Research & reports

David Anaafo, G. A. Akolgo · · Ghana

A study on urban agriculture in Ghanaian cities found that it faces challenges including difficult access to land and water resources, and a lack of extension services and credit support. Despite these issues, urban agriculture may help reduce flooding impacts, improve water infiltration, and enhance environmental sanitation. The study recommends policy measures to address these challenges.

Andrea Oyuela, Arnold van der Valk · Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems · Honduras (Tegucigalpa)

This study questions the adequacy of Tegucigalpa's top-down planning system in Honduras and explores urban agriculture (UA) as a potential building block for a bottom-up strategy. While UA is organized in Tegucigalpa due to residents' need to overcome food insecurity and hardship, the concept of active citizenship and bottom-up development is not yet consolidated. Furthermore, challenges exist regarding the resources needed for practicing UA and the diffusion of knowledge to the population.

Pepijn Schreinemachers, Dhruba Raj Bhattarai, Giri Dhari Subedi, Tej P. Acharya, Hsiao-pu Chen, Ray-Yu Yang, Narayan Kaji Kashichhawa, Upendra Dhungana, Gregory C. Luther, Maureen Mecozzi · Journal of Development Effectiveness · Nepal

This study evaluated the combined impact of school gardens and nutrition education on 10- to 15-year-old schoolchildren in Nepal, using a cluster randomized controlled trial with 1275 students (2014) and 785 students (2015). After one year, significant improvements were observed in children's awareness of fruits and vegetables, knowledge of sustainable agriculture, food, nutrition, and health, and stated preferences for eating fruits and vegetables. However, these improvements in intermediary outcomes did not translate into significant improvements in fruit and vegetable consumption or nutritional status.

Donovon Ceaser · Ethnography & Education · Global

This study analyzed the leadership of founder John Browne at Green Shoots, a nonprofit service-learning urban farming school established in 2010, using the theory of founder's syndrome. Browne, despite an openly egalitarian community of practice ethic, created a hierarchy at the school that led to a staff walk-out and subsequent firings. Findings revealed Browne as a charming and inspirational teacher who engaged in dominating leadership contradicting the community of practice's ideals, resulting in disrespected students, disillusioned staff, and a founder unable to take responsibility for his leadership.

Abdul Rahman Conteh, Alusaine Edward Samura, E. L. S. Hinckley, Osman Nabay, Mohamed S. Kamara · Journal of Agricultural Science and Practice · Sierra Leone (Freetown)

This study was conducted to identify the risks of heavy metal contamination in urban and peri-urban cropping systems in Sierra Leone. Soil and plant samples were collected from 72 sites in Freetown and Bo and analyzed for Zn, Cu, Cr, Ni, Pb, and Cd. Heavy metals were detected across all sites, and some mild risk of cadmium toxicity was observed in densely populated areas of Freetown, though this was not reflected in plant uptake of cadmium.

Seyedardalan Ashrafzadeh, Niklas J. Lehto, Gareth Oddy, Ron G. McLaren, Ling‐Fen Kang, Nicholas Dickinson, Johannes Welsch, Brett Robinson · Applied Geochemistry · New Zealand (Christchurch)

A study in Christchurch, New Zealand, measured heavy metal (HM) concentrations in suburban garden soils and soils at risk of HM contamination due to former land uses or nearby activities. HM concentrations in suburban garden soils were higher than normal background levels, with 46% of urban garden samples exceeding the residential land use national standard for lead (210 mg kg−1), and the most contaminated soil reaching 2615 mg kg−1. Arsenic and zinc also exceeded national standards in 20% of soils. These findings suggest that soil HM concentrations should be key criteria when determining future land use for former residential areas demolished due to the 2010 and 2011 earthquakes, and that redeveloping these areas as parklands or forests would result in less human HM exposure than agriculture or community gardens where food is produced and bare soil is exposed.

Gabin Korbéogo · Environment and Urbanization · Burkina Faso (Ouagadougou)

This article explores how land tenure, water flows, and water quality are legally, politically, and socially framed in urban agriculture in Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso. Urban agriculture serves as a revenue source and a socio-political arena involving state representatives, experts, and farmers. Public authorities monitor legal standards for water use and hygiene, while farmers strive for efficient resource use, sometimes challenging official norms. These competing interests lead to conflicts over resource use or rule legitimacy, which are negotiated through institutional or informal bargaining.

Georgia Pollard, Philip Roetman, James Ward · Kobra (Universitätsbibliothek Kassel) · Australia (South Australia)

While urban agriculture is seen as a sustainable approach to improving food security, there is a significant knowledge gap regarding the financial accessibility of urban food production for all households. If urban agriculture remains primarily a middle-class discretionary activity, its role in city-wide food security improvement will be limited. This paper demonstrates that citizen science offers an effective approach to investigate the inputs (labor, costs, water use) and outputs (produce yields, value) of urban food gardens, using the Edible Gardens project in South Australia as an example.

Jason Byrne · · Global

Research on urban greenspace, including parks, gardens, and green infrastructure, consistently demonstrates that marginalized and vulnerable communities have less access to these areas. This chapter overviews environmental injustice research on urban greenspace, examining debates and challenges for researchers and policymakers, and highlighting issues like climate injustice and food insecurity related to environmental inequality.

Zane Vincēviča–Gaile, Dāvis Varakājs · · Latvia

This study aimed to determine the concentration of potentially toxic elements (Cd, Cr, Cu, Fe, Ni, Pb, Zn) in berries grown in allotment gardens in Rīga city, Latvia. Samples of raspberries, strawberries, red currants, black currants, gooseberries, and cherries were analyzed using atomic absorption spectroscopy. The results showed significant variability of element concentration among the berry species, with mean concentrations for Ni at 0.54 mg/kg, Pb at 0.20 mg/kg, Cr at 0.10 mg/kg, and Cd at 0.03 mg/kg.

Esther Sanz Sanz, Claude Napoléone, Bernard Hubert, Aruna Popuri · · Global

Existing urban planning documents inadequately consider the specificities of peri-urban agriculture as an economic activity requiring arrangements not always adapted to an urban vision of agricultural spaces. This paper proposes a systemic methodology to characterize peri-urban agricultural spatial units, aiming to provide an inventory of peri-urban agricultural areas tailored to urban planning practitioners' constraints. The approach seeks to focus public action on areas where it is most likely to be efficient within a territorial project.

Bethany B. Cutts, Jonathan London, Shaina Meiners, Kirsten Schwarz, Mary L. Cadenasso · Local Environment · Global

This paper applies a dynamic spatial politics framework to interpret a 30-year conflict over an urban garden in Sacramento, California. It examines how urban gardens, often idealized, are also sites of conflict due to competing visions of "soil" versus "dirt." The study highlights that contaminants like lead in the soil contribute to this instability, reframing fertile soil as dangerous dirt, and influencing the garden's transformation from a countercultural space to a gentrified amenity.

Rémi Schweizer, Cyril Mumenthaler · VertigO · Switzerland (Genève)

This case study in Geneva, Switzerland, examined the integration of urban agriculture and food sovereignty into public policy, focusing on the regional brand Genève Région - Terre Avenir (GRTA). The analysis, based on a cognitive approach, highlighted compromises and imbalances among actor communities with divergent value systems. Ultimately, the study demonstrated the difficulty in challenging the dominant agricultural framework.

Eileen Bogweh Nchanji, Imogen Bellwood‐Howard, Nikolaus Schareika, Takemore Chagomoka, Johannes Schlesinger, D. Rodríguez Torres Axel, Glaser Rüdiger · International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability · Ghana (Tamale)

An ethnographic study in Tamale, Northern Ghana, assessed the sustainability of urban vegetable production between 2008 and 2014. While urbanization increased cultivation of profitable vegetables like cabbage, the practice involved irrigation with grey and wastewater and high pesticide use, posing health and environmental hazards. Industrial growth reduced open space urban agriculture by 8.7%, leading farmers to use interstitial spaces and peri-urban fringes, indicating a dynamic but not yet sustainable production system.

Joshua Sbicca · Digital Collections of Colorado (Colorado State University) · Global

An article examining food as an entry point into the politics and processes of gentrification, discussed with reference to cities globally rather than a single case. Where traditional explanations of gentrification hinge on either political-economy or cultural drivers, the article shows the relationship between the two to argue that food gentrification is multifaceted, changing a neighborhood's class and ethnoracial demographics, foodscapes and foodways, and housing. It states that poor communities in cities around the world can experience harmful effects of food-driven gentrification, such as developers using urban agriculture to attract new residents and increase property values. It also describes food itself as being gentrified in two ways: for communities marginalized by race or ethnicity, culturally important foods become "cool," unaffordable and dispossessed from them, while the upscaling of food retail displaces former bars, cafes, restaurants, grocery stores and gardens. The article closes with a brief discussion of social movement strategies and policy approaches to prevent these harmful effects.

Jacques Godfroid · Archives of Public Health · Global

This opinion paper discusses a One Health approach to brucellosis at the wildlife-livestock-human interface in both industrialized and low- and middle-income countries. It points to pitfalls in serological studies and states that urban and peri-urban farming contributes to the re-emergence of brucellosis in the developing world, identifies wildlife as a potential reservoir, and discusses the ethics of culling wildlife to control disease spread.

Fatemeh Kalantari, Osman Mohd Tahir, Raheleh Akbari Joni, Ezaz Fatemi · Journal of Landscape Ecology · Global

This paper critically reviews 60 published documents on vertical farming — cultivating plants and livestock on vertically inclined surfaces such as skyscrapers in land-scarce urban areas — assessing it against environmental, social, and economic dimensions of sustainability, and notes that published critical reviews on the topic remain scarce. Economic viability is named as one of the challenges considered alongside environmental and social factors, but the abstract does not present specific cost, revenue, or failure data to support this; it concludes, without citing supporting figures, that vertical farming can be "potentially beneficial" for food production, quality, safety, and food security.

Shobha Shrestha · Nepalese journal of geoinformatics/Journal of geoinformatics Nepal · Nepal

Using GIS, remote sensing and spatial metrics, this study analyzed the spatial structure and dynamics of urban land use, including agricultural land use, in Kathmandu Valley, Nepal, over the ten years from 2003 to 2012. Land use changed drastically over this period, with the most pronounced shifts occurring in the agriculture and built-up classes, signaling rapid urbanization; the valley's spatial structure moved toward a more heterogeneous and fragmented landscape, with new, isolated urban patches emerging inside what had been larger, contiguous agricultural patches and breaking them into smaller fragments.

Gideon Aghaindum Ajeagah, Chumtchoua Armel Landry, Mbouombouo Mama, Foto Menbohan Samuel, Thomas Njiné · Journal of Applied Biosciences · Cameroon

In lowland areas of Yaoundé, Cameroon, where wastewater is used for market gardening, water samples were collected from November 2013 to April 2014, with identification and bio-statistical analysis conducted in 2015-2016. Flagellated protozoan cysts, identified via Lugol staining after zinc-sulfate flotation concentration, were found at average densities of 101±70 cysts/L for Giardia intestinalis, 34±20 cysts/L for Chilomastix mesnili, 3±6 cysts/L for Retortamonas intestinalis, and 1±3 cysts/L for Enteromonas hominis, with the highest densities recorded during the short rainy season (172±108 cysts/L). Cyst density was significantly correlated (P≤0.05) with physico-chemical parameters including suspended solids, oxidizability, and turbidity. The study concludes that vegetables grown with this wastewater must be well washed, disinfected, and thoroughly cooked before consumption to reduce health risks.

Bronwen Morgan, Declan Kuch · Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks · Global

A chapter draws on an extensive study of grassroots innovation responding to climate change, spanning a continuum from social activism to social enterprise, examining the diverse motivations of entrepreneurs who started community-supported agriculture projects, car-sharing schemes, and co-working spaces. It shows how entrepreneurs' differing biographical trajectories shape the initiatives they create around economic, environmental, and social benefits. The chapter argues these benefits must be understood through the ambiguity of a socio-legal lens: while "sharing" initiatives may occasionally catalyze opportunities to move beyond neoliberalism, the ways lawyers and legal techniques shape the infrastructure of collaboration are deeply implicated in the economics of the neoliberal inheritance — meaning such sharing-economy governance remains entangled with, rather than genuinely escaping, neoliberal economic structures.

Silvio Caputo, Eva Schwab, Kostas Tsiambaos, Mary Benson, Hervé Bonnavaud, Neslihan Demircan, Tim Delshammar, Frederico Meireles, Nerea Morán, Jeanne Pourias · · Global

This chapter provides an overview of emergent approaches to urban gardening, identifying urban dynamics and spatial implications. It notes that a lack of suitable urban land and difficulties in establishing constructive dialogue with local authorities regarding land provision can lead to the use of interstitial urban spaces for gardening practices. An example includes a community-based organization constructing a permaculture garden on a supermarket rooftop, highlighting challenges in land access and governance.

Steve G. Hallett, Lori Hoagland, Emily Toner · Horticultural reviews · Global

This chapter discusses urban agriculture from economic, environmental, and social perspectives, acknowledging differences between urban agriculture in small and large cities, as well as the Global North and South. Urban farms and community gardens can have both positive and negative environmental impacts, such as reducing or increasing energy consumption, improving water infiltration, and beautifying neighborhoods, or producing odors and contaminating water. The chapter also attempts to frame policy recommendations that might help guide urban agriculture's development.

Christine Hvitsand · Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems · Norway

This article explores why Norwegian producers and consumers engage in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), identifying distinct values and motivations related to environmental protection, justice, health, participation, and communication. While CSA demonstrates transformational power in the agri-food system through sustainable practices and power reallocation, the challenge remains to upscale these actions and prevent the dilution of core values and agroecological practices.

Oscar Díaz Rizo Susana Olivares Rieumont · Anales de la Academia de Ciencias de Cuba · Cuba

This study in Cuba used X-ray Fluorescence and Low-Background Gamma Spectrometry to analyze heavy metal and radioactive element concentrations in marine/fluvial sediments and urban soils. It found heavy metal contamination in coastal sediments of Guacanayabo Gulf, mercury bioaccumulation in oysters from Sagua River estuary, and possible selenium contamination in catfish tissue. The study also reported, for the first time, heavy metal concentrations in urban soils of Havana, Moa, Las Tunas, and Cienfuegos, including in urban agricultural farms, evaluating their quality for urban farming and potential health impacts.

Alex Franklin, Imre Kovách, Bernadett Csurgó · Sociologia Ruralis · Global

This article qualitatively examined a public sector-led initiative to instigate co-production of community food growing, focusing on the discretionary practice of front-line public sector workers. The study found that public sector-led initiatives lack sufficient intention or scope to transform existing social orders. However, they do contribute to propagating individual and smaller-scale occurrences of social innovation in community food security.