Research & reports

Sinem Kavak, Lorenza Arango, Doi Ra, Zeynep Ceren Eren Benlisoy, Carlo John Arceo, George T. Mudimu, Daren Shi-chi Leung, Adwoa Yeboah Gyapong, Mnqobi Ngubane · The Journal of Peasant Studies · Global

Migrant workers often remain marginal in food sovereignty discourse and practice despite their central role in the global food system. The emphasis on localization within food sovereignty often overlooks trends towards semi-proletarianization within small peasant and worker households, and a more inclusive food sovereignty agenda must address migrant workers' access to land.

Büşra Gül KARACA, Duygu GÖKCE · Kent Akademisi · Global

This study comprehensively examined 26 scientific studies published between 2008 and 2025 from a spatial perspective, demonstrating that food desert formation is a multi-layered structural problem directly related to spatial planning processes and urban planning decisions, rather than individual socioeconomic deficiencies. The literature review revealed that food deserts are systematically produced by planning-based practices such as single-function zoning decisions, single-centered urban development models, and the absence of urban agriculture in legislation, not solely by a lack of physical access. Access disadvantages persist, particularly in peripheral neighborhoods and areas with high concentrations of low-income groups, and a significant gap exists in developing applicable policies for medium-sized cities due to the literature's focus on metropolitan areas.

Eduardo José Terán Duque · Revista Multidisciplinar Epistemología de las Ciencias · Ecuador (Cayambe)

This article examines sociocultural issues in indigenous communities in Cayambe, Ecuador, caused by gentrification. The study, using situated ethnography, cultural cartography, life stories, and body biographies, found that urban renewal for higher-income residents marginalizes ancestral practices like community gardens and leads to the loss of community autonomy and traditions. Regressive ethnogenesis renders indigenous existence invisible and produces epistemic violence, reducing collective activities to social entertainment.

Eduardo Terán Duque · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Ecuador (Cayambe)

This study in Cayambe, Ecuador, examined sociocultural issues in indigenous parishes and communities caused by gentrification, a process of socio-spatial displacement where low-income rural areas are restructured by higher-income residents or foreigners. This phenomenon perpetuates ethnic-racial hierarchies and the exploitation of indigenous peoples, rendering indigenous existence invisible and marginalizing ancestral practices like collective organization, mingas, community meetings, and community gardens. Consequently, communities lose autonomy, traditions, rites, and customs, with collective activities reduced to social entertainment without historical recognition.

Quinton J, Nesbitt L, Connolly JJT, Wyly E · Urban Studies · カナダ（バンクーバー・カルガリー）

Green gentrification describes how greening a neighbourhood — with parks, community gardens and the like — can draw in higher-income households and displace or exclude marginalised residents; the authors note this has rarely been tested empirically, and that the literature has focused almost exclusively on urban neighbourhoods even though the desire for green space is often cited as a reason households move to suburbs. Surveying 104 households in gentrified downtown Vancouver and suburban Calgary new-build neighbourhoods, the study finds green factors were of similar importance to non-green factors such as safety, scenic views and ambience (and, in Vancouver, proximity to entertainment and transit). Proximity to green space mattered more than overall neighbourhood greenness, and private green space mattered more in the suburbs. Greening, in other words, is not the sole driver, and green-gentrification research needs to widen its geography beyond dense city environments.

Rao X., Zahid A., Ye X., Jain D., Duffield N. · Urban Informatics · 国際（論考）

A Perspective arguing that controlled environment agriculture (CEA), driven by venture capital and profit-maximising imperatives, has delivered limited scalability, narrow crop diversity and minimal engagement with spatial equity — the fair distribution of food infrastructure across urban geographies. It calls for repositioning CEA not as a standalone technological fix but as a component of urban infrastructure delivering co-benefits for food justice, public health and environmental resilience.

Nagwa Babiker Abdalla Yousif, Shadia Abdel Rahim Mohammed, Enaam Youssef, S. Behari · Sustainability · Sudan (Khartoum State)

An interview study was conducted with 100 female farmers in Omdurman’s Algamwai area, Khartoum State, Sudan, from 2022 to 2023. This research examined the intersection of gender, technology, and socioeconomic equity in digital urban agriculture. It showed that despite structural inequalities, including 45% restricted land ownership, 5% limited credit access, and inadequate extension services, female farmers are driving innovation and sustainability. Digital urban agriculture provides income opportunities (76% rely on it) and serves as a platform for equitable participation, though systemic disparities need to be addressed.

Claudia Rochael Oliveira · Terra Livre · Global

This article argues that while vertical farms (VFs) are often presented as indispensable for sustainable cities, their purported sustainability is difficult to achieve without structural changes to reduce social inequalities. Critiques of urban agriculture, including VFs, point to their contribution to gentrification, racialization of space, and vulnerability to real estate capital, indicating a critical finding regarding equity. The article advocates for VFs to be appropriated by social movements to foster critical stances against conventional agriculture and catalyze urban utopias.

Marie Claire Uwase, Jean de Dieu Uwimana · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Rwanda (Kigali)

This article develops a theoretical framework to analyze how digital land registries in Rwanda, specifically in Kigali's peri-urban areas, mediate women's access to formal agricultural credit. The framework posits that despite formal legal equality, digitization can paradoxically solidify existing patriarchal biases within credit assessment algorithms. It reveals that digital land governance is not a neutral solution for gendered credit gaps and can entrench barriers to women's financial inclusion in peri-urban agriculture by systematically undervaluing women's communal land use practices as collateral.

Johannes Bhanye, Abraham R. Matamanda, Ruvimbo Shayamunda · Discover Global Society · Zimbabwe

In Lydiate informal settlement in peri-urban Zimbabwe, Malawian migrants mobilize insurgent practices, including informal land seizures, spiritual claims, and communal strategies, to access land for farming. Access to land for urban and peri-urban farming remains a significant hurdle, especially for marginalized migrants. Migrants invoke divine ownership narratives, Nyau cult practices, and witchcraft deterrence as tactical tools for defending seized land.

Corrie Hannah, Jordan Blekking, Julia Davies, Jane Battersby, Allan Chilenga, Dorcas Kabuya, Percy Toriro · Ecology and Society · Zambia

This empirical case study examined how the COVID-19 pandemic affected urban food systems (UFS) in 14 Zambian cities, using household survey data from 2019, 2020, and 2021. Descriptive and regression analyses assessed household food sourcing, including urban agriculture. Households from diverse socioeconomic quartiles faced similar food security challenges but coped differently based on capacities and resources, indicating a lack of equitable outcomes. Smaller and remote cities sourced food from open-air markets, vendors, and urban agriculture, while more connected cities used local shops.

Lena Schmeiduch, Émile Thévenot · International Review of Education · Global

This study explored the potential for lifelong learning within sustainability-led initiatives, such as ecovillages and community-supported agriculture, through the theoretical lens of Noah Sobe's four pillars of lifelong education. While these initiatives offer opportunities to address sustainability-related challenges, their insular nature and limited accessibility have drawn criticism in the literature on sustainability transitions. The analysis suggests that these initiatives and lifelong learning agendas frequently converge in their framing of sustainability issues.

László 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.

Alessio 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.

Ricardo 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.

Efadul 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.

Megan 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.

Maria 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.

Emelie 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.

Guilherme Raj, Giuseppe Feola, Hens Runhaar · Agriculture and Human Values · Portugal

This comparative case study of three Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiatives in Portugal analyzed how power shapes transformations to postcapitalist work relations. Results showed that while CSA creates non-alienated, non-monetized, and care-filled postcapitalist work relations, they insufficiently unmake unbalanced power relations established in capitalist work relations. The selected CSA initiatives could benefit from actively deconstructing internal hierarchies, decentralizing decision-making power from farm owners, and addressing oppressive power relations ossified in their local and cultural context when establishing postcapitalist work relations.

Lukas Egli, Judith Rüschhoff, Joerg A. Priess · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Global

A systematic review of quantitative empirical research on the sustainability effects of community-supported agriculture (CSA) covered 39 studies. Fewer than 30% of the studies assessed ecological sustainability aspects, but where CSA farms were compared to reference systems, they mostly performed better on resource use efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions. Most studies assessed social aspects; many showed that CSA still fails to reach low-income households, so members do not represent the average population, while CSA membership was associated with improved health and sustainability behavior. Economic variables were assessed in more than half of the studies, but knowledge of CSA's relative economic performance remains scarce, though early studies indicate high economic viability. The review calls for more research on ecological aspects specifically, comparisons across farming and marketing systems, and integration of knowledge from theses and practical sources in multiple languages.

Sina 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.

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.

Amy 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.

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.