Research & reports

Adrian Atkinson · City · Global

This paper analyzes the background to the rapid growth of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) globally over the past three decades. It notes that while food security is a primary consideration in many cities, UPA initiatives are driven by many other concerns, motivations, starting points, and organizational means.

Heather McIlvaine-Newsad, Rob Porter · Journal of Ecological Anthropology · Global

This conceptual paper focused on the benefits of community gardens, informed by participant observation and literature from the environmental justice movement. Community gardens are stated to be models for improving health through growing and eating local produce, and instruments for generating social awareness and community change.

Charlotte Lai-Sam Hryse · · United States (California)

This study examined the practices, outcomes, and motivations of guerrilla gardeners in California's East Bay through nine interviews. Projects occurred on different scales involving individuals, neighborhoods, community-based organizations, and 'Occupy the Farm,' demonstrating outcomes such as youth empowerment, community building, and civic engagement. Guerrilla gardening was shown to facilitate inclusive community organization, expand social capital, and build local resiliency and assets.

Jana Adamková · Brno University of Technology Digital Library (Brno University of Technology) · Global

This paper discusses urban agriculture as an indisputable part of cities throughout history. It highlights urban agriculture as an important subject for improving city sustainability, enhancing food security, and reducing urban poverty. The study suggests that understanding its evolution could yield valuable information.

Àngels Viladomiu Canela · · Global

This paper reviews specific artistic interventions that address urban land uses and farming methods. These actions, through the act of planting and cultivating, generate spaces for the expression of artistic, political, and social identities. These places are settling in the interstices of our cities, such as empty brownfield sites, non-urbanized or semi-urbanized areas, riverbanks, highway verges, and railway edges.

Yohanes Parlindungan Situmeang, Anak Agung Ngurah Mayun Wirajaya, Made Sri Yuliartini · · Indonesia (Denpasar)

In West Denpasar, Indonesia, urban agriculture contributes to food security and provides an alternative for the urban poor. Urban farmers show high interest in cultivating kale, pandan leaves, and lotus flowers, which are recommended due to favorable agro-climatic conditions and high economic value. Optimizing idle land utilization through urban farming is expected to reduce urban land conversion.

Mansur Usman Dawaki, Abubakar U. Dikko, S. S. Noma, Umar Aliyu · Food and Energy Security · Nigeria

This study evaluated pollution risks to food security from urban agriculture in Kano, Nigeria, by sampling soil, water, and lettuce from two wastewater-irrigated sites (Challawa, Jakara) and a control site (Watari). Results showed all sites were contaminated with Cu, and the domestic wastewater site was slightly polluted with Pb and excessively polluted with Cd and Cr. Metal levels in irrigation waters exceeded recommended thresholds, and plants at the domestic wastewater site accumulated metal concentrations (Pb=26.21 mg/kg, Cd=1.03 mg/kg, Cr=28.63 mg/kg, Cu=2.66 mg/kg) that exceeded allowable limits in vegetables, indicating a human ingestion risk.

Clinton L. Beckford, Donovan Campbell · Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks · Caribbean

In the Caribbean, kitchen gardens are categorized into home gardens and food forests, both grown on home plots. Home gardens are small areas for short-term crops, used for home consumption and sharing, while food forests are low-maintenance agroforestry systems with diverse plant species, including fruit trees and non-food hardwoods. These systems mimic a forest's vertical structure.

Andrew Butt · Economic Papers A journal of applied economics and policy · Australia

This article reviews changes in farm output and structure in peri-urban regions around Australia's cities. It concludes that farming in these regions is changing differently from other agricultural regions, with productivity centered on a few high-value activities. The majority of peri-urban farming, while potentially providing landscape services, is unable to adjust to changing productivity regimes, creating vulnerabilities for these farming systems.

Hilary Neff, Rachel Manning · OPUS - Open Portal to University Scholarship (Governors State University) · United States (Ohio)

This record introduces Hilary Neff, a third-year Environmental Studies student at Oberlin College, focusing on Food Justice and Sustainable Communities. She is passionate about local foods and community empowerment projects.

Evan Weissman · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States (New York City)

This essay refutes the claims by Hallsworth and Wong (2013) that the benefits of urban food gardening are exaggerated and that it cannot deliver fresher or lower-cost foods. It states that Hallsworth and Wong's assumptions are incorrect and that urban gardening plays a significant role as public space, an economic development strategy, and a community-organizing tool, contributing to household food security. For example, a 0.2-hectare urban farm project in Brooklyn, New York, "East New York Farms!", produces over USD20,000 of fresh produce annually, with over 70% of transactions made through SNAP, reaching high-need community members.

Teferi Daba Lemma, M. S. A. Rao, M Prasada Rao · Zenith international journal of business economics and management research · Ethiopia

This study assessed the economic sustainability of urban agriculture in central Ethiopia, collecting primary data from 280 urban and peri-urban vegetable farmers. Findings indicated that urban agriculture is a viable livelihood strategy from a financial perspective. However, city administrations and policymakers pay little attention to supporting this sub-sector, suggesting that legal recognition and support would make it a more reliable strategy.

Samuel Henrique Damas Marinelo, Sandra María Fonseca da Costa, Leonardo Freire de Mello · Anais ENANPUR · Brazil (São Paulo)

In São José dos Campos, São Paulo, Brazil, residents of the Altos de Santana neighborhood maintain traditional peasant characteristics by cultivating urban gardens within a Permanent Protection Area of the Paraíba do Sul River. However, the current municipal administration plans to implement an urban park in this area, which will remove the gardens cultivated by these resident farmers. This intervention is expected to alter proposals for improving the quality of life for nearby residents concerning urban agriculture, potentially generating conflicts between stakeholders regarding land use.

Stephan Barthel, John N. Parker, Henrik Ernstson · Urban Studies · Global

This article examined the role of urban gardens during historical collapses in urban food supply lines and identified social processes needed to protect open green spaces and the collective memory of food production during crises. Over the past 50 years, urban dependence on global food systems has increased, eroding collective memory of food production and losing suitable urban gardening spaces, heightening the potential for food shortages during crises. Urban gardening is effective during crises, and allotment gardens transmit social-ecological memories of food production. Urban environmental movements protect urban green space, and urban gardening and social movements can build local response capacity against food supply collapses.

Alison M. Meadow · Digital Commons - University of South Florida (University of South Florida) · United States (Fairbanks)

This paper presents data on the Fairbanks Community Garden, an alternative food system initiative, focusing on its current and potential contributions to food security and social integration. The most successful aspects of the community garden include providing space and equipment to those lacking resources and creating opportunities for diverse community members to develop personal relationships.

R. O. Yusuf · · Nigeria (Kaduna State)

In Zaria, Kaduna State, Nigeria, a study examined the contribution of urban farming activities utilizing water from excavation pits to farmers' income and food security, and the eco-supportive component of using these pits. Data were collected from 10 farmers between December 2011 and May 2012 through structured interviews and observation. Farmers cultivated various crops and obtained higher incomes from farming compared to their primary occupations. The utilization of excavation pits was found to be eco-supportive by regulating the microenvironment's water balance, serving as carbon sinks, and providing low-cost water extraction. However, observed constraints included insecure land tenure, disturbance from straying domestic animals, and theft of farm produce.

María Antonia Fernández Nieto, Jorge Gallego Sánchez-Torija · Hábitat y Sociedad · Spain (Madrid)

An academic research group and a neighborhood association initiated a citizen participation process to recover a degraded urban space in the peripheral neighborhood of Puerta Bonita in Carabanchel, Madrid. This initiative aimed to convert the space into an urban community garden. The project seeks to reincorporate agriculture into the city with environmental sustainability criteria, influence local economies, regenerate neighborhood relations, and develop environmental education.

Lauren M Bitter · Scholarship @ Claremont (The Claremont Colleges) · United States (California)

This autoethnographic thesis centers on the People and Their Plants garden in Upland, California, which represents the ecological changes caused by colonization in Southern California. The study critiques research and ethnography by examining the politics of knowledge, language, history, and ecology, and interrogates colonial/capitalist food systems that render Indigenous ways of knowing invisible. The People and Their Plants garden is presented as an act of resistance, creating space for alternative economic and decolonial food practices.

Lindsey Sarann Hallock · · Global

This paper examines the rise of vertical farms, arguing that they advance the corporate food regime and promote urban elite consumption. It differentiates vertical farms as local food projects that reproduce the capitalist industrial system rather than challenging it, facilitated by devalued built environments and labor surplus in neoliberal cities. The study concludes that these farms reproduce troubling trends in the corporate food regime, signifying capital's ability to standardize food cultivation and incorporate it into factory-like production systems.

Atănăsoaie George Sebastian · Annals - Economy Series · Global

Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms are an alternative to conventional agriculture but face numerous policy issues related to product, price, distribution, and promotion. A literature review indicated that farmers need to offer more flexible basket content in terms of quantity and product type, and consumers require information on product preparation and preservation. To offset the negative impact of high prices, measures such as cost reduction, flexible payment rescheduling, and compensation for financial resource deficits are necessary.

Dlamini Magagula, Khathi Khumalo, Nombuyisilwe Sithole, Kgosiwe Maseko · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · South Africa (Cape Town)

This study in Cape Town, South Africa, investigated the impact of community gardens on food security among the urban poor using mixed methods, including ten years of household food expenditure surveys. Participating households showed an average 20% increase in fresh produce consumption compared to non-participants, directly impacting nutrition levels. The review concluded that community gardening projects can enhance food security and quality of life, but further research is needed on best practices, scalability, long-term sustainability, and the impact of diverse crop cultivation.

Mirla Perea Murillo · Revista Bioetnia · Colombia (Istmina)

In Istmina, Colombia, the agronomic yield of two tomato varieties (Chonto Santa Cruz and Río Grande) was evaluated using urban farming techniques (bed and chorizo systems). Water and nutrient solution were used for plant hydration, and 12 beds and 12 chorizos were used for the study. As a result, the Río Grande variety cultivated in the bed planting system with added nutrient solution showed a higher yield, producing 134 tomatoes (16.76 kg), compared to the Chonto Santa Cruz variety, which produced 78 tomatoes (1.7 kg) using the same system and nutrient solution.

Md Rajibul Al Mamun · Urban Geography · Global

In the book "Food and the City: Urban Agriculture and the New Food Revolution," renowned food journalist Jennifer Cockrall-King explores urban farming conducted amid different customs.

WU De-hu · Anhui nongye kexue · China (Zhengzhou)

This study elaborated on the significance of developing characteristic agriculture in China's Central Economic Zone, using Zhengzhou urban agriculture as an example. It identified existing problems in urban agriculture development, including understanding deviation, extensive development, market confusion, short industrial chains, low specialization, and harsh environments. The research proposed countermeasures such as strengthening government macro-control, perfecting compensation mechanisms, and promoting scientific innovation and industrialization.

Charles E. Hess · HortScience · United States

Reflecting on horticultural science over the past 60 years, it is evident that it is in a period of great opportunity. Recognition of the role of fruits and vegetables in a healthful diet has led to food for health initiatives that encourage diets rich in horticultural crops. The 'locavore movement' fosters the popularity of purchasing locally, spurring increased interest in farmers' markets and urban gardening. Internationally, the idea of peri-urban gardening recognizes the value of horticultural crops in improving nutrition and income on relatively small areas of land in developing nations.