This study examines the boom of the urban agriculture in Korean society from a sociological perspective. Although the start of the urban agriculture in Korea dates back to the beginning of 1990’s when weekend farm began to flourish in suburban areas, a full-fledged attempt by the public sector to encourage it just began in May 2012 enacting ;;The act on promoting and supporting urban agriculture;;. The urban agriculture as a means for the people to overcome ;;risk society;; has come to the fore on the following political and social backgrounds: ⅰ) Globalization of agriculture and intensified capitalism, ⅱ) Threat of food security and food right. On the other hand, government-led urban agriculture by which a capitalist state would control risks in neo-liberalism era has several ideological implications as following: ⅰ) Urban-rural integration planning, ⅱ) Labor reproduction in capitalist society, ⅲ) Risk management in ;;risk society;;, ⅳ) Constructing family/community for social integration. Grassroots civic groups-led urban agriculture appears to pursue a postmodern and alternative way of life. The government-led and civic groups-led practice encounter one another in the field of the urban agriculture, which could be understood as the arena of competition and compromise between the above two practices. Due to the different sociological backgrounds, these two sectors disagree on following issues: ⅰ) Definition of the urban agriculture, ⅱ) Roles of the public and third sector, ⅲ) Goals and means of the urban agriculture - ;;Plant factory;;, ⅳ) Introduction of ;;Competition;; and ;;Evaluation;;. Even though the public sector is promoting a cooperative governance with the third sector, a civil society remains passive in the urban agriculture regardless of its long history. Moreover, the fact that the government invests a lot of public funds into the urban agriculture could hinder the independence of the third sector. Considering favorable effects of the third sector in terms of overcoming intensified capitalism and managing the risks in neo-liberalism era, it would be desirable to construct a cooperative governance between the public sector and the third sector based on the mutual confidence and the equal rights to speak and participate.