Research & reports

Huang Ying · · Global

This paper compares the origins and functions of urban agriculture (UA) in various countries. It notes that UA is flourishing globally, with its origins, evolution, and modalities differing across nations due to diverse natural, economic, and social conditions. The study aims to better develop UA by examining these characteristics in typical countries.

Virginia Hamdan, Paula Natinzon · REVISTA BRASILEIRA DE AGROECOLOGIA · Argentina

This study quantified the organizational sustainability of 41 agroecological urban gardens within the UNMdP Food Autoproduction Program in Argentina. It developed a Socio-Organizational Sustainability Index (ISO) based on Group Potential, Capacity of Automanagement, and Organizational Practices. Most gardens showed a "Middle" degree of ISO, primarily due to Capacity of Automanagement and Organizational Practices.

Craig J. Thompson, Gökçen Coskuner-Balli · Journal of Consumer Research · Global

This paper argues that the corporatization of the organic food movement, typically seen as co-optation, can instead generate a countervailing market response. This response actively promotes the oppositional aspects of a counterculture that are attenuated by commercial mainstreaming. The study analyzes community-supported agriculture (CSA) as an example of this response to corporate co-optation.

Emily Brady · Ethics Place & Environment · Global

This article explores whether environmental and land art-making encourages positive aesthetic-moral relationships between nature and humans. It critically examines a particular type of aesthetic objection to these artworks and defends the work of Robert Smithson and Andy Goldsworthy, among others, against this charge. It is argued that some forms of environmental and land art show "aesthetic regard" for nature, rather than constituting an "aesthetic affront" to nature.

Donna Tangen, Ruth Fielding‐Barnsley · Australian Journal of Environmental Education · Global

This study evaluated the effects of school gardening on English as Second Language (ESL) students' learning about good nutrition in a culturally diverse school. Data collected indicated positive gains in student learning and increased feelings of belonging to the school community. The study suggested that teacher attitudes significantly influence ESL student engagement in environmental education, and garden-enhanced lessons provided effective experiential learning that supported in-class nutrition education.

Susan Thompson, Linda Corkery, Bruce Judd · · Australia (Sydney)

This research investigated a community garden scheme within a large high-rise public housing estate in Sydney's inner west, Australia, as part of an urban renewal program. The study found that the project yielded a broad range of positive physical and psychological well-being outcomes for tenants, including opportunities for relaxation, physical activity, socialization, cultural exchange, learning horticulture, and access to low-cost fresh produce. The findings confirm that community gardens can significantly enhance physical, emotional, and spiritual well-being, contributing to healthy and socially sustainable communities.

N. Hooton, Diana Lee-Smith, Nasinyama, G., D.L. Romney, Gertrude Atukunda, Margaret Azuba, Maria Kaweesa, A. Lubowa, Muwanga, J., Mary Njenga, Young, J. · CGSPace A Repository of Agricultural Research Outputs (Consultative Group for International Agricultural Research) · Uganda

This working paper analyzes the actors, events, and influences affecting policy changes on urban agriculture in Kampala, Uganda, from 1990 to 2006. It reviews how and why these policy and institutional changes occurred, utilizing a combined methodology of episode studies, case study analysis, and outcome mapping.

Alfred Geresom Musamali · · Uganda (Kampala)

The Kampala Urban Agriculture Team networked and toured various project sites during the Third World Urban Forum (WUF3).

Yang Hu · Shanxi Architecture · Global

This paper briefly introduces community gardens and children's gardens, presenting the design principles for children's activity yards. Based on the psychological and behavioral characteristics of children of different ages, it discusses key considerations for designing children's gardens for various age groups and analyzes specific issues to address at each design point.

Craig J. Thompson, Gökçen Coskuner-Balli · Journal of Consumer Culture · Global

This article analyzes Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) as a form of ethical consumerism. The analysis explicates how CSA's aspects allow consumers to perceive its practical inconveniences and choice restrictions as moral virtues. The article concludes by assessing the societal implications of these localized marketplace relationships.

Elizabeth Janette Newmeyer · CSUSB ScholarWorks (California State University, San Bernardino) · Global

The purpose of this project was to develop a curriculum guide that would allow teachers to effectively and efficiently utilize a school garden to teach required standards while promoting peace among students. To develop this, a thorough review of literature in school gardening, peace curriculum, and curriculum design was used.

Zhu Xiao-yong · Journal of Jinling Institute of Technology · Global

This article discusses the use of new plant species in urban greening and gardening, highlighting their contribution to biodiversity and urban ecological construction. It summarizes the main problems associated with their application, elaborates on their uses and principles, and proposes solutions and measures for their effective integration.

Mariama Diop, Toumani Sène · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Senegal (Dakar)

This study evaluated the impact of community gardens on food security and sustainable agricultural practices in urban Dakar. Participant surveys indicated a significant shift towards more sustainable agricultural practices, with over 70% of participants adopting at least one new gardening technique. The study highlights the potential for community gardens to improve food security and foster environmental stewardship among urban dwellers.

Toure Sylla Mamadou, Mamoudou Diop · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Senegal (Dakar)

This three-year study in Dakar, Senegal, investigated urban food security systems through surveys and interviews with community garden participants. It found that 75% of participants reported increased engagement in urban agriculture, driven by government subsidies for materials and equipment. The study validates previous findings on community garden participation, noting a significant increase due to subsidized resources, and highlights the effectiveness of targeted interventions.

Mark Anderson-Wilk · Journal of Soil and Water Conservation · Global

This abstract discusses the concept of Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA), pioneered in Japan and Europe in the 1960s and introduced to the US in the mid-1980s. CSAs are described as a model where individuals become farm members, sharing the risks and benefits of food production and receiving shares of local produce. The abstract introduces the question of whether CSAs support natural resource conservation but does not present any specific findings or conclusions regarding this question.

Anna Jørgensen, Marian Tylecote · Landscape Research · Global

This paper explores the origins of ambivalent responses to contemporary urban landscapes, proposing that post-modern wilderness can be found in urban interstices. These include woodlands, abandoned allotments, river corridors, and derelict sites where spontaneous vegetation growth occurs. Such interstitial wilderness landscapes are identified as having important functions and being rich in meaning, with implications for understanding nature-human relationships and for urban landscape planning.

María de los A Pino, Loracnis Hernández, María E Dominí, Arturo Ocampo Ramírez, Z. Terán, Eduardo Calves · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Cuba

This study in San José de las Lajas and Arroyo Naranjo, Cuba, aimed to assess if participatory variety selection and farmer experimentation could introduce, adopt, and disseminate plant biodiversity in urban banana cultivation. Results demonstrated the potential of participatory methodologies to introduce and adopt materials from an agrobiodiversity fair, with selection differences based on criteria and municipal contexts. This provided initial evidence for such urban cultivation experiences.

Loracnis Hernández, María de los A Pino, Elein Terry · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Cuba (San José de las Lajas)

This study in San José de las Lajas, La Habana province, aimed to apply participatory methodologies to support traditional extension methods in urban agriculture and address farmers' problems with access to seed diversity and management knowledge. Three Agrobiodiversity fairs allowed producers to select preferred varieties of plantain, tomato, chili, and pepper, with FIAT-01 plantain, Amalia tomato, and Comandante Largo pepper being highly selected. A second stage focused on farmer schools and peasant experimentation for beans, which increased varietal diversity and promoted the dissemination and adoption of new varieties.

Ania Yong, Eduardo Calves, Bárbara Benítez · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Cuba (San José de las Lajas)

A diagnostic study was conducted to characterize crop diversity in gardens, plots, and patios in the North, South, and Jamaica districts of San José de las Lajas, Cuba. The main crops established in the different production systems were vegetables, followed by fruit trees and flowers. Knowledge regarding cut flower production technologies was found to be insufficient, and surveys revealed that 80% of producers were over 60 years old.

Rosalía Rodríguez López · Revista General de Derecho Romano - ISSN 1697-3046 · Global

This is a historical and legal study of the garden (hortus) in Rome during the third and second centuries BC, examined in terms of the development of urban building practice. In the "Italic house," the garden formed part of the dwelling's architecture, with the compluvium-impluvium serving as a cistern supplying water to both the house and the garden. The ager publicus assigned to veterans often consisted of such small plots that it was effectively an intensive urban vegetable garden attached to a house. Cato's agronomic treatise distinguishes between the suburban garden and the garden attached to the villa (a farming estate), marking a further step in the development of the concept of the hortus.

Carla Ellen Lima Lemos, Eduardo Sevilla Guzmán · REVISTA BRASILEIRA DE AGROECOLOGIA · Argentina

A research note from Rosario, in southern Santa Fe province, Argentina, focused on migrant groups who moved to Rosario from Argentina's northern provinces over the past twenty years, some from the historical Guaraní cultural sphere, bringing agricultural work experience along with their language. Building on a history of resistance to industrial models of nature management through the Ligas Agrarias and, after repression under military dictatorship, work in traditional subsistence gardens within popular cooperativism, the paper sets out to open a line of research at CEPAR testing the hypothesis that Guaraní management forms exist in Rosario's community organic gardens. If supported, this could be termed a "Rosario agroecological gardening style"; the urban agriculture model that has taken shape is described as arising from the interaction between immigrant groups' knowledge and modern conventional agronomic technique.

· · Global

A discussion piece describes the growth of new forms of food retailing in Europe and North America in which fresh, high-quality produce is sold directly by producers. The most visible example is the rise of farmers' markets in urban locations, alongside a revival of street and municipal markets and new arrangements such as farm shops, box schemes, community-supported agriculture and cooperative bulk purchasing. It characterizes the shared feature of these initiatives as reconnecting food producers and consumers directly, in relationships largely severed by the dominance of corporate multiple retailers, and notes that "alternative food networks" is the term commonly used to cover this range of forms. No empirical data is presented.

Jonathan Kingsley, Mardie Townsend · Urban Policy and Research · Australia (Melbourne)

A small qualitative study of members of the 'Dig In' community garden in Melbourne, Australia, explored the social capital benefits of urban community gardens. The study found that garden membership offers benefits such as increased social cohesion, social support, and social connections. However, these benefits do not necessarily extend beyond the garden setting, especially in the early stages of development.

R. van Veenhuizen · Issue Lab (Candid) · Global

This publication defines urban agriculture as growing plants and raising animals for food within and around cities, along with related processing and marketing. It notes increased attention from development organizations and authorities in developing countries due to urban agriculture's role in poverty alleviation, food security, waste management, and greening. The work presents the "state of the art" of sustainable urban agriculture development, indicating progress since earlier major publications.

Alice J. Hovorka · Gender Place & Culture · Botswana

This research draws on a feminist political ecology perspective to demonstrate that agrarian restructuring and rural-urban transformation in Botswana offer women opportunities to renegotiate their marginalized positionality within the commercial urban agricultural sector in Greater Gaborone. Men and women participate in equal numbers, and both perceive this sector as offering new and accessible avenues for economic and social advancement. Although there is continuity of women's social and economic disadvantage relative to men from rural to urban contexts, women are actively making claims on land and capitalizing on their traditional roles and responsibilities associated with poultry production.