Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
9385 results(122 / 376)
Inside Zambia's 'new normal:' COVID-19 policy responses and implications for peri-urban food security and livelihoods
2022Manda S. · Journal of International Development · Zambia (Chongwe, Lusaka)
This study examines how Zambia's COVID-19 'new normal' policies disrupted peri-urban food production and market access near Lusaka, finding that ~53% of small-scale farmers reported zero agricultural income and that policy responses lacked systematic agricultural support.
PolicyEconomicsCommunityWelfarePlanning the urban foodscape: policy and regulation of urban agriculture in Aotearoa New Zealand
2022Hanna C., Wallace P. · Kōtuitui: New Zealand Journal of Social Sciences Online, Vol. 17, No. 3, pp. 313–335 · New Zealand
Examining the four largest New Zealand cities, this paper reveals a significant policy vacuum for urban agriculture, with restrictive zoning, inadequate recognition of Māori food practices, and a failure to accommodate emerging urban food-growing forms, calling for targeted municipal policy reform.
PolicyCommunityProduction and Application of Organic Waste Compost for Urban Agriculture in Emerging Cities
2022Asian research network · ResearchGate · Asia
Research on organic waste composting and its application in urban agriculture across emerging Asian cities, integrating circular agriculture with waste reduction.
CompostOrganic cycleA review on waste management and compost production in the Middle East–North Africa region
2022Hussein L., Uren C., Rekik F., Hammami Z. · Waste Management & Research · Middle East, North Africa
Comprehensive review of waste management and composting strategies in MENA region, with implications for circular urban agriculture in water-scarce contexts.
CompostOrganic cyclePolicyExamining Community Participation in Urban Agriculture: Utilizing Structural Equation Modeling to Assess the Impact of Communication Media
2022Yuniarsih, Salam, Kantori, Mursyid · SSRN Academic Repository · Indonesia (Makassar)
Structural equation modeling study of 622 respondents in Makassar, Indonesia examining community participation in urban agriculture and the impact of social media communication on engagement.
CommunityFarmer attitudes and perceptions toward gleaning programs and the donation of excess produce to food rescue organizations
2022Harvey S., Mount P., Valentine H., Gibson C. · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development, 11(4):233-247 · United States
Interviewing 12 farmers who participated in a gleaning program and 16 who did not in the Greater Kansas City metro area, this study analyses motivations for and barriers to donating surplus produce to food-rescue organisations such as food banks. Participants cited ease of donating and tax incentives; non-participants cited safety and liability concerns. It informs the design of food-rescue schemes that redirect urban and peri-urban farm surplus to community food aid.
Food lossCommunityWelfareEconomicsEffect of horticultural therapy on apathy in nursing home residents with dementia: a pilot randomized controlled trial
2022Yang Y., Kwan R.Y.C., Zhai H.M., Xiong Y., Zhao T., Fang K.L., Zhang H.Q. · Aging & Mental Health, 26(4):745-753 · China
A pilot randomized controlled trial allocating 32 nursing home residents with dementia to horticultural therapy or control. Post-intervention, between-group differences in apathy (Apathy Evaluation Scale) and cognition (MMSE) were statistically significant, indicating horticultural therapy may improve apathy in older people with dementia. It supports embedding gardening in elderly welfare and dementia-care programmes.
ElderlyWelfareHealthA simplified non-greenhouse hydroponic system for small-scale soilless urban vegetable farming
2022Gumisiriza M.S., Ndakidemi P.A., Mbega E.R. · MethodsX, 9:101882 · Tanzania
A methods paper presenting a simplified, non-greenhouse hydroponic system built from low-cost, readily available materials using the Kratky method, with detailed step-by-step instructions. Requiring no specialised equipment or power, it offers a reproducible, self-buildable approach to soilless vegetable growing in confined urban spaces, supporting DIY and maker-style citizen food production.
DIYEconomicsCommunitySmall‐scale silvopasture: Addressing urban and peri‐urban livestock challenges in the United States with agroforestry practices
2022Ashley Conway, Christine Nieman · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · United States
This literature review identifies three key barriers to keeping livestock in US urban and peri-urban agriculture—animal feed resources, water quality and nutrient cycling, and use of heavy-metal-contaminated sites—and argues that agroforestry (silvopasture) practices can help address them. The authors propose two theoretical silvopasture systems, one for urban and one for peri-urban settings, and call for future whole-system research.
Organic cycleBiodiversityThere Grows the City: A Long History of Urban Agriculture in Milwaukee, Wisconsin
2022Michael Carriere, David Schalliol · Journal of Urban History · United States (Milwaukee)
This historical essay documents the history of urban agriculture in Milwaukee, Wisconsin, complicating the "declensionist" narrative of the twentieth-century U.S. city. It argues that food production played a significant and often overlooked role in Milwaukee's economic, social, and spatial development, even during industrial expansion. The authors show that urban agriculture remained a viable tool for urban redevelopment, used by both public- and private-sector actors well into the twenty-first century.
EconomicsCommunityPolicyExcess fertility in residential‐scale urban agriculture soils in two western Oregon cities, USA
2022Mykl Nelson, Gwynne Mhuireach, Gail A. Langellotto · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · United States (Oregon)
To characterize residential-scale urban agriculture soils, the authors sampled 27 residential vegetable gardens in two western Oregon cities, distinguishing in-ground beds from raised beds. They found these soils frequently exceeded recommended ranges for many fertility parameters—likely due to routine overapplication of compost, amendments, and fertilizers—with raised beds significantly higher than in-ground beds in carbon/nitrogen ratio, active carbon, and sulfur.
CompostOrganic cycleWho Gardens and How in Urban USA: Informing Social Equity in Urban Agriculture Action Plans
2022Kirti Das, Anu Ramaswami · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · United States
Based on a survey of 6,152 representative urbanites in three US cities, this paper analyzes the demographics of agricultural gardeners and the types of gardening practiced. It finds low engagement in community gardening (~2%) versus household gardening (~27%), that household gardening was dominated by higher-income White males, and that community gardening was more diverse but too low in participation to scale benefits—underscoring the need for data on who gardens to design equitable urban agriculture.
CommunityPolicyBiological Control Services from Parasitic Hymenoptera in Urban Agriculture
2022Joshua Earl Arnold · Insects · United States (California)
Over two growing seasons, this study sampled brassica crops at urban agriculture sites spanning a gradient of surrounding landscape imperviousness, size, and management to assess parasitic Hymenoptera abundance, richness, and parasitism of the cabbage aphid. On-farm agroecological practices—mulch coverage, floral richness, and crop-plant richness—and larger on-farm noncrop area increased parasitoid abundance, and greater crop-plant richness raised aphid parasitism, supporting the enemies hypothesis in urban agroecosystems.
Biodiversity"The highest and best use of land in the city": Valuing urban agriculture in Philadelphia and Chicago
2022Domenic Vitiello · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development · United States
Using mixed methods, this article traces the evolution of urban agriculture practice, support, and policy in Philadelphia and Chicago since the 1990s, contrasting cities that treat farming and gardening as public goods with those seeking economic and redevelopment gains. It finds that while both cities became prominent urban farming centers, Chicago increasingly treated urban agriculture as a public good whereas its status in Philadelphia remained contested and unstable.
PolicyEconomicsCommunityWith sustainable use of local inputs, urban agriculture delivers community benefits beyond food
2022María Teresa Gómez-Villarino, Teresa Briz · California Agriculture · United States (Berkeley)
This study examined urban gardens in Berkeley, California, and Madrid, Spain, to observe how agroecological principles—efficient, sustainable use of local resources and inputs—are practiced. It reports that gardens using good ecological practices provide a wide range of ecosystem services, including cultural services such as places to socialize, and can serve as model urban agricultural centers contributing to the UN Sustainable Development Goals.
CommunityOrganic cycleBiodiversityQuantifying use in a community garden program with extensive resource provision to gardeners
2022Alexandra Niedzwiecki, Norah Kates, Sally Brown, Kristen McIvor · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · United States (Tacoma)
This study surveyed 66 community gardens (1,960 plots) in the nonprofit Harvest Pierce County program in Tacoma and Pierce County, Washington, which provides gardeners with land, soil testing, clean soil, compost, water, and education. It found gardens were well-used across the program (mean use intensity 2.26 on a 0–3 scale), with larger gardens and plots used more intensively, and gardens well distributed across income, population density, and racial identity—suggesting the resource-provision model is inclusive.
CommunityCompostAttitudes and Perceptions of Community Gardens: Making a Place for Them in Our Neighborhoods
2022Sinan Kordon, Patrick A. Miller, Cermetrius L. Bohannon · Land · United States (Roanoke)
This study used a scene-rating survey in Roanoke, Virginia, to investigate the attitudes and perceptions of four groups (community gardeners, community-and-home gardeners, home gardeners, and non-gardeners) toward community gardens. Analysis identified seven dimensions important to preferences—including gathering/seating, plots with and without boundaries, focal points, garden entrance, untidy space, and composting structures—with significant group differences on all but "gathering and seating," yielding design recommendations to reduce opposition and support long-term garden survival.
CommunityPolicyBlack intimacies with food sovereignty and land in the midst of gentrification in Saint Paul’s historic Rondo
2022Parvathy Binoy · Human Geography · United States (Saint Paul)
Drawing on ethnographic and visual documentation of the Aurora Saint Anthony Peace Garden in Saint Paul's historic Black neighborhood of Rondo, this article argues that the elder-led Urban Farmer Garden Alliance and its community garden sustain an intimacy of Black food sovereignty amid gentrification. It contends the gardens work to restore collective Black connection to land and food disrupted by urban renewal and a lack of affordable food access.
CommunityPolicyGardens in a postsuburb: Community garden governance and ethos in Orange County
2022Eiji Toda, Edward Lowe · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development · United States (Orange County, California)
This study reports six case studies of community gardens in southern Orange County, California, asking how garden governance and an overarching garden ethos are elaborated. It finds gardens manifest one of three governance approaches—anarchic, democratic, or corporate—and two value frameworks (a community-oriented ethos and an individualistic ethos), arguing postsuburban gardens may address perceived shortcomings of postsuburban regions.
CommunityPolicyCommunity Supported Agriculture, Human Capital, and Community Health
2022Celina L. Martinez, Daisy Rosero, Tammy Thomas, Francisco Soto Mas · Health Promotion Practice · United States (New Mexico)
This qualitative study assessed how community-supported agriculture (CSA) contributes to human capital and addresses social determinants of health in central and northern New Mexico, using questionnaires with 13 purposively sampled CSAs (8 responded). The responding CSAs reported activities such as training, job creation, education, access to healthy food, food security, health education, social connections, and food justice. The authors argue public health should support CSA and generate evidence on its health and social benefits.
CommunityHealthEconomicsImpacts of Urban Expansion on the Loss and Fragmentation of Cropland in the Major Grain Production Areas of China
2022· Land · China
Analyzes how urban expansion drives the loss and fragmentation of cropland in China's major grain production areas.
PolicyBiodiversityHeavy Metal Pollution and Health Risk Assessment of Vegetable-Soil Systems of Facilities Irrigated with Wastewater in Northern China
2022· International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · China (Shenyang)
A study of heavy metal distribution and migration in vegetable-soil systems in a wastewater-irrigated area near Shenyang, northern China, assessing health risks across exposure pathways.
HealthThe More Natural the Window, the Healthier the Isolated People—A Pathway Analysis in Xi'an, China, during the COVID-19 Pandemic
2022· International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · China (Xi'an)
Pathway analysis of home-isolated residents in Xi'an during COVID-19, linking exposure to natural window views and plants with fewer depressive and anxiety symptoms.
HealthWelfareCommunity Gardens in China: Spatial distribution, patterns, perceived benefits and barriers
2022· Sustainable Cities and Society · China
Maps the spatial distribution and patterns of community gardens across China and, via field surveys and interviews, identifies perceived benefits and barriers—finding social, ecological and health benefits rated above economic ones.
CommunityPolicySoil microbial communities shift along an urban gradient in Berlin, Germany
2022· Frontiers in Microbiology · Germany (Berlin)
Investigated how soil microbial communities shift along an urban gradient in Berlin, highlighting that microbial communities inhabiting urban soils govern nutrient cycling and support of plant communities.
Organic cycleBiodiversity