Research & reports

James 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.

Jonathan 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.

Nevin Cohen, Kristin Reynolds · Journal of Planning Education and Research · United States (New York City)

This article examines urban agriculture (UA) policy-making processes in New York City, focusing on aspects of UA not fully addressed by existing policies, plans, and research strategies. Interviews with UA stakeholders and an analysis of the city’s UA policy-making processes show that resource needs and race- and class-based disparities within the UA system persist.

Matt Murray · Journal of Political Ecology · United States (New York City)

Efrat Eizenberg's book "From the Ground Up" explores New York City's community gardens as spaces that resist the commodification of land. The book details the history of these gardens, including their emergence during the 1970s economic crisis when primarily Black and Hispanic residents transformed vacant land into communal green spaces. As the real estate market recovered in the 1980s, land values increased, and many gardens were threatened by gentrification pressures. Eizenberg analyzes these transformations at individual, collective, and institutional levels, highlighting how gardeners create common spaces, solidify interpersonal ties, and organize to defend their gardens.

Josiah Taru, Hardlife Stephen Basure · Russian Journal of Agricultural and Socio-Economic Sciences · Zimbabwe (Harare)

This study applied Norman Long's interface analysis to understand the causes of conflicts and struggles among urban agriculture (UA) actors in Kuwadzana Extension, Harare. Intensified competition for scarce land and water escalated conflicts, particularly in off-plot agriculture due to its contentious nature outside institutional frameworks. Actors with different power bases used them to dispossess and marginalize others. Conflict resolution mechanisms (mediation, litigation, conciliation) often lacked legal binding or institutional backing, tending to generate more disputes.

Yuki Kato · Sociological Inquiry · United States (New Orleans)

This case study of a community-supported agriculture (CSA) organization in New Orleans focused on the lack of participation by local residents in the CSA market despite its intentions. Interview and ethnographic observation data indicated a general consensus on economic constraints, while some non-resident supporters attributed the issue to a lack of knowledge about the food system. Residents, however, pointed to spatial and sociocultural barriers, including produce selection, purchase options, market access convenience, and the race-related historical and spatial context of the market's location, making the market less accessible to them.

Giovania Genevieve Tiarachristie · · United States (Harrisburg)

This qualitative study explored race-class conflicts around food and urban gardening in South Allison Hill, Harrisburg, Pennsylvania, a diverse, low-income neighborhood. Seven interviews with neighborhood leaders revealed that the "Whiteness" of a new wave of urban gardening can create race and class tension, hindering collaborative partnerships and local food systems development. The findings indicate structural limitations and social roadblocks, suggesting that urban gardening can exacerbate existing inequities if not approached with structural economic justice and cultural competency.

Tathagata Chatterji · South Asia Journal of South Asian Studies · India (Gurgaon)

A case study of Gurgaon, India, examined how local political factors, the rural-urban divide, and inter-governmental conflicts influenced the governance of a rapidly globalizing urban region. The study found that Gurgaon's real estate-driven transformation from a rural town to an outsourcing hub, involving the conversion of peri-urban agricultural land, has resulted in a fragmented landscape with glaring inequalities. This rapid urban makeover created everyday tensions and contradictions, particularly evident with the formation of a new municipal corporation.

Adedayo A, A. M. Tunde · Sustainable Agriculture Research · Nigeria (Kwara State)

This study assessed the challenges faced by women farmers in urban areas of Kwara State, Nigeria. A total of 1,801 women farmers were sampled from different urban areas, and Focus Group Discussions were conducted. Matrix ranking revealed that lack of credit facilities was one of the most significant challenges hindering increased production by women. Other identified challenges included restricted accessibility to land and a lack of farm input.

Freda G. Sampson, Thomas G. Costello, Stacey Stevens, Desiree Squire · Journal of Law and Society · United States (Detroit)

This paper examines Detroit, United States, as a city in crisis, analyzing redevelopment conflicts between gentrification and revitalization. It applies a "Litmus Test for Equity and Opportunity" to current redevelopment efforts, including the Detroit Future City Plan and projects by Michael Ilitch & Company and Dan Gilbert. The analysis suggests that despite efforts, the complexities of this post-industrial city, particularly regarding its predominantly African-American population, are only superficially addressed, indicating ongoing equity challenges.

김효정 · 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.

Rachel Slocum, Arun Saldanha · · Global

An edited collection (2013) argues that an unacknowledged racial dimension underlies the production and consumption of food under globalization, examining this across three "socio-physical spatialities"—fields, bodies, and markets—through international, multidisciplinary case studies. The volume states that human groups become entrenched in racial hierarchies through food at scales ranging from the household to the slave trade and empire, and includes a chapter specifically addressing urban agriculture and race in South Africa (by Jane Battersby) among contributions covering topics such as bracero labor in California and food-justice organizing in Newtown. The abstract presents this as the collection's conceptual argument rather than as findings from a single empirical study.

Sjsu ScholarWorks, Gabriel R. Valle · · United States

This paper explores the self-valorization of work in community gardens as a path to environmental justice, arguing that community gardens disrupt capital's system by removing food as a commodity and revaluing time outside market-driven speed. The Chicano community, being susceptible to workplace inequalities, has a particular stake in this self-valorization, as these inequalities are reflected in unhealthy communities, economies, and environments. The study suggests that self-valorization through work creates natural wealth, reconstructing time, oppression, and communities.

Mahbubur Meenar, Brandon Hoover · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States (Philadelphia)

This paper examines urban agriculture (UA) projects' role in addressing food insecurity in lower-income neighborhoods of post-industrial U.S. cities, using Philadelphia as a case study. While UA projects are vital, findings indicate concerns regarding their geographic, economic, and informational accessibility, social exclusion, and spatial mismatch between participants and neighborhood demographics. Challenges also exist in distributing fresh produce to impoverished populations and UA's economic contributions in underprivileged areas.

Siny 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.

Héctor Ávila-Sánchez · Norois · Mexico

This paper discusses socio-territorial changes in peri-urban food production spaces in Central Mexico, focusing on the impacts of urbanization on old rural areas. It highlights that peri-urban poor populations often face marginalization, degradation of their agricultural activities, and conflict over space with other social groups. The development of peri-urban agriculture has led to significant transformations in land use, production structures, and social and cultural aspects.

Julian S. Yates, Jutta Gutberlet · Environment and Planning A Economy and Space · Brazil (Diadema)

This paper analyzes food waste flows in Diadema, Brazil, through an urban political ecology lens, focusing on integrated organic waste management for composting and urban food production. While presented as a means for positive socioecological change, the process is characterized by conflict and potential exploitation. Broader structural conditions also constrain the system's ability to offer an alternative to existing waste-management models.

Geoffrey 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.

沈建华, 储健 · 江苏农村经济 · China (Nanjing)

In recent years, Nanjing, China, has promoted the development of urban agriculture amidst rapid urbanization, contributing to increased farmer income and enriched urban life. However, the urban-rural divide remains relatively obvious. A key challenge is how to narrow this urban-rural gap and accelerate integrated development during the "12th Five-Year Plan" period.

杨卫丽, 李同昇, 陈波 · 经济导刊 · China (Xi'an)

The promotion of integration in China's Xi'an-Xianyang metropolitan area, while bringing urban economic prosperity, has also created unprecedented pressure on the ecological environment and social problems. Specifically, the "urban-rural dual structure" and "three rural issues" are the biggest bottlenecks encountered during the urbanization process.

XU Hua-me · Technoeconomics & Management Research · China

This article evaluates the level of Urban Agriculture Modernization in China's major cities, including Beijing, Shanghai, and Guangzhou, using the Analytic Hierarchy Process method. It finds that modern urban agriculture has developed rapidly based on urbanization and agricultural modernization, but disparate development is obvious in China. The article analyzes the reasons for this disparity and various factors for Urban Agriculture Modernization, revealing the mechanism and path for its realization.

Crispen Dirwai, P.M. Makonese, N. Mboto · Figshare · Zimbabwe (Harare)

This study investigated how urban poor (Mabvuku-Tafara) and urban rich (Mabelreign, Marlborough, Westgate) communities in Harare, Zimbabwe, addressed the food crisis between 2005 and 2008. Using a mainly qualitative methodology to compare urban agricultural activities, findings showed that the urban poor engaged in seasonal, often inorganic, less paying off-yard farming, exposed to nature's vagaries. In contrast, the urban rich practiced on-plot perennial, often organic, researched (including soil testing) farming with greenhouses, which yielded better returns.

Nathan McClintock · · United States (California)

This paper uses urban political ecology to explore the rise of urban agriculture (UA) in Oakland, California, where the city aims to source 30% of its food locally, partly from UA in "food deserts." The analysis argues that 20th-century industrial capital flows and racialized urban planning concentrated capital devaluation in the flatlands, leading to the creation of food deserts. Food justice activists are mobilizing through UA to counter these uneven transformations.

Nathan McClintock · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · United States (California)

This paper explores the rise of urban agriculture (UA) in Oakland, California, using an urban political ecology framework. A macro-level structural analysis of Oakland's history reveals how 20th-century industrial capital flows and racialized urban planning concentrated capital devaluation in the flatlands, ultimately giving rise to food deserts. The study suggests that food justice activists are mobilizing through UA to counter these uneven transformations, despite critiques that some urban garden programs are neoliberal, emphasizing self-betterment while filling state-left gaps.

Alice Franck · Revue internationale des études du développement · Sudan

This study of market gardeners in Khartoum, Sudan, reveals limitations in the integrating capacity of urban agriculture. Uncontrolled urbanization in the capital creates intense competition for property, restricting the potential integration of farm-workers in the downtown area. This activity is strictly commercial and primarily carried out by a migrant population.