Research & reports

Jenny Sjöblom · · Sweden

This study describes the origin and development of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Sweden, identifying and interviewing organizations and entrepreneurs. While CSA is nascent but growing, with prerequisites for expansion in both rural and urban areas, the study notes implications regarding its accessibility to the broader population that require further exploration.

Elizabete Cristina Ribeiro Silva, Alexandre Brasil Carvalho da Fonseca, Fernanda Pereira Dysarz, Ernani Jardim Reis · Alexandria Revista de Educação em Ciência e Tecnologia · Brazil

This research identifies parameters for school gardens in Brazil, analyzing various experiences and an urban public school case. The study correlates the health of students and farmers in agricultural activities, explicitly pointing out negligences in this regard. It argues that a healthy eating concept from school gardens requires an equally healthy production system, and attention to student safety can highlight farmers' working conditions, which is crucial for food and nutritional education.

Sara Parme · Educational Media Reviews Online · Global

The documentary film "Plant This Movie" (2014, 83 min) explores our relationship with food and the wasted space and resource of the 21st-century lawn. This film, one of many similar documentaries on urban farming, proposes learning from and improving upon past mistakes of the Green Movement. It notes that many agricultural nonprofits, including one highlighted, fail due to lack of funding, and while it suggests sustainability efforts should be run like a business, only a fraction of the film is dedicated to this aspect.

Silene Maciel dos Santos, Samuel Ferreira da Fonseca, Luiz Andrei Gonçalves Pereira · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Brazil (Pirapora-MG)

This study analyzed the spatial distribution of urban agricultural activities in the Sagrada Família neighborhood, Pirapora-MG, Brazil, through a literature review. It examined urban agriculture practices, their socio-economic role, and the problems and challenges faced by urban agriculture actors in the neighborhood. The study concluded that the identified issues suggest urban agriculture as an emancipatory process.

Gabriel R. Valle · Aztlán A Journal of Chicano Studies · United States

This essay explores the self-valorization of work in community gardens to advance a grounded theory of time and value, which has been lacking in Chicana/o studies. Urban community gardens are pivotal to the environmental justice movement, with Chicana/os playing a central role. The essay proposes a revolutionary logic of labor through reframing time and value, aiming to reconnect community gardeners to the means of their own production and reproduction. By creating "gardens of sabotage," communities challenge capitalism by reclaiming the value of work and confronting orthodox notions of economy, work, citizenship, community, and time.

Sabine Lefkowitz · · United States (Portland)

This thesis examined the relationship between socioeconomic status (SES) and outdoor time in Portland, Oregon public elementary schools. The study found that higher SES elementary schools spend more time outdoors than low SES schools. This disparity amplifies existing disadvantages for children in high-poverty schools, suggesting an inequity in outdoor time provision.

Zulfadhli Nasution · · Indonesia (Jakarta)

A case study in Jakarta, Bandung, and Bogor, Indonesia, examined the engagement between urban farming communities and food sovereignty. Findings indicate that the food sovereignty discourse has not significantly exposed urban farming communities due to differing historical backgrounds and social/political views between urban farming and rural peasantry-based movements. The study suggests prerequisites for strengthening food sovereignty among urban food advocates, including building consumer consciousness and urban-rural solidarity.

Geneviève S. Metson, Elena M. Bennett · PLoS ONE · Canada (Montreal)

This study quantified the role of urban agriculture (UA) in phosphorus (P) cycling in Montreal, Canada, using existing data and surveys of local UA practitioners. In 2012, Montreal imported 3.5 Gg of P in food, with 2.63 Gg accumulating in landfills, 0.36 Gg discharged to local waters, and only 0.09 Gg recycled through composting. UA was found to be only a small sub-system in the city's overall P cycle, contributing just 0.44% of the P consumed as food. Although recycling rates within the UA system are high, the land area dedicated to UA is too small to accommodate all P waste produced on the island.

Giuseppe Cinà, Francesco Di Iacovo · PORTO Publications Open Repository TOrino (Politecnico di Torino) · Italy

This paper examines urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) in Italy, identifying challenges in its planning, including the traditional exclusion of agricultural areas from territorial planning and the lack of local agricultural policy. The study highlights a disconnect between top-down policies and bottom-up practices, noting that numerous autonomous initiatives have emerged due to insufficient regional and local planning solutions. The authors conclude that overcoming the limitations of the top-down planning system, particularly in governance and inclusiveness, is a primary challenge for Italy.

Susmita Dasgupta, Asif Zaman, Subhendu Roy, Mainul Huq, Sarwar Jahan, Ainun Nishat · · Bangladesh (Dhaka)

A study on flood mitigation in Dhaka explored complementary measures to existing drainage systems and discussed institutional, technical, and financial challenges to their implementation. A commonly acknowledged challenge for Dhaka is the lack of coordination among agencies, exacerbated by scarce resources and unplanned development. Clogging of stormwater drains with solid waste was identified as a primary reason for frequent localized flooding, and issues with khals (canals) regarding water flow, encroachment, and walkways were also noted.

Michelle L. Kaiser, Michele L. Williams, Nicholas T. Basta, Michelle D. Hand, Sarah Huber · Journal of Food Protection · 米国・オハイオ

Focus groups (n=67) in four low-income Ohio neighbourhoods plus soil tests at six sites. Residents wanted gardens for fresh produce but worried about soil. Lead, zinc, cadmium and copper were present (paint likely main source); arsenic/chromium and PAHs were low. Further management to cut Pb/Cd bioavailability is needed before food crops; longer-established gardens showed lower contaminant signals. Critical evidence that vacant-lot gardening requires soil risk assessment.

Guo Xiao-ha · Anhui nongye kexue · Global

A discussion of the development of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in China. While CSA has advantages over traditional agricultural production and sales models, the paper identifies limitations including heavy demands on labor and material resources, higher prices for agricultural products, difficulty building trust between producers and consumers, and loss of membership.

Baltazar M.L. Namwata, Idris S. Kikula, Peter A. Kopoka · Journal of African studies · Africa

A study examined urban farmers' access to land, water and inputs for urban agriculture toward household food security, employment creation and income generation in Dodoma municipality, Tanzania. A cross-sectional survey of 300 urban farmers from both squatter and non-squatter settlements used structured questionnaires, focus group discussions, key informant interviews, observations and documentary review. The analysis found urban farmers constrained by land tenure insecurity, erratic water access, inadequate inputs for optimizing plot productivity, and ambivalent application of urban legislative frameworks, with no support given to enable urban farmers to access land, water and inputs. The apparent lack of political will necessary to promote such access is reflected in weak or absent policy frameworks, resulting in an enormous capacity deficit.

Lydia G. Marquez‐Bravo, Dean B. Briggs, Hannah A. Shayler, Murray B. McBride, Donna Lopp, Edie B. Stone, Gretchen Ferenz, Kenneth G. Bogdan, R. G. Mitchell, Henry M. Spliethoff · Environmental Toxicology and Chemistry · United States (New York City)

A study analyzed 69 soil samples from 20 community gardens in New York City for 23 polycyclic aromatic hydrocarbons (PAHs) and black carbon, sampling both non-growing areas and vegetable-growing beds, including beds with and without visible PAH sources, at each garden. The sum of the US EPA's 16 priority PAHs reached up to 150 mg/kg, with a median of 5.4 mg/kg and mean of 14.2 mg/kg, similar to levels previously reported for urban areas in the northeastern United States. Isomer ratios indicated petroleum, coal and wood combustion as the main sources, and PAH concentrations were significantly and positively associated with black carbon and modeled air PAH concentrations, suggesting a link between historical atmospheric deposition and current soil PAH levels. Median PAH concentration in non-bed areas (7.4 mg/kg) was higher than in beds from the same gardens (4.0 mg/kg) and significantly higher than in beds without visible PAH sources (3.5 mg/kg); beds in gardens with records of soil amendments had 58% lower median PAH concentration than beds in gardens without such records, suggesting that gardening practices in beds without visible sources contribute to reducing soil PAH concentrations.

Ricardo da Silva Claudio, Souto de Sousa J uacute nior Francisco, Ismael de Souza Francisco, da Silva Dias Nildo, Nogueira de Sousa Neto Osvaldo, Cruz Portela Jeane, Cl aacute udia Medeiros Souza Ana, Christina Nascimento Porto Vania · African Journal of Agricultural Research · Brazil

A participatory action-research project in a community garden in Bom Jesus, Campo Grande, Rio Grande do Norte, Brazil, tested irrigating organic vegetables (coriander, chive, tomato, rocket) with reject brine from a water desalination/treatment station. All species irrigated with the saline waste water showed yield losses of 25.30% to 26.7% compared with conventional fresh-water irrigation, though some biomass was still produced, and the project changed residents' views on disposing of and reusing the saline waste.

Benno Gammerl, Rainer Herrn · Goldsmiths (University of London) · Europe

A theoretical essay (in German and English, from a European context) on the tension between affect that disrupts ordered structures and the emotional processing of power-laden spatial relations. It uses practices of urban gardening and debates about gentrification as its examples, arguing that analyzing the dynamic interplay between spaces and emotions is fruitful for a critical view of urbanity - explicitly linking urban gardening practices to gentrification as an exclusionary dynamic.

Yang Feng-x · · China

A field investigation with detailed records examined the safety of park green spaces in major parks and community gardens in Shenzhen and Hong Kong, China. Measured against a "people-oriented" guiding principle and a "select the auspicious, avoid the inauspicious" principle, the study identifies several safety hazards and unreasonable plant arrangements present in these park green spaces as irrational, and proposes methods and countermeasures to address them.

Chiara Tornaghi · Progress in Human Geography · Global

This paper defines the scope and an initial agenda for a critical geography of urban agriculture, noting that despite growing interest across disciplines, it remains a marginal field in human geography. Beyond rhetoric, urban agriculture raises questions for critical geographers, particularly regarding its role in reshaping urban landscapes and experimenting with alternatives to capitalist urban organization. The paper highlights that urban agriculture is sometimes establishing embryonic forms of recreating the Commons.

Melissa N. Poulsen, Marie L. Spiker, Peter J. Winch · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States (Baltimore)

This study explored the perceived importance of community buy-in for urban farming, along with its barriers, facilitators, and strategies, through participant observation at urban farms and interviews with urban farmers, neighborhood leaders, residents, and key stakeholders in Baltimore, Maryland. Findings revealed that residents' unfamiliarity with urban farming, concerns about negative neighborhood impacts, and perceptions of urban farms as "outsider projects" were barriers to buy-in. Strategies for gaining buy-in were shown to follow three main phases: gaining entry into a neighborhood, introducing the urban farm idea, and engaging the neighborhood.

David Adams, Michael Hardman, Peter J. Larkham · Local Environment · Global

This paper explores those affected by guerrilla gardening, noting that it often colonizes land without permission and transforms areas without consulting local communities. Grounding its argument in evidence from three guerrilla groups, the study investigates the public's views on several informal gardening projects. Responses were very mixed, ranging from positive comments about improving aesthetics to negative remarks surrounding the practices of some groups. Ultimately, the paper demonstrates that although often promoted as constructive, guerrilla gardening can result in adverse impacts on those who surround colonized sites.

Brent F. Kim, Melissa N. Poulsen, Jared D. Margulies, Katie L. Dix, Anne Palmer, Keeve E. Nachman · PLoS ONE · United States (Baltimore, Maryland)

This study characterized urban community gardeners' knowledge and perceptions of soil contaminant risks in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, through surveys with 70 gardeners from 15 gardens and interviews with 18 key informants. It found low levels of concern and inconsistent knowledge regarding heavy metal and organic chemical contaminants among gardeners. Furthermore, barriers to investigating garden site history and conducting soil tests, along with limited knowledge of best practices for reducing exposure, were identified.

Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern · Antipode · United States

Research on farmworker food insecurity in the USA points out that food assistance providers often treat farmworkers' inability to afford healthy food as a lack of knowledge, reinforcing racialized assumptions that people of color do not know "good" food. This study argues that food security and healthy eating are not a matter of consumers making healthy "choices," but rather a matter of class-based and racial differences within the food system.

Rachel Surls, Gail Feenstra, Sheila Golden, Ryan E. Galt, Shermain Hardesty, Claire Napawan, Cheryl Wilen · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · United States (California)

Urban agriculture (UA) in California has been slower to gain momentum compared to other urban states, partly due to limited availability of relevant information and technical assistance for urban farmers and municipal decision-makers. A University of California Cooperative Extension project is developing web-based educational resources based on a needs assessment, which includes a literature review, an internal survey of personnel, and community interviews. Preliminary findings indicate challenges in supporting urban farming due to resource constraints and information gaps.

Nerea Morán Alonso, José Luis Fernández de Casadevante · Hábitat y Sociedad · Spain

In Spain, urban agriculture is gaining importance, but faces difficulties in municipal regulation, particularly for community gardens. This regulatory challenge perpetuates the insecurity and precariousness of urban agriculture projects.

Chen Ao Nan · 农民致富之友 · China (Wudang District)

A field survey conducted on agricultural parks in Wudang District, Guizhou Province, China, studied the development status, progress, and existing problems of the Wudang District Cherry Modern High-Efficiency Agricultural Demonstration Park. The findings indicated that while the park's construction progressed rapidly and orderly with some innovations in its operating mechanism, it also faced many problems and difficulties.