The Growing Movement Taking Root in American Cities
Picture walking down your local sidewalk and plucking a fresh peach from a tree that’s specifically planted for you to eat. It sounds like a fantasy, but this vision is becoming reality in cities across America. In cities across the United States, people struggling with food insecurity and lack of green space are looking to urban food production to tackle both. While many are familiar with growing vegetables in backyards, rooftops, and urban farms, there’s another approach gaining popularity among policymakers, nonprofits, and residents: planting food-bearing trees. This isn’t just about beautification anymore—it’s about creating edible neighborhoods where your daily commute could literally feed you. The movement combines environmental benefits with practical solutions to food access, creating what experts call “urban food forestry.” What started as small community initiatives has grown into city-wide programs that are changing how we think about public spaces.
Philadelphia’s Revolutionary TreePhilly Program
In an effort to mitigate that inequity, the parks and recreation department and Fairmount Park Conservancy spearheaded TreePhilly, a yard tree-giveaway program to help reach then-Mayor Michael Nutter’s goal of at least 30 percent coverage in every neighborhood by 2025. What makes Philadelphia’s approach unique is that they discovered something unexpected: Although the program didn’t initially target food insecurity directly, its staff noticed a trend: People wanted trees they could eat from. “We really did hear from residents that food-bearing trees are important,” says Marisa Wilson, the urban forestry community organizer with Philadelphia’s parks and recreation department. Wilson learned from residents that the trees were more than a source of calories — they provided people with an opportunity to grow and harvest culturally significant foods, a process some had been divorced from as a result of migration. This discovery transformed the program from simple tree planting into something much more meaningful—reconnecting people with their food heritage right in the heart of the city. The program now actively incorporates fruit trees based on community demand rather than traditional landscaping preferences.
Food Forests Delivering Real Results
The numbers tell a compelling story about what’s actually possible when cities embrace edible landscaping. In Philadelphia, the Philadelphia Orchard Project produced over 11,000 pounds of fresh produce last year. But it’s not just about total weight—it’s about consistent, weekly impact. “We are producing anywhere from 200 to 300 pounds of produce a week, which is given out weekly and is gone within minutes,” Hines says. And with saplings and berry bushes that will start bearing fruit in the coming years, that will only increase. “So in the future, it’s going to be way more abundant. A lot of people can eat off a small plot of land.” Roughly half of the bounty harvested from POP’s 67 partner sites — a few tons each year — is given to food pantries, sold at affordable prices at farmers markets, or simply picked by passersby looking for a snack. An estimated 6,532 Philadelphians tasted something grown in one of these orchards in 2019. These aren’t token gestures—they’re feeding real people with real nutritional needs.
The Science Behind Urban Food Production Potential
Research shows that urban food forests aren’t just feel-good projects—they’re scientifically viable food production systems. The results show that the average annual yield of the 0.08 ha food forest is 713 kg, corresponding to 415,075 kcal, 9868 g protein, 8394 g fat and 85,627 g carbohydrates. Assuming a carbohydrate rich diet where the maximum recommended 60% of energy comes from carbohydrates and the remaining 40% is divided between 25% from fat and 15% from protein, one hectare of food forest with the same species composition as the Garden Cottage food forest would be able to supply up to 7 males or 9 females with carbohydrates, 4 males or 5 females with fat, and 3 males or 4 females with protein. Even more impressive, We found that 108 % of the daily recommended minimum intake of fruit for the entire city’s population could be met under the most ambitious planting scenario, with substantial potential to contribute to food security even under more modest scenarios. The research from Burlington, Vermont’s case study proves that with proper planning, cities could theoretically meet their entire population’s fruit needs through strategic urban planting. This transforms urban food forestry from nice-to-have to must-have infrastructure.
Beyond Apples: Expanding Palates and Cultural Connections
Urban fruit trees aren’t just about familiar apples and pears—they’re introducing entire communities to foods they might never have encountered otherwise. Maximizing the potential of urban fruit trees also includes exposing people to less common foods and preparations. For example, most people don’t think to harvest acorns, but Martello points out that they have long been a key ingredient in Indigenous diets. Others may not be familiar with pawpaw, which tastes like a banana. Norris Square, an orchard site in a primarily Latino neighborhood in Philadelphia, is offering a pawpaw hot sauce-making workshop to inspire people to use new ingredients in traditional dishes. Think of it as expanding your neighborhood’s culinary horizons without ever leaving home. The ironworker from Philadelphia developed a passion for farming in 2018 when an urban gardener showed him a mulberry tree, which produces fruit similar to blackberries. Although Hines had visited an apple orchard as a kid, that mulberry was the first tree he realized could be harvested near his home. These discoveries are happening on every block where food trees are planted, turning routine walks into adventures in taste and nutrition.
The Economic Case for Fruit Trees
While cities initially worry about maintenance costs, fruit trees actually offer impressive long-term economic advantages over traditional ornamental plantings. Part of what makes trees so impactful is that a healthy one can give generously for decades, if not longer. While vegetable farming requires planting anew every season, trees do not, says Nina Beth Cardin, rabbi and founder of the Baltimore Orchard Project, which works with TreeBaltimore. “They’re … for people who will come five years from now, 10 years from now, people who are in the next generation,” she says. With food prices continuing to rise—The FAO Food Price Index (FFPI) averaged 127.4 points in October 2024, up 3 points from September 2024—free fruit trees become increasingly valuable community assets. But in California, for example, residents can request a free fruit tree to be planted in their gardens through City Plants, a public-private partnership that promotes greener lifestyles and communities by providing free trees. The initial investment pays dividends for generations, unlike annual flower plantings that need constant replacement. Cities are recognizing that food-producing infrastructure is infrastructure that pays for itself over time.
Overcoming City Officials’ Biggest Concerns
City foresters and planners have legitimate concerns about fruit trees that go beyond simple aesthetics. Killoran added that even if hungry animals can’t outsmart humans, the trees are especially susceptible to insects and disease. And he said Denver just doesn’t have the capacity to harvest fruit, which he said can get messy in heavily-trafficked pedestrian areas and lead to accidents. “[A fruit tree] creates litter and it could be a slip, trip and fall hazard,’ said Killoran. Pollution from passing cars and limited root space stunt the growth of the current street trees found in most cities The trees often need to be replaced every few years. It is said that street trees only live on average for seven years. This means that fruit trees might not even reach the maturity needed to produce fruit — it takes between two and five years for an apple tree to bear fruit and between four and six years for a pear tree to mature. Even if apple trees were chosen for their faster fruit bearing, you might only get a few years of good fruit production out of the tree before it needs to be replaced. However, successful programs have found solutions by focusing on community orchards in parks rather than street trees, and by engaging volunteers who handle harvesting and maintenance. The key is strategic placement, not blanket fruit tree policies.
Communities Leading the Charge
The most successful urban food forestry projects aren’t top-down government initiatives—they’re community-driven efforts that cities learn to support. These food forests, designed as shaded oases of public access with techniques where water-friendly dryland crops thrive in a changing climate while they serve the community. With each new food forest, Denver Urban Gardens plants food-producing perennial plants in the common public spaces of the Denver Metropolitan Area. These forests are intended to be community-led, and receptive to neighborhoods, with DUG actively seeking new potential sites. DUG’s Etkin Family Foundation Food Forest Program was launched in the spring of 2022 with the goal of planting accessible food forests in small, underutilized areas in public spaces and community gardens. Jacqui van Heerden is the brain behind the thriving Kensington Community Food Forest in Melbourne. Through careful planning and design she and her team are increasing food security for the residents of Kensington Estate: a redeveloped building offering public, social and affordable home ownership for low income households. The active Kensington community can now enjoy fresh and organic nuts, fruits, veggies and herbs all year long, just by stepping outside their building. These grassroots efforts prove that when communities want food trees, they find ways to make them work.
Technology Making Urban Foraging Accessible
Modern technology is revolutionizing how people find and access urban fruit, transforming random discoveries into systematic food networks. Falling Fruit is a massive, collaborative map of the urban harvest. By uniting the efforts of foragers, freegans, and foresters everywhere, the map already points to over a half million food sources around the world (from plants and fungi to water wells and dumpsters). Guerrilla Grafters graft fruit-bearing branches onto ornamental, non-fruiting fruit tree varieties (for example, cities often use sterile fruit trees for their colorful spring blossoms). Over time, delicious, nutritious fruit is made available to neighborhoods thanks to these grafts. You can learn more about the project at guerrillagrafters.org This map shows some of the most common ornamental fruit trees. Tree inventories are compiled by institutions seeking to better document and care for their trees. These data are typically collected by trained arborists and are both detailed and exhaustive. We carefully pick out edible species from these inventories and add them to the map for you. Help us map your neighborhood by asking your city (or university, canton, etc) if a tree inventory exists and whether it can be shared on Falling Fruit. Apps and online maps are turning urban foraging from specialized knowledge into accessible information for anyone with a smartphone. This democratization of food access information is making cities more food-secure one mapped tree at a time.
Global Cities Leading by Example
While American cities are making progress, international examples show what’s possible when municipalities fully embrace edible landscaping policies. Between 2021 and 2023, Loulé has planted nearly 28,000 trees and distributed another 18,000 for its inhabitants to plant. In 2024, the city aims to meet its target of planting 5,359 trees and distributing another 3,600. As part of Turkmenistan’s “National Forest Program” with the goal of planting 10 million new trees throughout the country, Ashgabat made a pledge under the “Trees in Cities Challenge” to plant 1.6 million new trees of various species including fruit trees. Copenhagen, Denmark’s capital, has been in the news recently for a decision by the city council to plant more fruit trees in public spaces. It’s a decision that has been widely welcomed. These cities aren’t treating fruit trees as experimental programs—they’re integrating them into comprehensive urban forestry strategies. Their success stories provide roadmaps for American cities ready to scale up their own edible landscape initiatives.
What started as scattered community gardens and guerrilla grafting has evolved into a legitimate urban planning strategy that cities worldwide are embracing. The evidence is clear: when cities plant fruit trees thoughtfully and communities engage with them actively, everyone benefits from healthier neighborhoods, stronger food security, and deeper connections to the natural world that feeds us. The question isn’t whether edible landscapes work—it’s how quickly your city will join this growing movement.
