Research & reports

Tyler Pratt, L. Allen, David E. Rosenberg, Andrew A. Keller, Kelly Kopp · Agricultural Water Management · United States (Utah)

Irrigation evaluations were performed for 24 urban and small farms in Cache Valley, Utah, during the 2015 growing season. A great degree of heterogeneity was observed in irrigation methods, equipment, and management practices. Small fields had lower application uniformities and greater irrigation depths than large fields, and surface-irrigated fields had higher depths than sprinkle and drip-irrigated fields. The study concluded that urban and small farm irrigators need improved knowledge of proper irrigation management.

Maclóvia Corrêa da Silva, Cristianne Teixeira Carneiro, Ana Lúcia Barbosa Monteiro, Natália Pereira Marinelli, Eloy Fassi Casagrande · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Brazil (Teresina)

This study analyzed the characteristics of urban agricultural work in community gardens in the Dirceu and Renacimiento II neighborhoods of Teresina - PI, Brazil. A field survey of 32 farmers found that 71.88% worked 4-8 hours daily, 59.38% were retirees, and 50% worked with family collaboration. Income from vegetable sales showed 50% earned up to one minimum wage and 43% up to two minimum wages, but the activity depends on land owners, public policies, seed producers, and traders.

Angelina Moreira Melo, Daniel Calbino, Alair Ferreira de Freitas · Revista Ciência em Extensão · Brazil (Sete Lagoas)

This experience report analyzed the methodology used by extension agents in implementing the Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) model in a community garden in Sete Lagoas, Brazil. Responding to producers' demand regarding production flow problems, CSA was introduced as a fair trade marketing alternative connecting consumers and producers through weekly sales of agroecological product baskets. The methodology focused on constructing participatory methods based on producers' reality and interests, with the autonomy given to subjects being a central point, leading to significant economic, social, and cultural contributions for those involved.

R John Little · OpenSIUC (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) · United States

A research study evaluated fertility requirements for 'Sweet Hungarian' Peppers and 'Savor' Charentais Melons grown in a three-inch extensive green roof medium on the Southern Illinois University campus. Six treatments were applied to peppers and four treatments to melons, each replicated three times. This study contributes to optimizing appropriate fertility treatments for green roof agriculture.

Sabine O’Hara, Dwane Jones, Harris B. Trobman · Advances in higher education and professional development book series · United States

The Landgrant College of the University of the District of Columbia operates urban food hubs as the only exclusively urban land-grant university in the United States. These hubs utilize bio-intensive hydroponic and aquaponic systems and green roofs to maximize productivity in small urban spaces, and kitchens serve as business incubators and training facilities. They also promote waste and water reuse through composting, rainwater capture, and green infrastructure, offering training, wellness, and leadership opportunities to UDC students and DC residents.

Kathryn Engle · UKnowledge (University of Kentucky) · United States (Kentucky)

This project explores the agricultural heritage and social landscape of the Stinking Creek community in Knox County, Kentucky, focusing on the Lend-A-Hand Center Grow Appalachia Gardening Program. Through participatory research, it examines the diverse economy and potential for post-coal futures in central Appalachia. The program developed agricultural initiatives, re-localized food systems via home and community gardens, and established a farmers' market over three years.

Ednaldo Michellon, Jaqueline da Silva Rosa, André Coelho Braga, Victor de Canini Cezar, Tiago Ribeiro da Costa, Wellington Fernandes Pereira · Cadernos de Agroecologia · Brazil (Maringá)

The REDIfeira project, part of the University Extension Program in Parana, Brazil, aims to boost the production and commercialization of family agriculture products through monitoring and technical assistance. This work presents the case of the FEPORg – Maringa Organic Products Fair and Region, which was established through community initiative with support from Maringa City Hall, the REDIfeira project, CerAUP, and PPCPO.

Matthew T. Moore, Brent Clothier, Alexandra Toland · · United States

A dialogue chapter built from an October 2013 interview with Matthew Moore conducted by Alexandra R. Toland, with additional reflections from soil scientist Brent Clothier. Since the interview, the digital farm collective Moore describes has evolved into a farm-to-table hospitality business partnering with city parks, creating one- to two-acre urban farming education centers in and around Phoenix, Arizona, funded by restaurants that also deliver affordably priced meals to local communities. Across both Moore's and Clothier's contributions, the central question is one of scale: how to "scale up" food production under the pressures of climate change and urbanization while building systems of value that honor the soil's services rather than its speculative yield.

Silvia Iveth Moreno Gaytán, Mercedes A. Jiménez Velázquez, Martín Hernández Juárez · Revista española de estudios agrosociales y pesqueros/Revista española de estudios agrosociales y pesqueros · Mexico

A qualitative social-research case study, conducted 2014-2017 in the eastern Metropolitan Zone of the Valle de México, examined how the organization Union de Colonos e Inquilinos Solicitantes de Vivienda Libertad practices urban agriculture in the CANANEA housing complex as part of popular-neighborhood strategies for food sovereignty. The case study concludes that agroecological, fair-trade urban agriculture generates food-sovereignty dynamics at the city scale that challenge conventional production, consumption and trade models.

Monica M. White · University of North Carolina Press eBooks · United States

Using historical methods to analyze extensive archival records, this chapter examines Freedom Farms Cooperative, a 680-acre agricultural cooperative that activist Fannie Lou Hamer started in 1969 in Sunflower County, Mississippi, which included a pig bank, a Head Start program, community gardens, a commercial kitchen, a garment factory, a sewing cooperative, a tool bank, and low-income affordable housing as strategies to support African Americans who had been fired and evicted for exercising the right to vote. Freedom Farm offered sharecroppers and tenant farmers education, retraining, health care, and disaster relief for those who wanted to remain in the Mississippi Delta, and the chapter presents it as a historical model of collective and shared ownership for rebuilding communities around food production.

Micajah Daniels, Courtney Coughenour · Digital Scholarship - UNLV (University of Nevada Reno) · United States

A research project examining the association between food insecurity, community gardens, and property value in Southern Nevada, United States. It set out five research questions—where community gardens are located, what agencies are doing with gardens to address food insecurity, perceived supports and barriers to using gardening for food insecurity, whether housing values changed after community gardens were established (using existing public data), and stakeholders' perceptions of property-value changes—and conducted interviews with key community garden stakeholders. The abstract does not report specific numerical findings from these inquiries.

David Ceaser · Agritecture · United States

In this December 7, 2018 article for Agritecture, horticultural consultant David Ceaser reports on the challenges facing agrihood development, using The Cannery in Davis, California (500+ homes, 150 acres, with a 7.4-acre organic farm) as a case study. He notes that residents held unrealistic expectations about how the farm would be run and their role in it, and that poorer-than-expected soil quality required amending with organic matter, delaying farm development. Farm Director Sri Sethuratnam described the aging farmer population and food-production challenges as "a national security issue."

Chris McGivern, Shuttleworth Foundation Team · Shuttleworth Foundation · United States

A Shuttleworth Foundation interview article (dated 24 December 2018) with Rory Aronson, founder of FarmBot, describing how he joined the Shuttleworth Fellowship in 2014 to work on FarmBot full-time and his commitment to open-source principles. He states Facebook videos of FarmBot were shared over 200 million times, preorders exceeded $1 million in the first two months after launch, and the latest manufacturing run completed 500 units.

Coyle B. D., Ellison B. · Choices 32(1):1-8 · United States

Analyzes US consumer demand and willingness to pay for vertically farmed produce, finding consumers are price-sensitive and largely unwilling to pay a premium simply for indoor-grown greens, posing a market challenge for scaling beyond niches.

Flores R. M. V., Quagrainie K. K., Kim H.-J., McClain V. · Journal of Applied Aquaculture 30(1):1-14 · United States

Conducts an economic analysis of aquaponic and hydroponic production in the US Midwest, comparing the cost structures and profitability of the two systems to assess the commercial feasibility of controlled-environment horticultural production.

Goldstein B. · Environmental Science & Technology · Northeast United States

An analysis for the northeastern US concluded that local and urban farming provides only small environmental benefits to urban sustainability (carbon, land, water), partly because it cannot displace livestock, which dominate agricultural emissions and land use.

Hunold C., Sorunmu Y., Lindy R., Spatari S., Gurian P. L. · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development · Philadelphia, USA

An exploratory study of small-scale urban market farms in Philadelphia finds they cannot cover costs from sales alone and depend on grants, donations, and unpaid volunteer labor, concluding that financial self-sufficiency for urban agriculture is currently very difficult.

Fanny Carlet, Joseph Schilling, Megan Heckert · Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems · United States

This article investigates the current state of research and practice regarding urban agriculture as a strategy for regenerating shrinking U.S. cities. It examines how repurposing vacant land for food production can address urban blight and food insecurity. The study highlights key findings and provides observations for public officials and practitioners on leveraging this research to enhance urban agriculture for vacant land treatment.

Melissa N. Poulsen, Roni Neff, Peter J. Winch · Local Environment · United States (Baltimore)

This qualitative case study in Baltimore, Maryland, explored community perceptions of how urban farms benefit neighborhoods. Interviews with residents, neighborhood leaders, and urban farmers in three residential neighborhoods revealed that benefits stemmed from the creation of public projects, physical improvement of degraded spaces, local food production, and new businesses. These changes led to perceived benefits such as increased social connectedness, a transformed physical landscape, improved neighborhood reputation, and enhanced access to fresh produce, demonstrating the importance of a multifunctional paradigm beyond traditional economic indicators.

Elizabeth W. Cotter, Carla Teixeira, Annessa Bontrager, Kasharena Horton, Deyanira Soriano · Public Health Nutrition · United States (Washington, DC)

This study conducted focus groups with 28 adults in three affordable housing communities in Washington, D.C., USA, to understand low-income adults' attitudes towards participating in farmers' markets, community-supported agriculture (CSA), and nutrition education programming. The results revealed that adults living in urban, affordable housing communities desire access to healthy foods but are limited by cost. Programs could have a higher likelihood of success if they accept benefits like SNAP (Supplemental Nutrition Assistance Program), are heavily marketed, and incorporate culturally relevant nutrition education components.

Lucy Diekmann, Rob Bennaton, Jessica Schweiger, Cole Smith · Journal of Human Sciences and Extension · United States (California)

This article illustrates how Extension in the San Francisco Bay Area, California, develops urban agriculture programming and engages in food-system-related partnerships. The Extension practice in this metropolitan region aligns with research findings on local food system involvement, focusing on educational opportunities and collaborative work with community and government partners. This case study provides insights for Extension personnel designing urban food system programs.

Rebecca A. Seguin‐Fowler, Emily H. Morgan, Karla L. Hanson, Alice S. Ammerman, Stephanie Jilcott Pitts, Jane Kolodinsky, Marilyn Sitaker, Florence Becot, Leah M. Connor, Jennifer Garner, Jared T. McGuirt · BMC Public Health · United States

Farm Fresh Foods for Healthy Kids (F3HK) is a community-based, randomized intervention trial designed to assess the impact of subsidized community supported agriculture (CSA) coupled with nutrition education to prevent childhood obesity in low-income families and strengthen local agricultural economies. Conducted in New York, North Carolina, Vermont, and Washington, the study targets low-income families with children aged 2-12 years. Primary outcomes include children's intake of fruits and vegetables, sugar and fat, and diet quality, with data collected over three years.

Kenna McMurray, Kelsey Hall, Roslynn Brain · Digital Commons - USU (Utah State University) · United States

This fact sheet assists with financial knowledge and planning for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operations. It explains how to develop a budget, price CSA shares using different strategies, and outlines payment options.

Michelle Glowa · · United States (San Francisco)

In the San Francisco region, highly competitive land markets increasingly force landowners to use properties for purposes other than gardening, despite the popularity of urban agriculture. This situation compels gardeners to develop strategies to gain and maintain land access, linking gardening to broader land politics and urban design. The chapter explores how gardeners influence space production and property institutions.

Christopher Robinson, Scott Cloutier, Hallie Eakin · Sustainability · United States (Phoenix)

This study assessed the business case for multifunctional edible landscaping enterprises in the Phoenix metro area. Semi-structured interviews with four landscaping entrepreneurs and a GIS landscape analysis of seven cities revealed that multifunctional edible landscaping offers a greater range of value propositions and revenue streams, with over 180,000 acres of suitable landscapes identified. Scenario analysis estimated potential value creation from $3.9 to $66 billion, with positive return on investment (ROI) achievable in 11 out of 12 scenarios within one to five years.