Research & reports

Patricia Allen, Julie Guthman, Amy Wilson Morris · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · United States (California)

A research brief examining whether alternative food initiatives (AFIs) such as community supported agriculture (CSA) and farmers' markets can meet the food security needs of low-income consumers, based on interviews and surveys of farmers' market and CSA managers throughout California. The authors conclude that AFIs are not, and cannot be, substitutes for state entitlements in meeting the food security needs of low-income people.

Juliana Portela do Rego Monteiro, Maria do Socorro Lira Monteiro · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · Brazil

A study of 43 urban gardens in Teresina, Piauí state, Brazil, analyzed via primary data collection and field research whether the gardens function as a means of generating work and income and improving socioeconomic conditions without degrading the environment. Most gardeners were women over 45 with incomplete elementary education, earning up to one minimum wage, originally from the state's interior, who had worked in agriculture before joining the gardens and worked them as a family. Most had not participated in training since entering the program, used their own resources for production, concentrated 70.08% of output on cilantro, chives and lettuce, and sold produce mainly on-site; soil amendment relied mostly on manure with limited chemical fertilizer, and only 36.81% of gardeners used pesticides. The study concludes that low remuneration, stemming from limited crop diversity, poor organization and lack of financing, led some family members to seek alternative income.

Cristiane Cardoso Pessôa, Marcelino de Souza, Ilaine Schuch · Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional · Brazil

This study interviewed 38 and later 20 families in five neighborhoods of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, on the contribution of urban agriculture to household income and diet. Results showed that the activity does not necessarily provide additional income but does produce meaningful savings, since certain foods no longer need to be purchased; the food produced supplies important nutrients but lacks foods richer in minerals, which the families do not grow themselves, and the activity functions more as subsistence, non-market production that supplements diets with fresh food relatively free of industrial contaminants.

Myreide Marinez Da Silva, J. L. P. Araujo, Aryon de Almeida Barbosa, Ariana Ferreira da Silva, Leyla Menezes de Santana, C. R. R. S. França · · Brazil

This study assessed the economic viability of an agroecological system for growing vegetables in the Nova Descoberta community, in the interior of Petrolina, Pernambuco state, Brazil. Coriander (Coriandrum sativum) was the economically dominant crop, accounting for nearly 85% of the garden's total monetary income, followed by lettuce (Lactuca sativa) at over 13%, while all remaining crops together reached only 2.3% of total sales value, though the study notes their cultivation was expected to expand with the continuing agroecological conversion process to diversify species grown.

Morris A. Davis, Michael G. Palumbo · Federal Reserve Board FEDS Working Paper 2006-25 · United States

Builds a database of home values, structure costs and land values for 46 large US metropolitan areas from 1984 to 2004, and shows the land share of a home's market value rose from about 32 percent in 1984 to about 50 percent by 2004. Reports that since 1998 nearly all large US cities saw substantial real increases in residential land prices.

Soren T. Anderson, Sarah E. West · Regional Science and Urban Economics 36(6): 773-789 · United States (Minneapolis-St. Paul)

A hedonic analysis of home transactions in the Minneapolis-St. Paul metro area finds that the value of proximity to open space is higher in dense neighborhoods, those near the central business district, high-income, high-crime, or with many children. Warns that applying the metro-wide average value to a specific neighborhood can substantially overestimate or underestimate what open space is worth there.

Banting Doug, Doshi Hitesh, Li James, Missios Paul · Munich Personal RePEc Archive (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich) · Canada (Toronto)

This report presents findings on the municipal-level benefits of implementing green roof technology in Toronto, Canada. Quantifiable monetary benefits included stormwater flow reduction (including impact on combined sewer overflow), air quality improvement, reduced direct energy use, and reduction in the urban heat island effect. Other benefits like aesthetic improvement, increased property values, use as amenity spaces, food production, and increased biodiversity were identified but could not be quantified in this report, requiring further work.

Erin M. Tegtmeier, Michael Duffy · Iowa State University Digital Repository (Iowa State University) · United States

A survey of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operations across the Midwest United States characterized their operations and profitability. The study presented the characteristics and profitability of these CSA operations.

Goldsmith, Leah · Occidental College Scholar (Occidental College) · United States (Los Angeles)

Low-income neighborhoods, communities of color, and immigrant communities in Los Angeles often experience unjust access to fresh, healthy foods. Project CAFE published the "Los Angeles Fresh Food Access Guide" in 2002 to inform residents of fresh food resources like farmers' markets and community gardens. This study conducted research on language and formatting to make information easy to understand, aiming to revise the guide for a lower literacy audience. The revised guide will include updated food resource information and new content focusing on the linkages between food and health.

Courtney Tchida · University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy (University of Minnesota) · United States (Minnesota)

This report develops an educational curriculum for teachers to use at Gale Woods Farm and in classrooms. Gale Woods Farm, a 410-acre educational farm in Minnetrista, Minnesota, aims to connect people to their food source through sustainable farming methods. The curriculum focuses on creating awareness of farming, food production, and agricultural practices emphasizing environmental stewardship.

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.

Christela Castro · Digital Commons - CSUMB (California State University, Monterey Bay) · United States (California)

The School Garden Project in Monterey County, California, was designed to address childhood obesity, which affected 21.3% of children in the county, with 50.6% of those being Hispanic. The project specifically targeted Hispanic children to tackle this issue.

Sidney Tarrow · Cambridge University Press eBooks · United States (New York City)

During New York City's fiscal crisis, abandoned lots led to urban decay. A community garden movement emerged in the late 1970s, with groups like "Green Oasis" and "Green Guerillas" transforming derelict lots into gardens. This movement gained support from city, state, and federal governments, including financial aid and assistance from Cornell University's Cooperative Extension Service.

Amanda Brown, Antonin van der Lely, Camilo Cortes, Eileen Leung, Fung Lam, Liz Overton, Muneera Hussain · cIRcle (University of British Columbia) · Canada

The UBC Food Systems Project evaluated the effects of campus development on creating a sustainable food system at the University of British Columbia (UBC). Researchers identified barriers and opportunities in UBC's Official Community Plan (OCP) and Comprehensive Community Plan (CCP), then proposed "The Edible Campus" urban agricultural strategy. This strategy included six actions like demonstration gardens and food production on buildings, with recommendations for future viability studies.

M.R. Gorham, Tina M. Waliczek · HortScience · United States (Houston)

This study aimed to determine if a relationship existed between reported property crimes and the presence of inner city community gardens in Houston, Texas. Property crime data from 1995 through 2004 were obtained from the Houston Police Department, and crime rates within a 1/8-mile radius surrounding community gardens were compared to the property crime rate for the entire police beat. The abstract does not state the study's results.

Kerry Martens · ˜The œAgricultural education magazine · United States (Connecticut)

This paper recounts the author's personal experience in a regional suburban agricultural education program in Connecticut, detailing how it changed their career goals and led them to become an agriculture teacher. The author reports acquiring transferable skills, such as record-keeping and working within a budget through a portfolio-based SAE project. The experience concludes that large, suburban agricultural education programs offer great opportunities.

K. Brandon Lang · Journal of Sustainable Agriculture · United States

This study tested eleven hypotheses on member satisfaction in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) using survey data from 204 members of 5 mid-Atlantic CSAs during the 2000 growing season. Results indicated that satisfaction positively correlated with supporting alternative agricultural practices, frequency of CSA visits, years of membership, and the likelihood of shares meeting produce needs. Being vegetarian, female, older, or a working member were additional predictors of satisfaction.

Fernando Neira Orjuela · Estudios Demográficos y Urbanos · Mexico

This study examines San Luis Tlaxialtemalco, a town of 12,553 inhabitants in the Xochimilco borough in southern Mexico City that engages in urban agriculture, through a survey of 185 households, to determine whether greenhouses are a viable option for generating household income and which forms of family economic participation and sexual division of labor prevail. It also examines whether access to financial resources, age, and educational attainment give wives greater say in decision-making and freedom of movement, comparing them with wives engaged in paid and unpaid non-farm activities in the same town.

Ron Sawyer, Anne Delmaire, Andrés A. Buenfil · · Mexico

A study shares initial experiences from TepozEco, a pilot program for holistic ecological sanitation planning in Tepoztlan, Mexico, which includes promoting ecological toilets, water demand and greywater management, rainwater harvesting, organic waste recycling, urban agriculture, and environmental education. The project's initial phase is described as encouraging, attributed mainly to an iterative, flexible, and responsive design process—adaptive planning—and a close network of partners and collaborators; while the local context is in some respects unique, particularly regarding institutional resources, local environmental awareness, and local government commitment, the municipality's socioeconomic conditions reflect those of much of Latin America, suggesting TepozEco could serve as an ecological sanitation model for a significant part of Mexico, Central America, and South America.

Brian Noy · University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy (University of Minnesota) · United States

A research project examined community gardens in the Twin Cities, Minnesota, USA, against a backdrop of rising development pressure and disappearing vacant space, looking at public land use policies and how cooperation between public agencies and community organizations affects garden creation and protection. Creating an inventory of public land use policies in St Paul and Ramsey County, including the city's water utility policy for community gardens, the project found that gardening is possible on most types of public land and that gardens have had generally successful relationships with most landowning agencies—but also found that a lack of this policy information has been a crucial barrier to garden implementation and has in some cases prevented development. District councils were found to both collaborate with city planners and act as community organizers, giving them, as nonprofits with a direct relationship to city government, access to funding and public lands not available to other organizations.

Nicholaus K Harris · · United States (California)

An assessment in West Oakland, California, evaluated new community food programs — community gardens, mobile markets and local farmers markets — that went beyond typical food banks to address food insecurity. In spring 2005, the researcher interviewed program leaders and 45 West Oakland residents. Results showed residents were generally aware of how to eat healthily but unable to do so because of limited proximity to vendors stocking healthy foods; many used the farmers market, but few relied on the other community food programs, and residents living close to the farmers market and community gardens benefited more than those elsewhere. The study concludes that educational campaigns and the placement of additional food programs are needed to improve access.

Vicente de Paula, Mário T. Kato, Lourdinha Florêncio · Revista Brasileira de Engenharia Agrícola e Ambiental · Brazil

A study evaluated the physicochemical and bacteriological quality of water used to irrigate vegetables in an urban agriculture area along the BR-101 southern ring road in Recife, Brazil. Water samples were collected from six existing wells in the agricultural area during the dry season, October to December 2003, and analyzed for physicochemical parameters (electrical conductivity, Ca2+, Mg2+, Na+, K+, Cl-, HCO3-, nitrate-N, ammonium-N, pH, and sodium adsorption ratio) and fecal coliform. The physicochemical quality of the irrigation water showed no risk of soil salinization or alkalinization, nor of specific toxicity to plants.

Fernando Neira Orjuela · · Mexico

This study focuses on San Luis Tlaxialtemalco, a town of 12,553 people in the Xochimilco delegation in southern Mexico City. Because the town practices urban agriculture, a survey of 185 households provided an opportunity to examine whether greenhouses are a viable option for generating household income, and the forms of family economic participation and sexual division of labor that shape this. The study also sought to clarify whether access to economic resources, age, and schooling grant wives the final say in household decision-making and freedom of movement, comparing them with wives engaged in salaried and non-salaried non-agricultural activities.

Samantha Langley-Turnbaugh, David E. Wilkinson, D. Rocque · Soil Survey Horizons · United States

This study characterized urban soils in a low-income neighborhood of Portland, Maine, that was heavily industrialized in the late 1800s, examining seven pedons for particle size, cation exchange capacity (CEC), base saturation, exchangeable bases, pH, and trace elements (Pb, Cr, Cu, Co, Cd, Ni, Zn, Hg, Ti, Zr). The soils contained numerous artifacts and showed a high degree of horizontal and vertical spatial variability; several trace elements were present at elevated levels, with lead (Pb) the dominant metal in surface horizons (600 mg/kg), and many metals correlated with each other and with iron and aluminum, and some with clay content and pH, though the study concludes that mapping soil units by specific trace element ranges would be difficult given the extreme variability observed.

Lauren Baker · Geographical Review · Canada (Toronto)

Toronto's community gardens, numbering over 100, are sites of place-based politics linked to the community food-security movement. These gardens reflect the city's cultural landscape and serve as a strategy to regenerate the local food system and provide access to healthy, affordable food. Three case studies illustrate the complexities of "food citizenship" and the role gardeners play in transforming urban spaces.