Research & reports

Valéria 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.

Arnaud Sapin, Philippe Bodénan, Thierry Lebeau, Ghozlane Fleury‐Bahi · Journal of Community & Applied Social Psychology · France

A qualitative study in Nantes, France, interviewed 28 allotment garden users to examine psychosocial impacts. While highlighting benefits like psychological well-being, physical health, self-development, and social bonding, the study found these were balanced by various conflicts reported by participants. Lexicometric analysis confirmed that positive and negative social aspects are significantly associated and must be considered jointly.

Larissa Siqueira Chaves, Giovanna Simokado Magalhães, Soraya Nór · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Brazil

This article reflected on the potential of feminism in urban development as a practice of counter-hegemonic architectures. Through a cartography of central Florianópolis, it was shown that only ten streets in the city center were named after women, revealing that patriarchal patterns are fixed in the territory. Women in urban agriculture are presented as individual and collective body-territories that construct a counter-hegemonic praxis in urban spaces and social movements, politically building alternatives that foster care, reproduction of life, reconnection with nature, protection of popular traditions, as well as gender issues and the right to the city.

Daniel 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.

Megan 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.

Angie Sassano, Christopher Mayes, Yin Paradies · Urban Policy and Research · Australia

In Australia, COVID-19 accelerated reliance on resiliency for post-pandemic urban recovery. This study examined the use of resilience in urban agriculture proposals for cities after COVID-19, drawing on critical literature. It argues that the current pandemic conditions for urban agriculture risk perpetuating urban colonial governmentality. The paper calls for a rethinking of urban agriculture for future cities by radically disrupting the foundational colonial logics of urban spatiality.

Emmanuelle 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.

Mawuna Donald Houessou, B.G.J.S. Sonneveld, Augustin K. N. Aoudji, Fréjus THOTO, D. J. Snelder, Anselme Adégbidi, Tjard de Cock Buning · Development in Practice · Benin

A survey of 88 urban poor individuals in Benin investigated their profiles and constraints affecting participation in allotment gardens. Findings revealed low educational and income levels, overcrowded and unsanitary housing, and limited access to social services and health facilities among the participants. Furthermore, 76% of them experienced food insecurity, and engaging them in allotment gardens was constrained by requirements for farming skills, financial capital, and safety issues.

Naomi Reyes, Montserrat Ganderats‐Fuentes, Francesco Acciai, Jessica Eliason, Punam Ohri‐Vachaspati · Journal of School Health · United States (New Jersey)

This study examined school garden prevalence in 148 K-12 schools across four low-income New Jersey cities between 2010-2011 and 2017-2018, before and after the Healthy Hunger-Free Kids Act (HHFKA) of 2010. Garden prevalence increased from 19% in 2010-2011 to 32% in 2013-2014, but this increase was not sustained over time. Furthermore, schools with a majority Hispanic student enrollment had approximately half the odds of having a garden compared to schools with a majority Black student enrollment.

Denise Misleh · The AAG Review of Books · Global

Organic stores, trendy coffee shops, and food initiatives generally associated with the alternative food movement, such as farmer's markets and community gardens, have become a clear symbol.

Kimberly Hill-Tout, Claudia Towne Hirtenfelder, Kiera E. B. McMaster, Megan Herod · Gastronomica The Journal of Food and Culture · Canada

In April 2021, a panel discussion on food security in Canada took place during the COVID-19 pandemic. This article aims to make visible the vulnerabilities and structural injustices embedded within Canadian foodscapes through different perspectives on food security and justice. COVID-19 rendered many of the structural injustices of food security in Canada more visible.

Contingent Horizons · Contingent Horizons The York University Student Journal of Anthropology · Canada (Winnipeg)

This paper uses the Rainbow Community Garden in Winnipeg as a case study to discuss the benefits and challenges of community gardening for new immigrant and refugee families. Through a literature review and interviews with gardeners, the study emphasizes the role of food and community gardens in facilitating cross-cultural interactions, providing culturally appropriate food, and expressing cultural identity. The main conclusion is that for new immigrant and refugee participation, a garden is not only physical soil but also an important place for practicing culture and engaging in meaningful cross-cultural interaction beneficial for adjusting to a new life in Canada.

Elizandra Flávia Araujo, Marcos Paulo Fuck · Cadernos de Ciência & Tecnologia · Brazil (Curitiba)

This study aimed to identify and characterize different categories of urban agriculture practitioners in Curitiba. A descriptive study using bibliographic and documentary analysis found that urban agriculture activities are concentrated in peripheral areas of the city, with most participants having a monthly family income of up to two minimum wages. Despite a wide range of actors engaging in these practices, their visibility and inclusion in the political agenda occur asymmetrically.

Hadaro Hando Filmon, Alemu Legesse Mitke · African Journal of Agricultural Research · Africa

In Addis Ababa, Ethiopia, a household survey, interviews and case analysis of beneficiary women, using 10 indicators of women's empowerment in agriculture, assessed the effect of a program-based sustainable urban agriculture intervention. 80% of beneficiary women were empowered (to a score of 0.93), while the remaining 20% were not; disaggregating the "empowered" group by intersectional differences revealed further unintended negative impacts. While urban agriculture contributed to women's empowerment, the study found that a lack of tailored support and a uniform program approach excluded segments of women beneficiaries, and it calls for a rights-based approach and feminist gender analysis to address these intersectional barriers.

Jamie Wang · Humanities · Singapore

This article explores the rise of urban farming in Singapore, following small- to medium-scale urban farms, including rooftop gardens, community farms, and organic farms, through the politics of localism and the notion of care. It investigates how localism, in some contexts, has been reduced to a narrow sense of geographic location. The study also examines what is being cared for in urban farming and how it might transform bio-cultural and social-technological relations.

Cecilia M. Tsu · Amerasia Journal · United States

This article examines community gardens established for refugees from Vietnam, Cambodia, and Laos in the United States during the 1980s. It argues that refugee gardeners perceived a significant disconnect between their rural lives in Southeast Asia and the role of vegetable growing in the U.S., despite advocates emphasizing continuity with their past. The gardens provided a measure of economic empowerment, but highlighted the disjuncture in their resettlement experience.

Camille Frazier · Hong Kong University Press eBooks · India (Bengaluru)

This paper examines motivations for organic terrace gardening among middle-class individuals in Bengaluru, India, who grow food for home consumption. Gardeners respond to worsening health and environmental conditions, but class and caste inequalities limit their engagement with a broader community of urban food producers. These inequalities restrict the transformative potential of organic terrace gardening as an intervention, indicating a critical finding regarding equity.

James J. Connolly, Isabelle Anguelovski · Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution · United States

This study used state sequence analysis to examine the historical trend of greening (including parks and community gardens) from 1975 to 2014 in nine U.S. cities, in relation to concentrations of white and non-white residents. Findings revealed that the relationship between greening and race/ethnicity varied by city-level growth trajectory. Cities with continuous high growth showed the strongest link between increased greening and whiter populations, while non-white areas in cities with contraction or punctuated growth exhibited uniformly low levels of greening, mostly in recent years.

Mkwela Hawa · Journal of Geography and Regional Planning · Tanzania

This study used a qualitative approach to examine land injustices faced by urban farmers in Mbweni-Mpiji, a sub-urban area of Dar es Salaam City, Tanzania. Findings indicated that farmers experience constant pressure from land insecurity, inferior land rights, informal land access, stiff competition from other land users, degrading land quality, and a continuous decrease in agricultural land size. These factors negatively impact the daily livelihoods, including food security, social status, and income, of those entirely dependent on urban farming.

Friederike Reents · Publication Server of the Catholic University Eichstätt-Ingolstadt (Catholic University of Eichstätt-Ingolstadt) · Germany

This paper analyzes Thomas Kling’s poem „geschrebertes idyll, für mike feser“ as an "allotment garden idyll" within 'new nature poetry'. While Kling skillfully engages with the idyll genre and offers ecological, social, medial, and historical critique, the study finds that he presents a decidedly patriarchal self-image, which contemporary readers would likely find less acceptable.

Lucia Di Paola · · Italy

This paper examines Milan's Porta Nuova re-urbanization project (2004-2015), which features Vertical Forest skyscrapers as symbols of urban greening. Activists and resident groups strongly opposed the project, criticizing the privatization of a public park and high rents, arguing it represents a top-down privatization leading to exclusion and gentrification. In response, these groups developed a public community garden in the same neighborhood as an alternative model for democratic horizontal urban greening.

Kristan Majors · Educational Media Reviews Online · United States

"No Place to Grow" is a 2019 documentary film (27 mins) that captures the story of a longstanding LatinX community garden, its farmers, neighborhood protests, and negotiations with government officials in the United States. The film depicts the challenges faced by the community garden, leaving viewers disheartened. It is recommended for libraries collecting on community gardens and urban agriculture.

Salvatore Engel‐Di Mauro, George Martin · · Global

This chapter examines the global relationship between food growing and capitalism over 500 years, identifying three profit-seeking formats: mercantilism, industrialism, and global financialization. It argues that capitalism has led to a de-industrialization of cities and a commodification of agricultural products by corporate megafarms, contributing to green gentrification in urban redevelopment. This has incited a food resistance trend, leading to the emergence of community gardens and farms.

Christina Ergas · · United States

This chapter explores urban ecovillages in the United States, highlighting challenges faced by ecovillagers in a neoliberal context. It examines cultural conflicts between sustainability and consumer culture, and points out the exclusive, upper-class, white nature of the local food movement in the US. Monetary and time constraints have made local organic food an elite phenomenon, often cited as a first step to gentrification in urban communities.

Zachary Burt, C. Shambu Prasad, Pay Drechsel, Isha Ray · Journal of Water Sanitation and Hygiene for Development · India (Karnataka)

A preference-ranking model was developed to understand the acceptance of fecal sludge-derived fertilizer (FSF) in Karnataka, India, by modeling farmowners and farmworkers separately. The study found that farmers willing to use FSF prefer to conceal its origins from workers and their caste group, especially caste-adhering, vegetarian farmowners. Workers were open to FSF if it resembled cow manure, revealing that the waste economy in rural India is shaped by unacknowledged caste hierarchies and practices.