A scoping review of temperate food forestry research: key themes, methodological considerations and research priorities

Abstract

There is increasing interest in practice and policy in the use of polycultures composed of a tree layer integrated with multiple other perennial vegetation layers (“food forests”) in temperate regions, but scientific understanding of this farming system appears limited. This scoping review aims to facilitate future food forestry research by providing a clear overview of existing empirical research and research agenda. To do so, we unite a body of literature that is currently fragmented, mainly due to inconsistent terminology, and organize it around nine key research themes defined in a conceptual framework. This conceptual framework, collaboratively developed by a network of food forestry scholars, outlines the following themes to strengthen the science-policy-practice interface: personal motivation, external factors, knowledge (co-)creation, types of food forests, management characteristics, ecosystem functioning, value creation, interaction or comparison with other land use systems, and transition processes. For each theme, we describe the extent to which the theme and more specific subthemes within this theme have been empirically investigated, which methodological approaches are used to do so, and which topics and methodologies future research should prioritize. Overall, we highlight three ‘clusters’ of research gaps. These center around questions pertaining to food production at food forests, multifunctionality at food forests, and processes of knowledge legitimization around food forestry. Methodologically, we make a case for transdisciplinary approaches. Additionally, studies with more analytical, experimental and longitudinal approaches, larger sample sizes, older study sites, and conducted in underexplored regions, are necessary to address the research gaps we identify.