Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
138 results(2 / 6)
Who's near the local food? A regional proximity analysis of short food supply chain types in southern New England
2024Shawn A. Trivette, Shannon McCarragher · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · United States (New England)
This paper examined three types of locally oriented Short Food Supply Chains (SFSCs) in southern New England and their spatial alignment with demographic factors. The findings indicate that pay-as-you-go operations are more prevalent in predominantly White areas and, to some extent, higher-income areas. Box share arrangements (community-supported agricultures) showed stronger associations with educational attainment. The study concludes that local food availability is a systematically uneven phenomenon, varying with both outlet type and social characteristics.
Equity & displacementCSA & TeikeiEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceWelfareBeyond Efficiency: The Social and Ecological Costs of Plant Factories in Urban Farming—A Review
2024László Csambalik, Izóra Gál, Krisztina Madaras, Andrea Tóbiás, Péter Pusztai · Urban Science · Global
This review examines soil-based urban agriculture and high-tech plant factories for urban food resilience. It finds that while vertical farms produce high yields, inhabitant involvement is minimal, offering no social advantages. Automated plant factories require few highly qualified personnel and are unlikely to contribute to urban social well-being in the future.
Equity & displacementDigital agricultureCommunityEconomicsClimate changeUrban Green Spaces and Healthy Living: A Landscape Architecture Perspective
2024Alessio Russo · Urban Science · Global
This paper synthesizes existing literature to examine the essential role of urban green spaces in fostering healthy living, emphasizing their strong positive associations with physical, mental, and social wellbeing. It discusses the importance of designing attractive and accessible green spaces that encourage physical activity and mental health, and the potential of local food production for diet improvement. The study also highlights disparities in access to quality green spaces, particularly between the Global North and South, advocating for equitable design strategies.
Equity & displacementHealthCommunityEconomicsPolicySpatial Barriers to Transforming toward a Healthy Food System in the Noreste of Mexico
2024Rob Roggema, Aleksandra Krstikj, B. J. Erazo Flores · Nutrients · Mexico (Monterrey)
This study in the Noreste of Mexico, focusing on Monterrey, investigated spatial and non-spatial barriers to adopting healthy diets and accessing plant-based foods. Findings revealed significant disparities in food access across the Monterrey metropolitan area, with central urban zones having superior access to fresh foods compared to suburban and peripheral regions. This inequality disproportionately affects marginalized areas with higher poverty rates, worsening food insecurity.
Equity & displacementHealthEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceUrban–rural linkageLand for Livelihoods
2024Ricardo Jacobs · Oxford University Press eBooks · Global
This chapter argues that rapid urbanization and global capitalism are destroying established livelihoods faster than creating new ones, leading to a growing surplus population. Dispossessed rural classes are reproducing themselves in urban spaces and converging with wage laborers to create agricultural livelihoods in cities of both the global South and North. This makes urban agriculture an important arena for land struggles and a livelihood option, shaping urbanization and socioecological relations.
Equity & displacementEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceUrban–rural linkagePolicyFactors Associated with Participation in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) among Low-Income Households: A Scoping Review
2024Karla L. Hanson, Claire Concepcion, Leah C. Volpe · Nutrients · United States
This scoping review explored factors associated with Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) participation among low-income households in the United States. Analyzing 18 articles, findings suggested that women may be more likely than men to enroll in CSA. A lack of familiarity with CSA may hinder enrollment, whereas more education and self-efficacy for food preparation may facilitate participation.
Equity & displacementCSA & TeikeiWelfareEconomicsUrban Agriculture as a Public Good: Valuing Farming and Gardening in Philadelphia and Chicago
2024Domenic Vitiello · Urban agriculture · United States
US cities have developed urban agriculture support systems reflecting competing values, with some prioritizing public good and others economic gains. A chapter reflecting on urban agriculture planning in Chicago and Philadelphia notes that institutional structures significantly impact equity and justice. The study indicates that the existing urban agriculture support systems in these cities may not adequately promote equity and justice.
Equity & displacementPolicyCommunityEconomicsHealthGREEN INFORMALITIES AS SOCIALLY JUST ECOLOGICAL INFRASTRUCTURE: Enduring with Dignity at the Edges of Resilient Development in Dhaka
2024Efadul Huq · International Journal of Urban and Regional Research · Bangladesh (Dhaka)
This article argues that in the global South, ecological infrastructure often displaces marginalized urban dwellers by erasing existing informal agricultural practices, or "green informalities." Based on research with urban farmers facing eviction in Dhaka, Bangladesh, it highlights that these green informalities are crucial for understanding grassroots practices and collective power-building. The study advocates for recognizing the political and affective dimensions of informal urban agriculture as a socially just ecological infrastructure that prioritizes justice and dweller agency.
Equity & displacementFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityWelfarePolicyEconomicsCommunity gardens support high levels of food production, but benefit distribution is uneven across the gardener community
2024Brenda B. Lin, Peter Bichier, Heidi Liere, Monika Egerer, Stacy M. Philpott, Shalene Jha · Sustainability Science · United States (California)
A study of 18 urban community gardens in Central Coast, California, USA, used gardener surveys and field measurements to evaluate food production and its distribution. Gardeners produced an average of four pounds of food per week, saving an estimated $16 USD weekly. However, gardeners with greater food insecurity (larger families or lower incomes) were not the largest producers, indicating uneven benefit distribution despite high overall productivity.
Equity & displacementCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsA review of food asset maps in Canada
2024Belinda Li, Tammara Soma, Raghava Payment, Srishti Kumar, Nicole Anderson, Flora Xu, Phonpoom Piensatienkul · Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l alimentation · Canada
This study reviewed and categorized 73 food asset maps in Canada based on their included food assets and design characteristics. Most maps included built environment assets like grocery stores and food banks, as well as agriculture-based natural food assets such as farms, community gardens, and orchards. However, representations of Indigenous-focused food assets and non-agriculture-based natural food assets like forests, water bodies, and foraging areas were generally lacking. This lack of Indigenous perspectives reinforces the values of a settler-colonial food system within food asset maps.
Equity & displacementCommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicyEconomicsUnderstanding Barriers and Strategies to Accessing Healthy Food in Urban Agriculture for Community Residents in Predominantly Black Communities
2023Saria Lofton, Akilah Martin, Marjorie Kersten, Nanyombi Lubimbi, Helene Vilme, Forgive Avorgbedor, Angela Odoms‐Young · Community Health Equity Research & Policy · United States (Chicago)
This study interviewed 17 urban growers and local food advocates in predominantly Black communities in Chicago to understand barriers to accessing healthy food through urban agriculture. Key barriers identified were the lack of accessibility to traditional food retailers, the high availability of processed foods, and issues with the cultural acceptability of urban-produced foods. The research highlights significant challenges faced by these communities in accessing healthy food despite urban agriculture's potential.
Equity & displacementHealthCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsOrganizing Tensions in Community-Supported Agriculture
2023Megan K. Schraedley · · Global
This chapter examines Sweet Water Farm, a Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm, through a participant's perspective, analyzing organizing practices by highlighting three tensions. These include the tension between community creation and customer management, issues of inclusion and exclusion from CSAs, and the challenge of transforming capitalist economic structures while operating within them. The study reveals that while CSAs offer potential for addressing equity in the food system, questions persist regarding their long-term adoption by diverse communities as an alternative to conventional agriculture.
Equity & displacementCSA & TeikeiCommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceHow common is greening in gentrifying areas?
2023Jessica Quinton, Lorien Nesbitt, James J. Connolly, Elvin Wyly · Urban Geography · Canada
This descriptive analysis identified gentrifying areas in Vancouver, Calgary, and Toronto, Canada, from 1996–2006 and 2006–2016, to determine the prevalence of greening interventions. The study found that greening, including parks, cycle lanes, and community gardens, frequently occurred before, during, and after gentrification. These results indicate that greening is common in gentrifying areas throughout the gentrification process, suggesting a need for a broader understanding of the relationship between urban greening and gentrification.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyEconomicsReview: The $16 Taco: Contested Geographies of Food, Ethnicity, and Gentrification, by Pascale Joassart-Marcelli
2023Sean M. Crotty · California History · United States (California)
Pascale Joassart-Marcelli's book "The $16 Taco" examines how food and power intersect to create landscapes of hunger and plenty in U.S. cities, using San Diego as a case study. It argues for the centrality of food in broader structural issues of social, political, and cultural inequalities, which manifest as material inequality. The book explores the impacts of food apartheid, a system of segregation that prevents certain groups from accessing nourishment, and explains the role of racist real estate practices in devaluing neighborhoods of immigrants and people of color.
Equity & displacementEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityPaying for nature‐based solutions: A review of funding and financing mechanisms for ecosystem services and their impacts on social equity
2023Austin Thompson‐Spain, Kyle S. Bunds, Lincoln R. Larson, Bethany B. Cutts, J. Aaron Hipp · Sustainable Development · United States
This scoping review examines funding and financing mechanisms for nature-based solutions and their impact on social equity in the United States. It finds that market-driven nature-based solutions can contribute to an inequitable distribution of urban ecosystem services. The distribution of benefits is influenced by local contexts, decision-making inclusion, and payment mechanisms, suggesting disparities in access for diverse and marginalized populations.
Equity & displacementPolicyEconomicsClimate changeCommunityUrban Agriculture in Great Bandung Region in the Midst of Commercialization, Food Insecurity, and Nutrition Inadequacy
2023Oekan S. Abdoellah, Indri Wulandari, Kinanti Indah Safitri, Nafa Destri Fianti, Rahma Maulia Fadli Basagevan, Mega Nurul Aini, Rosalina Ilmi Amalia, Mahardhika Puspa Arum Suraloka, Gemilang Lara Utama · Sustainability · Indonesia (Bandung)
Commercialization of urban agriculture (UA) in the Great Bandung region has led to the displacement of small-scale farmers and reduced access to local food, exacerbating food insecurity among low-income residents. Subsistence farmers (48.91%) earned only 7.14% to 14.64% of the 2023 minimum wages, and food insecurity prevalence was predominantly observed after UA practices. The study also found a surplus of vitamin A among urban farmers, while inadequacies in other nutritional aspects were prevalent.
Equity & displacementEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceHealthCommunity“I am not by any stretch a gardener, just curious”: Feminist Gentrifier Memoirs and an Ethics of Urban Gardening
2023Maria Sulimma · Ecozon European Journal of Literature Culture and Environment · Global
This article examines "feminist gentrifier memoirs," specifically Anne Elizabeth Moore’s Gentrifier (2021) and Vikki Warner’s Tenemental (2018), focusing on gardening practices. It explores the writers’ conflicted positions in gentrifying neighborhoods and their complicity in processes of displacement and real estate speculation, despite benefiting from urban sustainability measures like urban farms and gardens. The texts engage with complex emotions arising from their white privilege and homeownership.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyEconomicsUrban gardening as a risk-reduction strategy – an intersectional analysis of top-down gardening initiatives
2023Emelie Larsson, Katarina Giritli Nygren · Journal of Risk Research · Global
This study analyzed strategy documents and municipal website information to examine how municipalities frame urban gardening as a risk-reduction strategy, using critical discourse analysis. It identified two discourses: an eco(no)logical risk discourse addressing ecological risks within a capitalist market logic, and a social risk discourse focusing on gardening for work training. The findings reveal that top-down urban garden initiatives highlight contemporary inequalities in urban spaces.
Equity & displacementPolicyCommunityEconomicsWelfareA garden's place in critical food systems education
2022K. Michelle Glowa · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States (California)
This paper reflects on the engagement between Mexican and Salvadorian farmers at the Beach Flats Garden in Santa Cruz, California, and local educational institutions. It discusses the garden's role in critical food system education, highlighting its function as a space of resistance to gentrification in a competitive land market. The garden provides examples of noncapitalist exchanges and decolonial foodways, emphasizing traditional agroecological knowledge.
Equity & displacementFood educationCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsThe spatial distribution of urban community gardens and their associated socio-economic status in Tehran, Iran
2022Sina Razzaghi Asl, Anahita Azadgar · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Iran (Tehran)
A study in Tehran, Iran, mapped the spatial distribution and socio-economic attributes of 26 urban community gardens using semi-structured interviews, qualitative analysis, and secondary data from the 2020 Tehran statistical yearbook. The findings revealed a geographical distribution imbalance, with most gardens located in the southern part of the city. Community gardens were mainly placed in areas with lower average land prices, lower median household income, and higher education graduates, indicating an uneven distribution that favors socio-economically disadvantaged areas.
Equity & displacementCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceWelfareEconomicsMobility and short food circuits : inclusion and opportunities in the soutrhern regiuon of Curitiba, PR
2022Valéria Borges Yonegura, Jennifer Domeneghini, Júlio Celso Borello Vargas, André Luiz Lopes da Silveira · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Brazil (Curitiba)
This paper focuses on mobility issues in the southern region of Curitiba, Brazil. It points out that the benefits of urban agriculture, particularly the ecological advantages of short food circuits, are hindered by the isolation of its growers. The lack of accessibility in peripheral areas, due to distance or insufficient infrastructure investment, suggests a loss of opportunities in utilizing the transport system.
Equity & displacementEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityUrban–rural linkageExpelled from the garden? Understanding the dynamics of green gentrification in Vancouver, British Columbia
2022Daniel Sax, Lorien Nesbitt, Shannon Hagerman · Environment and Planning E Nature and Space · Canada (Vancouver)
A case study of an urban farm in Vancouver, Canada, facing displacement due to redevelopment, revealed that urban residents engaged in urban greening can be both implicated in and impacted by green gentrification processes. The study highlighted the power dynamics farm members navigate to preserve land access and found that the farm's identity was co-opted by development agents as a branding tool. This research contributes to understanding the limitations of development processes in accounting for green gentrification risks.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyEconomicsHealthChange is inevitable, but is gentrification?
2022Megan Marshall · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Global
"A Recipe for Gentrification" is an edited volume exploring the complex relationship between intent and impact at the intersection of alternative food systems and urban development. The book aims to unpack how food systems can both drive and resist gentrification. It shows that well-intentioned efforts to increase food access in a neighborhood can be an early initiator of gentrification, and urban agriculture and public green spaces are frequently co-opted for development efforts.
Equity & displacementEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityThe Future of Food
2022Amy Trauger · · Global
The contemporary industrial food system is problematic, producing diverse foods for a small elite and replicating past labor injustices rooted in colonialism. Urban agriculture is a growing global trend and is expected to be the future of food production. The future of food will also diversify what we eat, including aquaponic tilapia, sprouts, algae, fungus and yeast-derived foods, and imitation meats.
Equity & displacementFood sovereignty & justiceUrban–rural linkageEconomicsSpatial distribution and socioeconomic differences between urban farms' production and distribution points in Chicago, IL
2022Emmanuelle Melis, Emma Louise Armitage, Yuxin Ma, Amelia Weiss, Brian E. Robinson · McGill Science Undergraduate Research Journal · United States (Chicago)
This study investigated the location of urban commercial farms in Chicago, Illinois, and whether there is a significant disparity between the social demographics of production and sale points. All production and distribution points for commercial urban farming companies were geocoded and analyzed against socioeconomic indicator data from the 2016 US census, including median annual household income, mean home value, and percent racialized minority population. Findings revealed statistically significant differences in socioeconomic indicators between census tracts of farm and sale point locations, showing a skewness of farm locations towards lower socioeconomic status areas and sale point locations towards higher socioeconomic status areas. This suggests that while farms are more likely to be located in marginalized neighborhoods in Chicago, most produce grown by these farms is sold in more privileged areas.
Equity & displacementEconomicsCommunityUrban–rural linkage