Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
7626 results(135 / 306)
Chemical and biological indicators of soil health in Chicago urban gardens and farms
2020Carmen M. Ugarte, John R. Taylor · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · United States (Chicago)
This study evaluated chemical and biological soil-health indicators at 21 urban-to-periurban sites in Chicago (home gardens, community gardens, institutional farms, and private urban farms). It measured soil fertility, nematode trophic composition and food-web indices, and concentrations of lead, arsenic, and zinc; nematode communities differed by management scale and were likely influenced by soil organic matter and pH. Lead, arsenic, and zinc were below levels of concern, and soil fertility was significantly increased by management, particularly in community gardens and urban farms.
CompostBiodiversityCommunityDevelopment and validation of the Just Community Gardening Survey: A measure of the social and dietary outcomes of community garden participation
2020Kate G. Burt, Kathleen Delgado · Electronic Green Journal · United States (New York)
This study developed and validated a survey measuring the social and dietary outcomes of community garden participation in relation to food-system equity, testing it with community gardeners in New York City (n=38). The resulting 25-item Just Community Gardening Survey showed high test-retest reliability and internal consistency and covers domains such as social cohesion, collective efficacy, dietary intake, and food access, incorporating food-justice aspects not assessed in prior research.
CommunityHealthPolicyTowards sustainable urban food systems: Analyzing contextual and intrapsychic drivers of growing food in small-scale urban agriculture
2020Mohammed Hussen Alemu, Carola Grebitus · PLOS ONE · United States
This study used choice experiments and latent class analysis in North America to quantitatively examine what drives consumer preferences for growing food in community gardens. It found that providing tools and guidance were the most important contextual factors for participation, that proponents were characterized by high subjective knowledge and perceived benefits, and that opponents had low knowledge. The authors suggest the findings can inform policies promoting sustainable urban food systems.
CommunityPolicyDIYVacant lot to community garden conversion and crime in Milwaukee: a difference-in-differences analysis
2020David R Beam, Aniko Szabo, Jared Olson, Lawrence Hoffman, Kirsten M M Beyer · Injury Prevention · United States (Milwaukee)
Using a quasi-experimental difference-in-differences design, this study compared 53 vacant lots converted into community gardens with 159 matched control lots to assess effects on police-reported theft, violent, and nuisance crime in Milwaukee, Wisconsin. It found violent and nuisance crime rates were lower near the garden-conversion lots, with the most consistent reductions in violent crime within 250 m (about 3.7%–6.4%), while no substantial effect was seen for theft.
CommunityPolicyGrowing North Minneapolis: Connecting Youth and Community through Garden-based Experiential Learning
2020Mary Rogers, Illana Livstrom, Brandon Roiger, Amy Smith · HortTechnology · United States (Minneapolis)
Growing North Minneapolis (GNM) is an urban agriculture and youth development summer program in North Minneapolis, MN, run as a partnership between the University of Minnesota and community partners that recruits, trains, and employs youth aged 14–15 facing barriers to employment. Post-program qualitative surveys showed that youth learned across multiple domains of knowledge and valued the social interaction offered by the intergenerational mentorship structure.
Food educationCommunityWelfareDesign and Social Factors Affecting the Formation of Social Capital in Chinese Community Garden
2020· Sustainability · China
Surveys gardeners across community gardens in China to identify design and social factors shaping social capital. Finds that garden location and size affect resident interaction and the formation of bridging social capital.
CommunityPolicyTowards the Healthy Community: Residents' Perceptions of Integrating Urban Agriculture into the Old Community Micro-Transformation in Guangzhou, China
2020· Sustainability · China (Guangzhou)
Surveys residents' perceptions of integrating urban agriculture into micro-transformation of old communities in Guangzhou, discussed through the lens of building a healthy community.
HealthCommunityThe role of edible cities supporting sustainability transformation – A conceptual multi-dimensional framework tested on a case study in Germany
2020Artmann M., Sartison K., Vávra J. · Journal of Cleaner Production · Germany
Proposes a conceptual multi-dimensional framework positioning the edible city as a nature-based solution for sustainability transformation, tested on a German case study.
CommunityPolicyBiodiversityEdible cities – An innovative nature-based solution for urban sustainability transformation? An explorative study of urban food production in German cities
2020Sartison K., Artmann M. · Urban Forestry & Urban Greening · Germany
An explorative study of urban food production in German cities, examining edible cities as a nature-based solution and the drivers and constraints of implementation.
CommunityPolicyBiodiversityBeiräte als Instrument einer Ernährungswende – Die Etablierung von Ernährungsräten in Deutschland
2020Sieveking A., Schomerus C.-T. · Natur und Recht · Germany
Discusses the establishment of food policy councils (Ernährungsräte) in Germany as an advisory-council instrument for a food-system transition.
PolicyCommunityDecentralized Community Composting: Past, Present and Future Aspects of Italy
2020Bruni C., Akyol Ç., Cipolletta G., Eusebi A.L., Caniani D., Masi S., Colón J., Fatone F. · Sustainability · Italy
Reviews Italian legislation and implemented projects on decentralized community composting, arguing Italy can serve as a model for Mediterranean countries building decentralized composting programs.
DIYCompostCommunityCommunity-scale composting for food waste: A life-cycle assessment-supported case study
2020· Journal of Cleaner Production · Malaysia
Uses a university case study and life-cycle assessment to demonstrate community-scale food waste composting; with leaves as bulking agent it took 7 months, yielding 30% compost meeting organic fertiliser standards.
DIYCommunityFood lossPlacemaking in Action: Factors That Support or Obstruct the Development of Urban Community Gardens
2020· Sustainability · New Zealand; Germany
Using case studies in New Zealand and Germany, this study systematically analyzes the factors that support or obstruct the development of urban community gardens as placemaking.
CommunityPolicyConnecting Learning and Play in Farm-to-School Programs: Children's Culture, Local School Context and Nested Inequalities
2020· Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition · USA
A study of how farm-to-school educators combine education and play in a student-centered learning environment, considering children's culture, local school context, and nested inequalities.
Food educationCommunityMonitoring and mitigation of toxic heavy metals and arsenic accumulation in food crops: A case study of an urban community garden
2020Cooper A., Felix D., Alcantara F., Schroeder J. · Plant Direct · USA (San Diego)
At an urban community garden in San Diego, in-ground vegetables and fruit trees accumulated lead and arsenic, showing urban garden soils can contaminate food crops; raised beds with clean soil eliminated detectable contamination.
HealthCommunityThe tale of two community gardens: green aesthetics versus food justice in the big apple
2020· Agriculture and Human Values · New York City, USA
Contrasts two New York community gardens to reveal tensions between 'green aesthetics' and 'food justice,' arguing that an aesthetics/beautification orientation can align with gentrification and marginalize the needs of low-income communities of color.
CommunityPolicyNeighborhood Composition and Community Garden Locations: The Effect of Ethnicity, Income, and Education
2020Butterfield K. L. · Sociological Perspectives · USA
Analyzes how community garden locations relate to neighborhood composition, showing an uneven distribution in which gardens are not necessarily sited where most needed; ethnicity, income, and education shape access and can produce green-space inequity.
CommunityPolicyUrban food cultivation in the United Kingdom: Quantifying loss of allotment land and identifying potential for restoration
2020Dobson M., Edmondson J., Warren P. · Landscape and Urban Planning · United Kingdom
A GIS analysis of historic maps shows UK allotment land declined by about 65% from its peak to 2016. The loss is inequitable: the most deprived urban areas experienced eight times the level of allotment loss as the least deprived areas.
PolicyCommunityUrban agriculture: Declining opportunity and increasing demand—How observations from London, U.K., can inform effective response, strategy and policy on a wide scale
2020· Urban Forestry & Urban Greening · London, UK
In London, allotments comprise the largest area of urban agriculture yet provision is under threat and fails to meet demand. Despite well-documented benefits, the opportunity for urban food growing is declining under development pressure while demand rises.
PolicyCommunityFood for the Cities Programme
2020FAO · Food and Agriculture Organization · Latin America and Africa
FAO Food for the Cities Programme pilot case studies in Latin America and Africa. Examines linkages between urban farmers, food banks, and school meals; sustainable food system development; institutional market connections. Demonstrates public procurement models supporting urban farmers.
PolicyCommunityUrban gardening and neglected and underutilized species in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil
2020Manuela Alves da Cunha, Lidice Almeida Arlego Paraguassú, José Geraldo de Aquino Assis, Arthur Benjamin de Paula Carvalho Silva, Ryzia de Cassia Vieira Cardoso · Journal of Ethnobiology and Ethnomedicine · Brazil (Salvador)
A city-wide mapping of active food gardens in Salvador, Bahia, Brazil, followed by site visits and interviews with gardeners. Only 18 active food gardens could be located in the whole municipality; 17 took part (8 communal, 9 private). Gardeners averaged 55.76 years old and were 52.9% male overall, but women made up 87.5% of communal-garden gardeners and had higher education levels. For 52.9% of respondents the garden was their main source of income; 82.4% ate the produce, 70.6% also sold it and 47.1% donated. Fifty-nine neglected and underutilized species (NUS) were recorded, with 76.5% of respondents reporting they eat 19 of them. The gardens supply affordable food and food diversity without government support — but the very small absolute number of active gardens in a city of this size is equally part of the finding.
Heirloom & landraceBiodiversityCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceA Multi-Sectoral Approach Improves Early Child Development in a Disadvantaged Community in Peru: Role of Community Gardens, Nutrition Workshops and Enhanced Caregiver-Child Interaction: Project "Wawa Illari"
2020Doris González-Fernández, Ana Sofía Mazzini Salom, Fermina Herrera Bendezu, Sonia Huamán, Bertha Rojas Hernández, Illène Pevec, Eliana Mariana Galarza Izquierdo, Nicoletta Armstrong, Virginia Thomas, Sonia Vela Gonzáles, Carlos Gonzáles Saravia, Marilyn E. Scott, Kristine G. Koski · Frontiers in Public Health · Peru (Lima)
In peripheral settlements of the Pachacámac district of metropolitan Lima, Peru, community health promoters delivered a sequence of (1) home and community gardens, (2) 'conscious nutrition' and (3) parenting workshops (ICDP), comparing 113 children aged 0–3 in intervention communities with 127 in control communities at baseline, 8 and 12 months. The interventions significantly reduced the risk of food insecurity (adjusted risk ratio 0.20, 95% CI 0.08–0.51) and of language delay (0.39, 0.19–0.82), but did not significantly improve motor or social/cognitive delay. Multiple micronutrient supplement use lowered motor delay risk (0.12), while households with more pets had higher risk of motor delay (3.24), social/cognitive delay (2.72) and food insecurity (1.73). Because gardens were bundled with nutrition and parenting components, the contribution of the gardens alone cannot be isolated.
Limited or null effectHealthFood educationCommunityWelfareUrban Horticulture for Food Secure Cities through and beyond COVID-19
2020Muhammad Mumtaz Khan, Muhammad Tahir Akram, Rhonda Janke, Rashad Qadri, Abdullah M. Al‐Sadi, Aitazaz A. Farooque · Sustainability · Global
This study reviews contemporary urban horticulture, illustrating traditional and innovative developments, as a response to global concerns about food supply and environmental protection in urban settings, exacerbated by factors like population growth and the COVID-19 pandemic. It highlights how current urban cropping systems can be enhanced with modern techniques like vertical gardening and hydroponics. These methods are presented as eco-friendly, energy-saving, and capable of ensuring consistent fresh food supplies and more sustainable agriculture.
Food sovereignty & justiceCommunityDIYClimate changeNature-based solutions as discursive tools and contested practices in urban nature’s neoliberalisation processes
2020Panagiota Kotsila, Isabelle Anguelovski, Francesc Baró, Johannes Langemeyer, Filka Sekulova, James J. Connolly · Environment and Planning E Nature and Space · Spain (Barcelona)
This paper analyzes nature-based solutions (NBS) as discursive tools that create an inviting space for nature's neoliberalization processes, examining two city-initiated projects in Barcelona, Spain: the Passeig de Sant Joan green corridor and the Espai Germanetes community garden. The study found that urban nature can serve elite economic players at the expense of widespread socio-ecological benefits. It also noted that outcomes regarding neoliberalism and its contestation were very distinct between the two projects due to different forms of governance.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceUrban–rural linkageGREEN ROOF CONCEPT ANALYSIS: A COMPARATIVE STUDY OF URBAN FARMING PRACTICE IN CITIES
2020Nur Huzeima Mohd Hussain, Nur Hayati Hashim, Asmat Ismail · Malaysian Journal of Sustainable Environment · Global
This paper conceptually reviews the ideas, issues, and imperatives of implementing urban farming on rooftops, investigating an alternative for urban dwellers to achieve resilience. It uses comparative analysis of established texts and secondary data from cases in Singapore, Japan, USA, and Thailand. The study aims to localize the concept of rooftop urban farming and establish a conceptual discourse for its implementation in Malaysia.
DIYCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceClimate change