communities as this fairly new field evolves.

dissemination/ demonstration

demonstration plantings will be completed in new york city and in miami.

a very active campaign will disseminate the products produced here far and wide.

project partners