Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
10 results
Núcleo de Estudos e Pesquisas Regionais e Agrários: Investigações e Proposições Geográficas
2025Édipo Alves Lacerda · Espiral revista de geografías y ciencias sociales · Brazil
This book, organized by Gustavo Henrique Cepolini Ferreira et al., compiles texts from Unimontes researchers focused on critical geography and popular struggles for land and traditional territories in northern Minas Gerais, Brazil. It discusses conflicts from agribusiness expansion, disputes over resources, climate change effects on peasant farming, and challenges faced by quilombolas, indigenous, and traditional communities. The book addresses structural racism and other aspects of rural development, highlighting negative impacts on these communities.
Equity & displacementUrban–rural linkageFood sovereignty & justicePolicyClimate changeCommunityCidade-Campo no Brasil: dinâmicas e contradições
2025Paulo Ricardo Santos Miranda · Revista Mutirõ Folhetim de Geografias Agrárias do Sul · Brazil
A collection of 13 chapters explores the interactions between city and countryside in Brazil, critically examining how capital traverses urban and rural territories, promoting expropriation and spatial reconfigurations. Studies on Uberlândia, Montes Claros, São Paulo, and the North and Northeast regions highlight land conflicts, peripheral industrialization, urban agriculture, and peasant resistance. The work emphasizes the ambiguous role of the State.
Equity & displacementUrban–rural linkageCommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicyRénover Cleveland : démolition, racisme et agriculture urbaine dans l’Amérique abandonnée
2024Pierric Calenge, Maie Gérardot · Métropolitiques · United States (Cleveland)
The work by Max Rousseau and Vincent Béal illuminates the ambiguities of a policy that organizes urban decline and racial segregation in Cleveland. This policy promotes urban degrowth and racial segregation, balancing algorithmic management and urban greening. The study focuses on the Rust Belt region, which experiences de-urbanization marked by the subprime crisis, racism, and segregation.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyEconomicsUrban–rural linkageFood sovereignty & justiceHealthWelfareClimate changeBiodiversityFood educationElderlyFood lossOrganic cyclePollinatorsHeirloom & landraceFood miles & supply chainCSA & TeikeiPeri-urban agricultureDigital agricultureDIYCompostFood educationWelfareElderlyFood lossOrganic cycleCommunityBiodiversityPollinatorsPolicyHealthEconomicsHeirloom & landraceUrban–rural linkageFood miles & supply chainCSA & TeikeiPeri-urban agricultureClimate changeFood sovereignty & justiceDigital agricultureSpatial 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 linkageA infraestrutura verde como expressão da desigualdade socioespacial: o caso dos loteamentos de acesso controlado e das favelas em Bauru/SP
2023R Verissimo, Silvana Aparecida Alves, Adalberto da Silva, Ana Maria Lombardi Daibem · Risco Revista de Pesquisa em Arquitetura e Urbanismo (Online) · Brazil (Bauru)
This research investigates green and gray infrastructure in Bauru/SP, Brazil, comparing controlled access allotments (Pq. Residencial Paineiras and Jardim Shangri-Lá) with favelas (Ferradura Mirim and Jardim Nicéia). It aims to study green infrastructure as an expression of sociospatial inequalities perpetuated by urban planning. Through analyses and cartographies, the study evaluates the current urban panorama and challenges for mitigating social, environmental, and urbanistic inequalities.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageMobility 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 linkageSpatial 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 linkageAgricultura e produção do espaço urbano: reflexões para uma agenda de pesquisa
2021Ricardo Theóphilo Folhes, Harley Silva, Raul da Silva Ventura Neto, Kevin Gabriel Leite Da Silva, Círia Cristiane Da Rosa, Aelton Dias Costa · Novos Cadernos NAEA · Brazil (Pará)
This article presents initial results from a bibliographic review on Urban Agriculture (UA) to support a research agenda in the metropolitan regions of Pará State, Brazilian Amazon. The review analyzed concepts, approaches, and challenges in national and international literature. It concludes that UA needs to be problematized within the phenomena of urban-regional space production, which cause socioeconomic and spatial inequalities, representing the greatest structural difficulties for urban agriculture.
Equity & displacementUrban–rural linkagePolicyEconomicsMemory, waterways, and ecocultural identity
2020Jeffrey Alan Hoffmann · · United States
Hoffmann examined oral histories and interviews (1995-1996, 2014, 2017) with elders of multiple ethnicities in a working-class urban agricultural neighborhood in the U.S. Southwest. The study found that while ecocultural memory fosters trust in shared water relationships, historical anxieties stemming from urban development violence can impede communities' ability to organize to protect and restore ancestral waterways.
Equity & displacementCommunityUrban–rural linkageHeirloom & landraceSocio-territorial changes in peri-urban food production spaces in Central Mexico
2011Héctor 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.
Equity & displacementPeri-urban agricultureEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceUrban–rural linkage