Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
68 results(3 / 3)
Sustainability's incomplete circles: towards a just food politics in Austin, Texas and Havana, Cuba.
2017Jonathan Lowell, Sara Law · CABI eBooks · United States (Texas), Cuba
A comparative study of urban agriculture projects in Austin, Texas, and Havana, Cuba, revealed that sustainability discourses primarily focus on food production methods, with little attention paid to persistent food insecurity issues that urban agriculture has yet to address, or to the cultural politics of food, where race, class, and gender shape access to food choices. While agricultural practices and their perceived value were similar in both cities, the study found comparable outcomes in how food exposed spatial and social divisions.
Equity & displacementFood sovereignty & justicePolicyWelfareCommunityGender, Ethnicity, And Poverty
2016Michael Carolan · · Global
This chapter examines how gender, race, and ethnicity are theorized and studied within agri-food scholarship. It notes that Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) schemes and farmers' markets, even when intended for low-income minority groups, often serve affluent, educated European American consumers. Additionally, women in rural Ethiopia face significant problems in food security due to their social status and higher dependence on agriculture for survival compared to men.
Equity & displacementCSA & TeikeiWelfareCultivating community through gardening in Kenora, Ontario
2016Rob Moquin, Alan P. Diduck, A. John Sinclair, Iain J. Davidson‐Hunt · Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l alimentation · Canada
This research documented participants' experiences of community-building through community gardening in Kenora, Ontario, Canada, using Photovoice with twelve participants, follow-up interviews, and participant observation. Findings revealed a relational perspective of community gardening and the importance of sharing and learning, but also identified barriers to social capital and ecological citizenship. Future initiatives must address colonial and racial barriers to collaboration and ensure accessible garden locations.
Equity & displacementCommunityFood educationWelfareA Story of Urban Farming and the Cultivation of Community and the Human Spirit
2016Matthew M. Mars · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Canada (Vancouver)
Michael Ableman's book "Street Farm" tells the story of how an urban farm transformed vacant lots in Vancouver, Canada's Low Tracks neighborhood into sites for food production, partial community restoration, and nurturing the human spirit. The narrative reveals a tenuous balance between the promises of urban farming and the harsh realities of addiction, hunger, homelessness, and violence often characterizing inner-city conditions. Urban agriculture is presented as a means to sustainably produce food for a city while also feeding the souls of disenfranchised individuals and communities.
Equity & displacementCommunityWelfareFood sovereignty & justiceGender, resilience and resistance: South Africa’s Hleketani Community Garden
2016Elizabeth Vibert · Journal of Contemporary African Studies · South Africa
This article examines the Hleketani Community Garden in Limpopo Province, South Africa, highlighting the successes of women farmers in reducing poverty and improving health outcomes. Despite these benefits, the research identifies significant structural barriers, including lack of access to resources, unfavorable policy frameworks for small-scale agriculture, and worsening climate change, that hinder small-scale farmers, particularly women.
Equity & displacementCommunityWelfareHealthPolicyClimate changeFood sovereignty & justiceKnowing “Good Food”: Immigrant Knowledge and the Racial Politics of Farmworker Food Insecurity
2014Laura-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.
Equity & displacementCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceHealthWelfareParadise Transplanted
2014Pierrette Hondagneu‐Sotelo · Boom · United States (Los Angeles)
This article recounts the history of a central Los Angeles community garden, primarily used by women from Southern Mexico and Central America, which served as an informal support network and a place to grow culturally significant plants. The essay then details the significant upheaval that occurred after a local nonprofit took over and invested in the garden, implying a negative impact on the existing community.
Equity & displacementCommunityWelfareEconomicsImproving access to community‐based food systems: Comparing perspectives of low socioeconomic individuals and food system representatives
2014Kylie Markow, Sue Booth, Stephanie Savio, John Coveney · Nutrition & Dietetics · Global
This study compared perspectives of low socioeconomic individuals and food system representatives regarding access to community-based food systems. Focus groups with low socioeconomic individuals and interviews with food system representatives revealed that affordability, convenience, and knowledge were barriers. While representatives acknowledged these barriers, their understanding of importance differed, and views were divided on strategies, especially concerning affordability. A disconnect exists between the two groups' views on improving access for disadvantaged groups.
Equity & displacementCSA & TeikeiWelfareEconomicsCommunityAgrileisure
2014James Farmer, Charles Chancellor, Jennifer Meta Robinson, Stephanie T. West, Melissa S. Weddell · Journal of Leisure Research · Global
This study collected data from 712 individuals regarding participation in local food systems, including farmers' markets and CSA programs. Findings revealed a significant association between participants and privilege variables, suggesting that despite promotion, barriers exclude many from engaging in these agrileisure opportunities.
Equity & displacementCSA & TeikeiEconomicsCommunityWelfareThe politics and technologies of urban waste
2014Jonathan Crush · · Global
Cities in the global South face a deepening crisis of food inaccessibility, characterized by food poverty, hunger, and malnutrition. This urban crisis is largely invisible to policy and research communities, with less attention given to urban food security than in the 1990s. Urban agriculture is the only aspect of urban food security receiving significant attention, though it is improbably seen as the key to achieving food security in these cities.
Equity & displacementFood sovereignty & justicePolicyEconomicsWelfare비혼 여성 활동가들의 공동체 농사를 통해 본 도시농업의 여성주의적 실천 가능성
2013김효정 · 한국여성학 · South Korea
Through in-depth interviews and participant observation research targeting women's activist organizations established since 2010, the characteristics of urban agriculture cases led or participated in by unmarried women in their 20s and 30s were analyzed. Unmarried women activists met the growing demand for safe and healthy food among single-person households through community farming in urban areas, practicing agriculture not only for food production but also as a lifestyle pursuit and recreational culture. However, their practices face limitations such as urban space constraints, difficulties for unmarried women to relocate to rural areas, excessive ecological value attribution, and a lack of solidarity with rural communities.
Equity & displacementCommunityWelfareFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsUrban–rural linkageAn assessment of the barriers to accessing food among food-insecure people in Cobourg, Ontario
2011Siny Tsang, AM Holt, Eduardo Bessa Azevedo · Chronic diseases and injuries in Canada · Canada (Cobourg, Ontario)
This needs assessment in Cobourg, Ontario, interviewed food program clients to identify barriers to food access. Clients reported lack of transportation, insufficient food quantities, and inconvenient operating hours as barriers to using food programs. They also cited lack of available vegetables and fruit at home and income as barriers to consuming more produce.
Equity & displacementWelfareCommunityHealthEconomicsPost-Colonial Migration: Virtual Culture, Urban Farming and New Peri-Urban Growth in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, 1975–2000
2010Geoffrey Ross Owens · Africa · Tanzania (Dar es Salaam)
This article, using ethnographic and historical approaches, examines unplanned peri-urban settlements on Dar es Salaam's northern and western fringe, Tanzania, between 1975 and 2000. These districts were established by educated urban professionals who used urban farming as an economic diversification strategy. The study found that these settlements contributed to the reproduction of socio-economic inequality, attracting additional economically influential urban in-migrants after 1991.
Equity & displacementPeri-urban agricultureEconomicsCommunityWelfareOn the past and the future of the urban agriculture movement: Reflections in tribute to Jac Smit
2010Diana Lee-Smith, L. J. A. Mougeot, Michael Levenston, Peter Mann, Katherine Brown, Jerry Kaufman · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Global
This reflection on the urban agriculture movement notes that 19th and early 20th-century urban reforms, including urban gardens, aimed to improve living conditions in industrial cities. However, these initiatives also shifted the burden of sustenance from industrialists and fair-wage policies onto urbanizing families, particularly women. Despite this, garden spaces provided nourishment and retreats in densely populated areas.
Equity & displacementPolicyCommunityWelfareGarden of Eden? The impact of resettlement on squatters' ‘agri-hoods’ in Fiji
2009Alec Thornton · Development in Practice · Fiji
This article examines the impact of Fiji's squatter-resettlement scheme on the livelihoods of 'farming squatters' engaged in urban agriculture. Interviews with key informants and squatter residents revealed contrasting attitudes and approaches, indicating that the scheme threatens these livelihoods. The article suggests a more participatory process to address the needs of 'farming squatters'.
Equity & displacementWelfarePolicyFood sovereignty & justiceCommunityGendering the Urban Agriculture Agenda 1
2006Alice J. Hovorka, Damell Smith, R. van Veenhuizen · · Global
This article argues that a gendered perspective on urban food security is essential to understand dynamics shaping food production and marketing in urban centers. It highlights that failing to explore women's distinct roles risks leaving gender inequities and food supply hindrances unaddressed, countering the invisibility of women's work often assumed as automatic domestic duties. The article emphasizes women's significant role in domestic food supply, even in societies with minimal household food production, citing examples like Latin American women organizing to address urban hunger.
Equity & displacementCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceWelfareWhat's for dinner?Organizing around food access issues in Los Angeles.
2004Prebus, Olivia · Occidental College Scholar (Occidental College) · United States (Los Angeles)
This work addresses the gross inequity of food access in low-income neighborhoods of Los Angeles, such as MacArthur Park, where grocery stores are scarce. The author's internship at the Center for Food and Justice involved projects like a Community Food Assessment and organizing a community garden, all focused on empowering communities to tackle complex food access issues. The abstract highlights the severe problem of limited healthy food options leading to simultaneous obesity and malnutrition.
Equity & displacementCommunityFood educationHealthWelfareSocial Inclusion in a Midwest Local Food System Project
2002C. Clare Hinrichs, Kathy S. Kremer · Journal of Poverty · United States
This 1997 case study examined a Midwest community supported agriculture (CSA) project that aimed to increase low-income participation through financial subsidies, using a telephone survey of 41 member-households. The study found that while subsidized households had lower incomes, the overall CSA sample was more advantaged in income, occupation, and education compared to local populations. The project inadvertently served the "advantaged" poor, indicating that social inclusion efforts in local food systems may not effectively reach the most vulnerable.
Equity & displacementCSA & TeikeiCommunityWelfareEconomicsFood sovereignty & justice