Research & reports

Sarah James · Geographical Research · Australia (Sydney)

This paper examined the failure of Sydney's 'green zones' farmland protection policies, which were abandoned due to protests. The failure was attributed to a lack of consultation with Sydney's diverse small-scale farmers, rather than a rejection of farmland protection itself. Farmer interviews suggested that a bottom-up policy-making approach would have been more successful in maintaining farming in peri-urban areas.

Kirstie Cadger, Thembela Kepe · Development in Practice · Botswana

Challenges facing community garden initiatives among the San of Botswana were analyzed through semi-structured interviews and participant observation in two San communities. The study found that the failure of the gardens related to how the San are treated and how they view their situation as destitute people. Forced resettlement, historical livelihood disruption, and government and NGO policies of development through welfare neglecting genuine empowerment were concluded to be responsible for the limited success of the community gardens.

Wakuru Magigi · Journal of Environmental Protection · Tanzania (Dar es Salaam)

This paper explores Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, demonstrating that urban agriculture provides urban ecosystem services and contributes to environmental sustainability. The study highlights the interconnections of environmental justice, urban ecosystem services, and climate change, which influence land governance and productivity. It suggests that with increasing population, a clear spatial land use planning and management strategy is required to enhance food systems and urban environmental sustainability in rapidly urbanizing cities.

邰杰, 汤洪泉, 曹晋, 陆韡 · Acta Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Sunyatseni · Global

This study interpreted the guiding principles, development strategies, and design methods of urban agriculture landscapes outside China, drawing from conceptual definitions, international practices, and case insights. The analysis aims to provide a reference for open space planning and green infrastructure construction during China's rapid urbanization. It concludes that urban agriculture holds significant potential across various aspects, including urban ecology and form, food security and supply, natural education, and job opportunities.

Robert Garey Stewart, Marcel Korth, Laurenz Langer, Shannon Rafferty, N Rebelo Da Silva · · Global

This paper is a protocol for a systematic review on the impacts of urban agriculture programs on food security and nutrition in low and middle-income countries. It notes potential disadvantages of urban agriculture, including contamination, spread of diseases, depletion of water supplies, soil erosion, and health risks from pesticides. The review aims to identify, appraise, and synthesize evidence on these impacts comprehensively and transparently, given that the existing evidence-base is not well understood.

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.

David Aftandilian, Lyn Dart · Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship · United States

This article presents approaches for using garden-based service-learning to promote food justice, educate undergraduate students, and strengthen campus-community ties. It discusses three interdisciplinary service-learning projects: the Fairmount Community Garden, the North Side Garden Survey, and the Como Community Garden. The authors evaluate the success of their approaches using multiple measures and identify benefits for undergraduates, community partners, communities served by the gardens, educators, and their university.

Kyle Clark, Kimberly A. Nicholas · Landscape Ecology · United States (Burlington, Vermont)

This study proposes "urban food forestry" (UFF), combining urban agriculture, urban forestry, and agroforestry, to enhance urban sustainability and food security. It analyzed 37 urban food tree initiatives, finding 73% performed only one activity (planting, mapping, or harvesting) and 8% performed all three. An analysis of 30 urban forestry master plans showed only 13% included human food security objectives. A case study in Burlington, Vermont, estimated that planting Malus domestica in public spaces could meet 108% of the city's daily fruit intake under the most ambitious scenario. The study identified 70 potential food tree species for temperate urban environments, with 30 deemed highly suitable.

Amaya Valero, Sergio Nicolás · · Colombia (Bogotá)

This research analyzes the impact of participatory agroecological farming practices in an urban context, focusing on the integration of organic farming components into educational settings. The case study examines the Jardin la Paz in Bogotá, Colombia, where urban agriculture is developed by children, youth, teachers, and parents on available land. This initiative utilizes urban subsoil properties to produce food, combining rural practices adapted to the urban ecosystem through local and inter-institutional efforts.

Jamie M. Bouvier · Maine law review · United States

This essay argues that urban agricultural practices, such as growing food or raising animals, are symbolic acts that communicate viewpoints and support for the "Food Movement." It asserts that these acts, as symbolic expressions, deserve protection under the First Amendment. The article examines the Food Movement as a social and political movement, how urban homesteading practices symbolize it, and the application of First Amendment principles to these practices.

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.

Monika Krause · Public Culture · Global

In response to the current situation where the diagnosis of urbanization has lost meaning, the necessity of analyzing sociospatial transformations from the perspective of "ruralization" is proposed. This approach reveals phenomena such as urban agriculture, urban wildlife, boring towns, and farmers in suburbs, as well as new forms of improvisation in the face of failing infrastructures, making visible developments that are not apparent with a narrow focus on urbanization.

Kristen Lyons, Carol Richards, Lotus DesFours, Marco Amati · Australian Planner · Australia (Melbourne)

Ethical food movements, including urban agriculture initiatives, are increasing in Australia. This study uses the case of Melbourne to examine how urban agriculture participants are re-imagining urban spaces and the future of Australian agriculture and food systems. It demonstrates that the politics and practices of urban food advocates challenge and resist the enclosure of urban spaces, creating new frontiers that transgress social, political, ecological, and economic boundaries.

Cabrera Trimiño, Gilberto Javier · · Cuba (Ciudad Habana)

In Cuba, urban agriculture is a movement producing food in urban spaces using local resources under ecological principles. While large cities like Havana cannot achieve food self-sufficiency, agricultural programs can enhance understanding of the population-environment-development relationship in Cuba, the Caribbean, and Latin America. This understanding is crucial for public policies addressing contemporary challenges like environmental vulnerability and climate change impacts.

Melvin Delgado, Denise Humm-Delgado · Oxford University Press eBooks · Global

Community gardens, particularly those involving food security, have become a focus for community asset assessments. Community gardens can address instrumental community needs such as food security, spaces for intergenerational and interethnic contact, and community beautification. They can also meet expressive community needs by fostering social capital bonding and bridging, providing a place for residents to gather and connect, and promoting the exchange of knowledge and abilities related to growing food across generations and cultures.

Duncan Hilchey · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Global

This open call edition of the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development features diverse topics including beef origin traceability, cultural sustainability, rural food deserts, climate variability and adaptations, food safety regulations, urban agriculture, and food waste. These topics reflect the enormous diversity of the nascent field of food systems.

Heike Graf · · Global

This research discusses how urban activist gardening takes many forms and is practiced in cities worldwide. It is carried out in community gardens on vacant lots, which involves the cultivation of land considered neglected.

Adam Prince · · United States (California)

This chapter considers movements to transform the food system in the United States. In Oakland, California, a growing community of urban food producers and advocates is working to address food insecurity in historically underserved communities. Diverse enclaves in Oakland exhibit various forms of community-based food production, ranging from windowsill herb patches to rooftop projects and distributed farming networks utilizing vacant lots.

Christine Aubry · Bulletin de l Association de géographes français · Global

This article explores the specificities and convergences of urban agriculture's food functions in both Northern and Southern contexts. It presents a general multi-criteria reflection on urban farming operations, considering their operating systems, cultivation systems, and locations. Examples from Antananarivo, Madagascar, and Île-de-France illustrate these differences and convergences in practice.

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.

Phil. Caleb Mireri · African Journal of Agricultural Research · Kenya (Kisumu)

This study surveyed 194 urban farmers in Kisumu municipality, Kenya, to assess urban agriculture's role in income, employment, and food supply. It found that most urban farmers and their employees receive very low income, with a mean monthly income of US$135 (US$0.64 per person per day), which is below the acceptable one dollar a day per person. Urban agriculture primarily supplements food requirements for the urban poor and provides income for a few commercial farmers.

Kathryn Colasanti, Michael W. Hamm · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States

This paper criticizes Hallsworth and Wong (2013) for failing to adequately recognize the potential for increased productivity in urban agriculture and its role in alleviating food insecurity. The authors emphasize the opportunities for urban agriculture in diverse North American cities and the potential for productivity expansion using methods like passive solar and season extension. They cite examples such as Michigan hoophouses growing 30 crops year-round and a 4-square-meter garden providing daily vegetable servings for a family of four, arguing that urban agriculture's value extends beyond food quantity.

Marcelo Ortega Romero, Juan Mingot Marcilla, María Jesús García Martínez, Eduardo de Miguel, Miguel Izquierdo‐Díaz, Amaya Gómez · · Spain (Madrid)

This study evaluated the potential health risk from trace elements in urban garden soils in Madrid, Spain. Thirty-six composite soil samples were collected from the top 20 cm of six urban gardens, and concentrations of cobalt, chromium, copper, nickel, lead, and zinc were determined. The findings indicated that urban soils are significantly enriched in trace elements relative to background levels, suggesting a potential health risk.

Terri Evans, Christiana Miewald · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Global

Community gardens and other local food initiatives are insufficient strategies to replace the quantity and efficiency provided by contemporary globalized food systems for supplying cheap food to urban populations.

Juan Wu, Ming Xin Liu, Lei Xiao · Advanced materials research · China (Zhongshan)

This study reports on a thermal experiment and energy saving analysis of rooftop farming conducted in Zhongshan, Guangdong Province, China, in August 2011. External and internal surface temperatures of roofs with and without greening were measured using the same climate parameters. The experiment results indicate that green roofs with urban farming contribute to modulating air temperature in building interior spaces, showing lower external surface temperatures than normal flat roofs during hot summer days. The vegetated green roof system was found to effectively lower surface temperature by 6 °C and save 18.7% electric power compared to traditional flat roofs.