Research & reports

Rod MacRae, Joe Nar, James Kuhns, Lauren Baker, Russ Christianson, Martin Danyluk, Abra Snider, Eric V. Gallant, Penny Kaill-Vinish, Marc Michalak, Janet Oswald, Sima Patel, Gerda R. Wekerle · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Canada (Toronto)

This paper, focusing on Toronto, identifies subtle impediments to scaling up urban agriculture beyond self-provisioning, despite land not being an insurmountable barrier. These include taxation systems assuming agriculture is a strictly rural activity, inadequate knowledge sharing among urban producers, limited access to soil, water, and seeds, and a lack of incentives for landowners. Achieving 10% of the city's commercial fresh vegetable demand requires significant policy and program initiatives in five key areas, including governance, coordination, and financing.

Toni Y. Sims-Muhammad · · United States (South Louisiana)

This project examined the impact of Hurricanes Katrina and Rita on existing food systems in Lafayette, Acadia, Evangeline, St Martin, and St Landry parishes, with a focus on home and community gardens. The researcher interviewed 57 home/community gardeners and farmers and conducted a survey on pre- and post-Katrina/Rita food sustainability problems, challenges, and perspectives on future food systems.

Evan Weissman · Syracuse University Libraries (Syracuse University) · United States (New York City)

This dissertation explores urban agriculture in Brooklyn, New York, using a mixed-methods analysis to investigate its historical changes, motivations for engagement, and outcomes. The study argues that Brooklyn's urban agriculture is limited by its neoliberal characteristics, which undermine its potential to build a radical political movement around food issues. While urban agriculture tends to reproduce neoliberalism, it simultaneously creates political possibilities through the assertion of public rights to cultivate the city and the potential of food to serve as a tool for building solidarities towards food justice.

Rabiul Islam, Chamhuri Siwar · Advances in Environmental Biology · Malaysia

This research analyzed the current situation and future potential of urban agriculture in Malaysia using a literature review. Study participants demonstrated a relatively greater awareness of environmental and community benefits of urban agriculture compared to food security, health, or economic benefits. Malaysian urban agriculture was found to be constrained by a lack of adequate land use planning, weak support for urban farmers, and an absence of an integrated development approach. Major challenges identified included perceptions of limited space, limited resources, and education.

Danny Simatele, Tony Binns, Munacinga Simatele · Journal of Human Development and Capabilities · Zambia (Lusaka)

This field-based research in Lusaka, Zambia, examines the impact of climate change and urban governance on urban agriculture, which serves as a source of food and income for poor households amidst deteriorating economies. The study finds that urban agriculture is often excluded from urban development and planning policy, posing significant challenges for small-scale farmers to achieve food security. A lack of policies supporting the urban poor, combined with climatic changes like drought and flooding, makes it difficult for households to adapt to the changing urban environment.

Maura Neves Coutinho, Heloísa Soares de Moura Costa · Revista Geografias · Brazil (Belo Horizonte)

This article discusses urban agriculture (UA) concepts and practices, focusing on initiatives in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, by both residents and local government. It considers UA's potential for ecological, productive, and inclusive cities, but notes the difficulty of secure access to urban land. The discussion on UA is still fragile and faces challenges in becoming an effective social policy.

Maura Neves Coutinho, Heloísa Soares de Moura Costa · Anais ENANPUR · Brazil (Belo Horizonte)

This paper discusses urban agriculture (AU) practices occurring in Belo Horizonte, Brazil, both through informal and spontaneous initiatives by residents in peripheral neighborhoods and as an object of public intervention by the local government for specific purposes. The study concludes that secure access to urban land for maintaining AU practices is difficult, and the discussion on AU remains fragile, facing challenges for its implementation as a social policy impacting urban policies.

Saloua Toumi, Roland Vidal · Projets de paysage · Europe, Africa

Urban agriculture is expanding in various metropolitan areas, but its agro-economic and socio-spatial logic differs by context. Tunisia's urban agriculture is threatened by increasing urban expansion and is not yet integrated into territorial projects. Issues related to land value appreciation are dominant, and its landscape and environmental benefits could be compromised in the relatively short term if it does not find its place in urban development plans.

Inge Wagemakers, Oracle Makangu Diki · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · Congo (Kinshasa)

In rapidly growing African cities, particularly Kinshasa, urban agriculture is crucial for food provision, yet land available for agriculture decreases as cities expand. This study points out that in Kinshasa, population growth and a lack of empty land are pushing agriculture towards the city's periphery, threatening urban agricultural space. This situation highlights a conflict between the need to produce food and the need for living space.

Marcos Antonio de Castro Marques Teixeira · Aleph UCLA Undergraduate Research Journal for the Humanities and Social Sciences · Brazil

This study surveyed urban gardens in Santa Maria da Codipi and Dirceu Arcoverde, Teresina, Brazil, to assess their economic viability for gardeners. The study found that urban gardens in both areas do not provide income security for those who work them. Problems identified include petty theft, low education levels, lack of technical assistance hindering investment in new crops, and pesticide use creating a competitive disadvantage.

Andrew Kimbrell · Tikkun · United States

This essay criticizes the dominant industrial food model, corporations turning agriculture into agribusiness through heavy chemical, mechanical and genetically altered inputs, as producing profound alienation between the public and food production; it argues that increasing urbanization widens this physical and psychological distance, obscuring the industrial food model's consequences, including forest destruction, animal cruelty, pesticide harm to farmworkers and wildlife, and devastation of farm communities, which together constitute a moral crisis as well as an environmental and health crisis. It also describes a growing organic-and-beyond movement over the past two generations, with millions of Americans joining community supported agriculture (CSA) and opposing pesticide misuse, factory farming and genetic engineering of crops.

Charles French, Mimi Larsen Becker, Bruce E. Lindsay · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Cuba (Havana)

This study examined urban agriculture in Havana, Cuba, using secondary data and interviews with 11 urban gardeners. It found that while agrarian reforms after 1991 led to the growth of private urban gardens and cooperatives, Cuba's integration with the global economy and adoption of free-market principles have since forced dramatic adjustments in the urban agriculture sector. This shift presents challenges to the sector's original role in food security.

Claire Nettle · Chain reaction · Global

This paper discusses how community gardening can contribute to food security. However, it finds that the potential contribution of community gardens to food security is limited by their insecurity of tenure.

Kwasi Appeaning Addo · Remote Sensing · Ghana (Accra)

This paper discusses the need for sustainable management of urban and peri-urban agriculture in Accra, Ghana. A lack of reliable data on the extent of urban/peri-urban areas used for farming has hindered the development of sustainable policies to manage urban farming in Accra. Ground-based survey methods are problematic and prohibitively expensive, making accurate assessment of urban farming's future role difficult.

Clara Irazábal, Anita Punja · Journal of Urban Affairs · United States (Los Angeles)

This qualitative case study analyzes the destruction of the 14-acre South Central Farm in Los Angeles in July 2006, arguing it was a landscape of resistance against discriminatory legal and planning practices. The study contends that environmental justice and planning ethics provided a substantive rationale for the city to prevent its dismantling. This case highlights a failure in governance to protect community gardens threatened by dismantlement in capitalist societies.

Bruce Frayne, Jane Battersby, Robert Fincham, Gareth Haysom · · South Africa

This study examines urban food security in South Africa, focusing on Cape Town, Msunduzi, and Johannesburg, and includes a critique of the City of Cape Town's urban agriculture policy. The abstract indicates that the policy was found to have significant shortcomings, particularly concerning local production and access to food. The research highlights various policy issues related to food access, dietary diversity, local production, and local markets within these urban contexts.

R. Machiridza, Emmanuel Manzungu · University of Zimbabwe Institutional Repository (University of Zimbabwe) · Zimbabwe (Harare)

Perceptions of urban agriculture in Harare, Zimbabwe, shifted from prohibition before 1980 due to environmental concerns to de facto government policy after independence due to increasing urban poverty. Land was initially allocated to co-operatives primarily for political support, creating tension between political patronage and environmental protection. Critics argue that authorities only accepted urban agriculture's reality two decades post-independence, driven by its potential for poverty reduction and economic development.

R. Robles · Revista Agraria · Mexico (Mexico City)

This paper provides an overview of urban agriculture in Mexico City and its conurban area, contrasting production models in developing and developed countries. It reviews the main urban, suburban, and peri-urban production systems and discusses public policies for promoting urban agriculture. The study concludes that no specific policy has been designed to promote urban agriculture in Mexico.

Anne C. Bellows · Food and Foodways · Poland

Polish allotment gardeners collectively represent the largest land managers in Poland, with a formalized urban allotment food production system dating back to 1997. This system, combining local and national government policy with NGO management and private use, provides a model for food security and urban open space. However, this arrangement also creates ongoing tension among stakeholders and a contentious debate regarding the private and public uses of urban land.

Olufunke Cofie, R. van Veenhuizen, Pay Drechsel · · Sub-Saharan Africa

Urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) significantly contributes to food supply, employment, livelihoods, and poverty alleviation in many Sub-Saharan African cities, providing diverse foods including perishable items. However, UPA production often carries health risks from polluted urban water and faces challenges due to limited semi-official recognition and support from city authorities, sometimes conflicting with planners regarding land tenure and water use. More data is needed for appropriate recognition of this sector.

Christopher M. Smith, Hilda E. Kurtz · Geographical Review · United States (New York City)

New York City community gardens have faced political contestation for thirty years, notably in 1999 when 114 gardens were slated for public auction and redevelopment. This article examines the controversy as a politics of scale, where garden advocates expanded the dispute beyond individual gardens and the city. The analysis highlights the significance of scale politics for grassroots organizations within a market-centric, neoliberal economic framework.

Joe Howe · Journal of Environmental Policy & Planning · United Kingdom

This article explores the neglect of research concerning food grown within urban areas and its land-use policy implications. It details findings from a UK study on land-use policy and urban agriculture, investigating land-use officials' attitudes and knowledge of urban food production and the regulatory framework used. The article concludes that despite extensive urban agriculture practice, its urban land-use policy implications require more attention from both land-use officials and researchers than previously given.

Karen Schmelzkopf · Urban Geography · United States (New York City)

This study examined the conflict over community gardens in New York City, arguing that it was a struggle concerning the right to space. The city, operating from an entrepreneurial governance perspective, claimed that the gardens represented a loss of exchange value and potential housing. The city used market economy rhetoric to dismiss incommensurable use values, thereby restricting rights to the city within a demonstration of power and "reason."

Cindy Rosenthal · TDR/The Drama Review · United States (New York City)

In New York City, a group of NYU students and local community activists protested and performed against landlords and the city bulldozing community gardens. Their performance piece documented the transformation of garbage-strewn lots into lush, vital community havens and cried out against their destruction. This highlights a conflict over urban garden governance.

Godfrey D. Mudimu, Shepherd Siziba, Benjamin Hanyani‐Mlambo · OpenDocs (Institute of Development Studies) · Zimbabwe (Harare)

This study in Harare, Zimbabwe, examined the socio-economics of urban crop production on municipal lands, cultivators' views, and land use conflicts. Urban agriculture, a widespread practice for subsistence maize and food security, is not supported by planners and conflicts with urban land use provisions. Findings revealed a serious lack of environmental concern among cultivators, with most ignoring stream bank regulations and lacking knowledge of environmental effects.