Research & reports

Anne Kerber, Ivana Guarrasi, Hsinhuei Sheen Chiou, Sabrina Ehmke, Kristi Oeding, Sachi Sekimoto · Health Communication · United States

Drawing on the Garden EngAGEment community garden project at Minnesota State University, Mankato, this article develops the concept of "artful place-making" as an alternative, experiential approach to organizing and teaching care for people with Alzheimer's and related dementias, using arts-based research, place-based education, and sensory studies. It describes the interplay of knowing, making, and being in the garden as fostering a new culture of care in health professions training, multi-sensory connection, and personal, relational, and community transformation.

Xanath Bautista-Villalobos, Eduardo Garcı́a-Frapolli · Hábitat y Sociedad · Mexico

Two community urban gardens in Mexico City were analyzed through the lenses of agroecology, the social and solidarity economy, and social innovation. Working with garden administrators and key participants, the researchers defined participatory indicators and ran workshops to gauge local perceptions of how the gardens function. Both initiatives were viewed positively by their communities, though few residents were actually involved. Most evaluated variables scored satisfactorily, but aspects such as the source and use of water, income distribution within the community, and the creation of communal budgets had not met their objectives.

Emily Harris, Ilana Lowe, Lindsey Mohan, Whitney Cohen, Sara E. Severance, Terra Giotta, Carlo Albano, Jeffrey Snowden · Science and Children · United States

This is a practice report describing "Designing Trellises," a guided grade 3-5 engineering unit set in a U.S. school garden. Students work collaboratively toward a shared classroom goal of designing, researching, prototyping, building, and testing 2-3 pea plant trellises for the school garden. Through this process — asking questions, planning and carrying out investigations, and designing solutions, among other science and engineering practices — students work out the disciplinary core ideas of balanced and unbalanced forces. At the end of the unit, teachers and students reported that students felt a strong sense of agency and pride from asking and answering questions and creating designs that mattered to them and their school community.

Colleen Saxen, Yoko Miura, Alan R. Wight, Michelle A. Fleming · Educational Action Research · United States

Using Participatory Action Research (PAR) with community partners and school staff who led a school garden project in a low-income neighborhood of a small mid-western U.S. city, this study explored the meaning of the garden through photovoice, mapping, and interviews. Three overarching themes emerged from participants' perspectives: community, empowerment, and justice. The garden project was experienced as holding depth of possibility for participants that went beyond the typical outcome measures — content knowledge, physical health, and ecological stewardship — used to assess school gardens.

Nick DeMarsh, Alfonso Morales · Urban agriculture · United States

Focused on cities in the United States, this paper (2024) frames urban agriculture as an opportunity to challenge the status quo of current urban and food systems, discussing the opportunities and challenges that increased urban population and density create for it through Howe and Kaufman's ethical framework of means and ends. Noting the tendency for ethical ends (economic or other outcomes) to preempt consideration of ethical means or processes, it applies this means-and-ends framework to propose three key ideas for framing the ethics of urban agriculture: a place-based historical perspective, a bridge connecting cities and regions, and a nested approach to reimagining healthy socio-ecological systems. It argues that urban agriculture practitioners must understand the history of urban places and agricultural processes both as consequences of national historical processes and in present place-specific contexts and future orientations; that urban agriculture's contribution to an environmentally sustainable future rests on recognizing food production and consumption as an essential part of human life; and that its transformative potential stems from its significant role in the urban and food systems that shape everyday life — while cautioning that this potential does not mean change through urban agriculture is inevitable, since it requires participants and stakeholders to critically examine their own practices and expectations.

Tatiana Hlinka · Journal of Student Research · United States

In New Jersey, 50 food desert areas face the most severe food insecurity across both rural and urban contexts. This study identified nine barriers to implementing urban agriculture initiatives in New Jersey's urban food deserts, using a sequential quantitative analysis combining a survey of food systems professionals with a GIS-based spatial analysis to identify the most prevalent barrier. Working in partnership with New Jersey urban agricultural organizations, the study found that lack of funding was the most commonly cited barrier to expanding urban agriculture initiatives. The GIS-based spatial analysis found that high-priority barriers varied by region, but that all organizations identified funding, or lack of access to funding, as a significant barrier regardless of whether they operated in a low- or high-income neighborhood. The study concludes that policymakers must reevaluate the role of urban agricultural organizations in New Jersey's urban food deserts.

Bruno Dias Magalhães, D. B. Almeida, Gabriel Mattos Ornelas, Lara Andrade Silva Viana, Flávia de Paula Duque Brasil, Carneiro, Ricardo José, 1955-, Fundação João Pinheiro, Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais, Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais, Fundação João Pinheiro, Fundação João Pinheiro, Fundação João Pinheiro · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Brazil

An analysis of the process of building the Participatory Guarantee System (SPG) for organic/agroecological production in the Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Region (RMBH), Brazil. The SPG's construction traces back to 2004, driven mainly by social movements and civil society actors engaged with urban agroecology; in 2018 the Belo Horizonte municipal government initiated the first protocol of intentions to strengthen agroecology in the RMBH, creating an Inter-institutional Support Committee with SPG consolidation as one of its goals. The article traces this articulation trajectory, emphasizing civil society and social movements' role in what it frames as a "peri-institutional" space, examining how the Committee builds capacities as agroecology draws closer to the state, while also questioning how much real autonomy and agency the people who actually produce and sell within this arrangement retain.

C. HAURESKO · · Brazil

The available abstract text is fragmentary, breaking off mid-sentence after stating that "society, democracy, and sustainable development are taking on new and inspiring forms of struggle and adaptation" and that academic research on Latin America allows for a deeper understanding of the transformations and challenges its societies face. It does not contain specific content—methods or findings—about urban agriculture itself despite the title.

Laurence Bhérer, Pascale Dufour, Françoise Montambeault · Urban Affairs Review · Canada

A two-level analysis tracing the trajectory of urban gardening and dumpster diving/food recuperation practices in Montréal, Canada, from grassroots emergence to inclusion within institutional frameworks. Rather than treating citizen-led initiatives as either co-opted by formal institutions under austerity or as pure "spaces of resistance" to neoliberalism, the study shows that individuals and loosely organized collectives involved in these practices are embedded in complex relationships with local institutions and third-sector organizations, which in turn structure the practices and their consequences. It describes this institutionalization as occurring gradually, through practitioners' interactions with each other and with their social and institutional environment.

Raul Augusto Barroso, Otavio Neto · Revista Multidisciplinar do Nordeste Mineiro · Brazil

A literature review of scientific articles, established websites, books and magazines — searched online using keywords such as "urban agriculture," "urban gardens," "vertical gardens," "small-space agriculture" and "sustainable agriculture" — examined how urban agriculture is transforming urban spaces. An initial 622 related documents were identified and narrowed to the most recent (2021-2022), leaving 20 used in the analysis. The results show urban agriculture consolidating as a transformative force that shapes urban spaces beyond simple food production, providing both environmental and social benefits, promoting food security for participants and their communities, and making use of underused and often abandoned spaces.

Karen R. Klinger, Aster F. Hasle, Karen S. Oberhauser · Frontiers in Ecology and Evolution · United States (New York City)

Working with community scientists in the Chicago metropolitan area, researchers monitored monarch butterfly (Danaus plexippus) eggs and caterpillars on milkweed patches in yards and community gardens. Peak egg counts per patch ranged from zero to 170 across observation years; patch age and the presence of common milkweed (Asclepias syriaca) affected whether eggs were present, and patches with the highest egg counts tended to have A. syriaca, more milkweed plants, and greater diversity of blooming nectar plants.

Antônio Pampana · Revista VérticeFIB · Brazil

This review essay traces the history of urban agriculture in Brazil—from backyard cultivation of Portuguese origin, through its post-industrial decline, to worsened food insecurity during the Covid-19 crisis—and argues that agroecological urban agriculture (AUA) can combine sustainable management with social benefits, increased biodiversity, and diversified food production including unconventional food plants (PANCs). It cites the green infrastructure project in Vitoria-Gasteiz, Spain, and the Oriente corridors project in metropolitan Medellín, Colombia, as examples of AUA in strategic green-infrastructure planning, while noting that AUA remains largely absent from urban public policy.

Edson Fonseca de Oliveira, René Eugênio Seifert, Thiago Cavalcante Nascimento, Luan Matheus Pedrozo Kolachnek · Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural · Brazil

A qualitative, descriptive-exploratory multicase comparative study of Curitiba, Brazil, characterized three modes of urban agriculture organization based on Feniman's (2014) typology: Assisted, Vernacular, and Politicized. The Assisted mode was technically driven and dependent on government assistance, favoring production of market-value species, with formalized social structures that limited internal and external social integration and less use of unconventional production technologies. The Vernacular mode had an informal, affective structure valuing ancestral knowledge and traditional practices anchored in strong family ties. The Politicized mode expressed participants' desire to make urban agriculture integrative, alternative, sovereign, autonomous, and innovative, but showed limitations in building a stable communal life.

Pamela Eduarda Lopes dos Santos Rezena, Luciana Boemer Cesar Pereira, Mariana Ranchuka dos Santos, Anelize Queiroz Amaral, Geisiane dos Santos de Souza · Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental · Brazil

At a public elementary school (Foz do Chopim Municipal School) in the riverside community of Foz do Chopim, in the municipality of Cruzeiro do Iguaçu, Paraná, Brazil, a university extension workshop run jointly by the Sala +Verde and Hortas projects built a school garden to teach environmental education themes including care for the environment, the society-nature relationship, sustainable societies and food sovereignty. The workshop produced a sense of belonging and care for the garden space among participating students and gave them practical information to take home.

· Civil War Book Review · United States

A Fall 2024 magazine issue profiling research activity at the LSU AgCenter covers researcher Erin Oberhaus's work collecting data to inform Louisiana horse owners about medication use, a water quality specialist's study of whether noneconomic water bodies including agricultural ponds could help generate electricity, results from soybean studies, and success stories from the AgCenter's farm-to-school program involving school gardens across the state.

Advocates for Privately Owned Public Space (APOPS) · Advocates for Privately Owned Public Space (APOPS) / Municipal Art Society of New York · United States

New York City's 1961 zoning resolution created incentive zoning, letting private developers earn floor-area bonuses in exchange for providing public plazas and similar spaces. From 1961 to 2000, developers built more than 500 POPS, gaining about 16 million square feet of bonus floor area while providing roughly 80 acres of public space. However, a 1998–99 field survey found about half of POPS out of legal compliance, and a 2000 study rated 41% as of limited quality.

Willowsford Conservancy · Willowsford Conservancy · United States

This 2024 FAQ from Willowsford Conservancy, the nonprofit tied to the Willowsford residential development in Virginia, explains that it operates independently from the developer and manages about 2,300 acres of open space (including 200+ acres of farmland and 2,000+ acres of grassland, wetland, and forest) plus 40+ miles of trails, funded in part by a 0.25% transfer fee paid by homebuyers. Its seven-seat board currently has six resident members, and the resident-led board structure began in 2021.

· The Dirt · United States

Published July 31, 2024 by local outlet The Dirt, this article reports that Spork Food Hub announced the immediate closure of its farmstand at The Cannery agrihood in Davis, California. In a Facebook post, the operator said that after two years of operation it had been unable to grow its customer base enough to make the stand profitable, and would instead focus its community outreach on other farm and food-hub events.

Stephanie Hinnershitz · The National WWII Museum · United States

Published 26 November 2024, this article from The National WWII Museum describes the U.S. Victory Garden movement of 1942-1945, during which Americans tended more than 20 million gardens, producing 42 percent of the nation's fresh produce (10 billion pounds) in 1943 alone. It also notes that 120,000 incarcerated Japanese Americans were made to garden in internment camps.

· Corresponsables · Peru

Spanish-language CSR outlet Corresponsables reported on 1 November 2024 on the 20th anniversary of "Huertos en Línea" (Online Gardens), a project started in 2004 by neighborhood women under power transmission lines in Villa María del Triunfo, Lima, with support from transmission line operator ISA REP. Participating families harvest around 25,600 kilograms of vegetables per quarter, grow more than 40 agroecological vegetable varieties, and earn up to 350 soles a month from selling surplus produce.

Goralnik L., Radonic L., Garcia Polanco V., Hammon A. · Land, 12(1):68 · United States

A qualitative study of a food-bank-run community garden in Lansing, Michigan, examining what fosters inclusion for refugee and immigrant gardeners. It shows how garden management practices promote inclusion that builds social capital, an outcome important for refugee and immigrant wellbeing.

García-Vásquez R., Vera-Guzmán A.M., Carrillo-Rodríguez J.C., Pérez-Ochoa M.L., Aquino-Bolaños E.N., Alba-Jiménez J.E., Chávez-Servia J.L. · AIMS Agriculture and Food 8(3):832-850 · Mexico

Compared phenolics, vitamin C, carotenoids, capsaicinoids, and antioxidant activity in Oaxacan Huacle and De Agua pepper landraces versus commercial Jalapeño. Landraces showed higher flavonoid and carotenoid contents, underscoring indigenous germplasm value.

Litt J. S., Alaimo K., Harrall K. K., Hamman R. F., Hébert J. R., Hurley T. G., Leiferman J. A., Li K., Villalobos A., Coringrato E., Courtney J. B., Payton M., Glueck D. H. · The Lancet Planetary Health 7(1):e23-e32 · United States

Observer-blind RCT among Denver community-garden waitlist adults. The gardening intervention significantly increased fiber intake and moderate-to-vigorous physical activity, and reduced perceived stress and anxiety compared with controls.

Alaimo K., Beavers A. W., Coringrato E., Lacy K., Ma W., Hurley T. G., Hébert J. R. · Current Developments in Nutrition 7(5):100077 · United States

Mixed-methods analysis of an RCT showing community gardeners increased vegetable intake from baseline to harvest, an effect mediated by greater seasonal eating of locally available produce.

Riehn J.K., Fogel N.S., Hathaway J.N., Camilo G.R. · Frontiers in Sustainable Cities, 5:1100470 · United States (St. Louis, MO)

Surveyed bees on three urban rooftop food farms and two nearby ground-level community gardens in St. Louis during 2017–2018. Rooftops hosted 38 species—a nested subset of ground-level communities, with fewer bumblebees and more non-native Megachile—with implications for pollination services on rooftop food production.