Research & reports

Leslie Gray, Patricia Guzmán, K. Michelle Glowa, Ann Drevno · Local Environment · United States (California)

This article examines La Mesa Verde, a home-gardening program in San Jose, California, to assess if home gardens offer similar financial, health, and community benefits as community gardens. The research explores the potential of home gardens to foster broader social change, cultural preservation, and self-determination, especially for recent immigrants.

Freda G. Sampson, Thomas G. Costello, Stacey Stevens, Desiree Squire · Journal of Law and Society · United States (Detroit)

This paper examines Detroit, United States, as a city in crisis, analyzing redevelopment conflicts between gentrification and revitalization. It applies a "Litmus Test for Equity and Opportunity" to current redevelopment efforts, including the Detroit Future City Plan and projects by Michael Ilitch & Company and Dan Gilbert. The analysis suggests that despite efforts, the complexities of this post-industrial city, particularly regarding its predominantly African-American population, are only superficially addressed, indicating ongoing equity challenges.

Alec Thornton · · South Pacific

This abstract links urban agriculture and local food production to food security and development in the South Pacific.

Kynda R. Curtis, Voravee Chakreeyarat, J. Dominique Gumirakiza · Digital Commons - USU (Utah State University) · Global

The concept of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs, also known as Subscription Farming, first originated in Japan in the 1960s. This concept was later introduced to the U.S. in the 1980s.

Claire Corbould · · Global

This abstract discusses the role of urban agriculture, which produces 15 to 20 percent of the world's food supply, in global food security. Urban populations are vulnerable to food insecurity as they rely on external food sources. Some commentators suggest that urban agriculture may provide a solution to food security issues in cities.

Robert Paarlberg · · Global

Organic foods, initially championed in the early 20th century, gained commercial significance in the 1990s as consumers sought to avoid chemical residues and improve nutrition. However, scientific support for nutritional benefits and significant reductions in pesticide residue risks is weak. While organic crops reduce chemical runoff, they require more land due to lower yields, leading to the promotion of "local" foods and urban agriculture.

M Cate Christ · · Singapore

This paper presents Singapore as a case study for the increasing importance of taking a commons perspective on food supply and security, as Singapore is a net-food importing country, importing 90% of its food from limited sources. The paper focuses on actions to diversify food sources, increase local food production, and promote food and agro-based industry, research, and development. In the context of a highly urbanized population with limited land and natural resources, it traces the recent history of food security policies and actions in Singapore regarding increased local production and examines several case studies demonstrating the development of research, technology, and community resources for urban agricultural production.

Marijke D’Haese, Nick Vink, Tharcisse Nkunzimana, Ellen Van Damme, Johan van Rooyen, Anne-Marie Remaut, Lotte Staelens, Luc D’Haese · Development Southern Africa · South Africa

Food insecurity remains high in rural KwaZulu-Natal province, South Africa. This study collected data from 390 beneficiary households in 2010 to assess the perceived impact of the Empowerment for Food Security Programme, launched in 2007, on food security. Findings confirmed that experience-based food insecurity levels were still high, despite the agricultural support program and government income transfers. However, respondents attributed improved dietary diversity and better access to resources to the program.

Prem José Vazhacharickal, Martina Předotová, D. Chandrasekharam, Sharit K. Bhowmik, Buerkert, Andreas · Journal of Agriculture and Rural Development in the Tropics and Subtropics (University of Kassel) · India (Mumbai)

A study surveyed 38 railway gardeners to characterize urban and peri-urban agricultural production along railway tracks in the Mumbai Metropolitan Region. Irrigation water contained nutrients but also heavy metals such as lead, cadmium, and mercury, and pathogens like Escherichia coli. Heavy metal levels exceeded critical thresholds in surface soils for chromium, nickel, and strontium, and in produce for lead, cadmium, and strontium.

Franklin Obeng‐Odoom · Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems · Africa

Data from living standards and demographic health surveys and poverty trend studies in various African countries indicate that urban agriculture substantially contributes to food production and farmers' incomes. The article argues that urban agriculture empowers rather than limits, but to realize its full potential for food security in African cities, it must be understood within a broader socioeconomic and political reality. Factors like food safety, access, and distribution require careful attention.

Benjamin Carl Kerrick · OhioLink ETD Center (Ohio Library and Information Network) · Global

Urban growth in the 20th and 21st centuries has increased urban food demand while diminishing agricultural production areas around cities. Urban agriculture can expand food access, engage urban dwellers in food production, and utilize unused urban lots. Idle or vacant land, both public and private, represents an important resource for this purpose.

Kelly Donati, Christopher Taylor, Craig J. Pearson · · Australia (Melbourne)

Australian policy initiatives address threats to food production from climate change and petrochemical dependency, as well as socio-economic disadvantage. In Victoria, natural disasters like droughts, bushfires, and floods have increased food costs for low-income households. This case study explores farmers markets and community gardens in Melbourne as potential localized food systems, collecting data between 2009 and 2010 using GIS-based land use descriptions and interviews with local producers.

Akosua Owusu-Bonsu, Yaa Afua, Kofi Agyeiwa, Bright Emmanuel Owusu · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · India (Mumbai)

This study investigated market access and economic benefits of greenhouse hydroponics among urban farmers in Mumbai's coastal slums and Ghana's agricultural hubs. Using a mixed-methods approach, data showed that hydroponic greenhouse production led to a 45% increase in vegetable yields compared to traditional farming methods, with over 70% of producers reporting higher income from market sales. Market access was significantly improved through partnerships with local NGOs and government initiatives.

Kevin J. Holohan · Language arts journal of Michigan · United States

This paper is based on an empirical study conducted at a charter high school in a Midwestern US metropolitan area. The study investigated how social ecology, with urban agriculture as a hands-on practice, fosters an ideal of citizenship through a program where students collect traditional Puerto Rican recipes from elders and grow the necessary produce within their community.

Philani Moyo · Journal of Human Ecology · Zimbabwe

This study qualitatively examined the role and contribution of urban agriculture to household food security, employment creation, and income generation among low-income working-class and urban poor households in Bulawayo townships, Zimbabwe. It was found that urban food production significantly contributes to household food access and security, improving dietary diversity and nutritional intake. However, the potential of urban agriculture is constrained by factors including land tenure insecurity, erratic water access, small plot sizes, inadequate capital for optimizing plot productivity, and ambivalent application of urban land-use laws.

Annisya Noer Wiyanti · · Indonesia (Surabaya)

A descriptive qualitative study investigated the implementation of an urban farming program for the Sumber Trisno Alami group in Bulak District, Surabaya City, which began in 2011. The program aimed to meet food needs, improve nutrition, and boost the economy for 6000 poor households. However, the program's implementation was not considered successful in achieving its poverty reduction goal, with some suggesting its discontinuation.

Priyanie Amerasinghe, Vajira Hettige, K. V. A. H. P. Wijenayake · Documents & Reports (World Bank) · Sri Lanka

Agricultural development for food, nutrition, and livelihood security is a high political priority in Sri Lanka. National priorities include developing food-secure and resilient cities, with the Western Province initiating its urban agriculture campaign in 2000.

Danfeng Huang · Journal of Changjiang Vegetables · Global

This paper discussed the importance of intensive vegetable production in urban agriculture, highlighting its role in guaranteeing the supply, quality, and safety of fresh vegetables. It summarized key aspects of intensive production, including industrialized seedling production, facility production, efficient cultivation, postharvest processing, and commercial management, but also presented environmental problems and restricting factors in the development of intensive vegetable production.

Marco Luca Stanchieri · X Jornadas de Sociología · Spain (Barcelona)

This paper explores the concept of "urban voids" in contemporary cities, focusing on abandoned plots resulting from unfulfilled urban reform projects. It argues that despite being defined as "voids," these spaces are sites of active human social practices, serving for common appropriation, self-management, conflict, and negotiation, fostering neighborhood cohesion and community action. Based on ethnographic data from Barcelona, the paper aims to expose the misleading nature of urbanistic language that defines socially vibrant spaces as "voids," questioning the social exclusion mechanisms supported by such definitions.

Heather Mackay Niittylä · · Ghana

This thesis mapped and investigated the form and function of urban agriculture in two intermediate-sized cities in Ghana. It examined the contribution to farming households' food security.

Esteban Sinde Stompel · Navarra forestal: revista de la Asociación Forestal de Navarra · Global

Mushroom cultivation is being introduced into urban garden design and as a real silvicultural alternative to be implemented on forest land. In the latter case, the production of saprophytic fungi on valueless wood waste offers a notable environmental advantage by recycling biomass and providing a highly nutritious ecological food.

Roseline J. Akinlade, Olubunmi Lawrence Balogun, Adekemi A. Obisesan, Akinlade, Roseline J., Balogun, Olubunmi L., Obisesan, Adekemi A. · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · Nigeria

This study analyzed the determinants of commercialization among 230 urban vegetable farmers in Oyo and Lagos states, southwest Nigeria, using primary survey data and a Tobit model. It found that farmers' participation in domestic and regional markets remains low due to various constraints, notably poor market access. The average farm size was 0.05ha, and the average market participation index was 0.73. Factors influencing commercialization included age, farm size, association membership, education, distance to market, and input costs. The study concluded that social capital significantly affects market participation, and recommended proactive support from governments and NGOs to facilitate farmer organizations and market linkages.

Glenda Dimuro, Esteban de Manuel Jeréz · POLI-RED (Revistas Digitales Politécnicas) (La Universidad Politécnica de Madrid) · Brazil (São Paulo)

This paper presents the 'Cidades sem fome' project, a citizen initiative in São Paulo's degraded areas. Through urban agriculture, this project enables residents to satisfy basic needs, regain control over their lives, and challenge market-driven growth processes. It aims to reduce hunger and unemployment, foster social mobilization, and rehabilitate degraded urban areas, offering an alternative to current urban production and management models.

Cortnee Martin · · United States (Indianapolis)

This piece about a refugee-tended urban farm on the west side of Indianapolis, primarily sourced from an interview with the farm's creator, highlights how it helps a marginalized community maintain their culture and traditions while integrating into a new home. The project is described as an effort to assist a vulnerable population.

Catalina Freixas, Pablo Moyano Fernandez · Suburban Sustainability · United States (St. Louis)

This paper examines the role of eco-urbanism in St. Louis, a shrinking city experiencing population loss and economic decline since the 1950s. It reviews the implementation and benefits of three eco-urbanism strategies: community gardens, greenways, and urban forests. The study identifies social, ecological, and economic benefits, and suggests further adoption of eco-urbanism ideology and improved implementation strategies by the municipal government.