Research & reports

Denes Dantas Vieira, Reimilde Gomes da Silva Amorim · EXTRAMUROS - Revista de Extensão da Univasf · Brazil (Juazeiro)

This study aimed to investigate the dilemmas of the social trajectory of the Povo Unido community garden in Juazeiro/BA, Brazil, located on the banks of the São Francisco River. This garden is known for its organic vegetable production and as one of the first groups focused on overcoming poverty and combating hunger in Brazil's semi-arid northeast. The research contributes to reflection based on social organization and organic food production.

Rose Tardiff · Syracuse University Libraries (Syracuse University) · United States

The Salt City Harvest Farm (SCHF) in Kirkville, NY, is an all-volunteer project with limited capacity and concerns about long-term sustainability, despite providing benefits to New American participants. Research identified challenges and suggested organizational improvements, including clearly defining roles and integrating New Americans into decision-making. The study found that the SCHF would best suit participants' interests by remaining a place for growing their own food rather than transitioning to an incubator model.

Martijn Koster, Pieter A. de Vries · Focaal · Brazil (Recife)

This article examined slum dwellers' politics in Recife, Brazil, as a realm of possibility where care and recognition are central. A community leader's urban agriculture project, which from an outsider's perspective might be considered non-viable, provided slum dwellers with possibilities to strive for community solidarity and personal recognition. The article concludes that slum politics is about claiming the right to be counted and recognized, and about the care for the other.

Patricia Allen, Julie Guthman, Amy Wilson Morris · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · United States (California)

A research brief examining whether alternative food initiatives (AFIs) such as community supported agriculture (CSA) and farmers' markets can meet the food security needs of low-income consumers, based on interviews and surveys of farmers' market and CSA managers throughout California. The authors conclude that AFIs are not, and cannot be, substitutes for state entitlements in meeting the food security needs of low-income people.

Juliana Portela do Rego Monteiro, Maria do Socorro Lira Monteiro · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · Brazil

A study of 43 urban gardens in Teresina, Piauí state, Brazil, analyzed via primary data collection and field research whether the gardens function as a means of generating work and income and improving socioeconomic conditions without degrading the environment. Most gardeners were women over 45 with incomplete elementary education, earning up to one minimum wage, originally from the state's interior, who had worked in agriculture before joining the gardens and worked them as a family. Most had not participated in training since entering the program, used their own resources for production, concentrated 70.08% of output on cilantro, chives and lettuce, and sold produce mainly on-site; soil amendment relied mostly on manure with limited chemical fertilizer, and only 36.81% of gardeners used pesticides. The study concludes that low remuneration, stemming from limited crop diversity, poor organization and lack of financing, led some family members to seek alternative income.