Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
667 results(18 / 27)
Media Frames and Shifting Places of Environmental (In)Justice: A Qualitative Historical Geographic Information System Method
2016Bethany B. Cutts, Danqi Fang, Kaitlyn Hornik, Jonathan London, Kirsten Schwarz, Mary L. Cadenasso · Environmental Justice · United States (California)
This study introduced a Qualitative Historical Geographic Information System (QHGIS) method to investigate how newspapers reflect changing meanings of place in relation to environmental burden and benefit. Applying QHGIS to urban gardening and soil lead issues reported in Sacramento, California, the method revealed the distribution of public narratives of environmental concern across the city, the politics embedded in location names, place name-changes, and how locations serve as framing devices for environmental concerns.
Contamination & food safetyCommunityHealthPolicyAppropriating a People’s Movement: The Relationship Between Community Gardens and Gentrification in New York City | Appropriating a People’s Movement: The Relationship Between Community Gardens and Gentrification in New York City
2016Lal, Prita · Academic Commons (Stony Brook University) · United States (New York City)
This dissertation studies the relationship between community gardens and gentrification in New York City. It argues that low-income people's efforts in revitalizing their blighted neighborhoods by building community gardens in the 1970s and 1980s contributed to gentrification in the 1990s and beyond. The research points out that real estate developers preyed on people's efforts, and the people subsidized the city's revitalization. It concludes that while gardeners did not cause gentrification, their efforts played a significant role in the process, and stronger policy protections for gardens are needed as city policies permitted gentrification.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceA Complete History of the Social, Health, and Political Context of the School Gardening Movement in the United States: 1840–2014
2016Kate Gardner Burt · Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition · United States
This article explores the social, health, and political contexts influencing the school gardening movement in the United States from 1840 to 2014. It demonstrates that school gardens have remained a mainstay due to their adaptability and ability to connect with important social, health, and political issues over 150 years.
Food educationHealthPolicyCommunityThe Role of Local and Regional Food Systems in U.S. Farm Policy
2016Renée Johnson · University of North Texas Digital Library (University of North Texas) · United States
This report provides background information on various types of operations involved in the U.S. local and regional food system. These include direct-to-consumer marketing, farmers' markets, farm-to-school programs, community-supported agriculture, community gardens, and school gardens. The report also highlights available resources within existing federal programs administered by the USDA and other agencies.
PolicyCommunityFood educationCSA & TeikeiTowards a Human Right to Food: Implications for Urban Growing in Baltimore City, Maryland
2016Becky Lundberg Witt · FLASH - Fordham Law Archive of Scholarship & History (Fordham University) · United States (Baltimore City)
This article argues that property law in Baltimore City, Maryland, creates a significant barrier to urban growing by prioritizing the right to exclude others from vacant and abandoned land. Thousands of fallow lots remain inaccessible to neighbors for community benefit due to property ownership laws, which can neglect the human rights of the poorest citizens. The paper examines how the universal right to adequate food might legally support urban farming and gardening.
Governance failurePolicyFood sovereignty & justiceCommunitySchool Gardens Enhance Academic Performance and Dietary Outcomes in Children
2015Berezowitz C., Bontrager Yoder A., Schoeller D. · Journal of School Health, 85(8):508-518 · United States
A review examining the academic and dietary effects of school garden programs. It found that garden-based learning does not harm academic performance and may favorably affect science and math achievement as well as fruit and vegetable intake and preferences.
Food educationHealthPolicyReframing urban controlled spaces: Community gardens in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv-Jaffa
2015Eizenberg E., Fenster T. · ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies · Israel (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv-Jaffa)
This critical geography study examines how community gardens in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv-Jaffa are framed by urban decision-makers and NGOs within neoliberal governance, documenting 50 gardens in Jerusalem and 26 in Tel Aviv-Jaffa established since 2000.
CommunityPolicyWhat Can Urban Gardening Really Do About Gentrification? A Case-Study of Three San Francisco Community Gardens
2015Guillaume Marche · European journal of American studies · United States (San Francisco)
This contribution examines three significantly different community garden projects in San Francisco to ask whether urban gardening leans toward empowering a neighborhood's current residents or toward their displacement amid the city's gentrification, housing shortage, and rising real-estate prices. It questions whether garden projects can have any impact on large-scale socioeconomic phenomena such as the city's changing demographics, and whether they are even intended to address gentrification.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsDisparity Despite Diversity: Social Injustice in New York City's Urban Agriculture System
2015Reynolds K. · Antipode · New York City, USA
A two-year study of New York City urban agriculture found race- and class-based disparities among practitioners: health-focused efforts were largely white-led while justice-focused efforts were BIPOC-led. Using critical race theory, it argues urban agriculture can perpetuate an inequitable system unless it explicitly confronts these structures.
CommunityPolicyThe Elusive Inclusive: Black Food Geographies and Racialized Food Spaces
2015Ramirez M. M. · Antipode · Seattle, USA
Drawing on two Seattle community food organizations, the article argues that well-meaning 'inclusive' food efforts fail to address underlying power asymmetries and can erase Black food geographies rooted in histories of slavery and dispossession.
CommunityPolicyConcerning the Unbearable Whiteness of Urban Farming
2015Roman-Alcala A. · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development · USA
A commentary on the whiteness and privilege pervading urban farming and food justice activism, warning that well-intentioned white activists can re-inscribe white supremacy, and offering practical ways to avoid doing so.
CommunityPolicyDissolved: Lessons Learned from the Portland Multnomah Food Policy Council
2015Coplen Amy K., Cuneo Megan · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development · USA (Portland, Oregon)
Reflective case study of the Portland Multnomah Food Policy Council, established in 2002 and dissolved in 2012 after city agencies deemed it had lost relevance. Documents how weak institutional embedding, unclear mandate, and volunteer-reliance led a nationally celebrated council to fail.
PolicyCommunityThe Role of Partnerships in U.S. Food Policy Council Policy Activities
2015Clayton Megan L., Frattaroli Shannon, Palmer Anne, Pollack Keshia M. · PLOS ONE · USA
Analyses policy activities of US food policy councils and their dependence on partnerships. Shows that councils lacking strong government and stakeholder partnerships achieve little concrete policy change, indicating structural fragility in this widely promoted governance model.
PolicyAction research and reducing the vulnerability of peri‐urban agriculture: a case study from the Montreal Region
2015Christopher Bryant, Ghalia Chahine · Geographical Research · Canada (Montreal)
This 2015 case study from the Montreal Region, Canada, analyzed an action research project initiated in 2008 to reduce the vulnerability of peri-urban agriculture. Despite initiatives since the mid-1960s, significant pressures continue to increase the vulnerability of peri-urban farming, with farmland often removed from agricultural reserves. The project in Senneville involved farmers, non-farm actors, and municipal presentations over three years, aiming to integrate conservation and leisure activities.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyCommunityUrban–rural linkageVisions of Public Space: Reproducing and Resisting Social Hierarchies in a Community Garden
2015Sofya Aptekar · Sociological Forum · United States (New York City)
This 2015 ethnographic study, conducted between 2011 and 2013 in a diverse and gentrifying New York City neighborhood, analyzed conflicts within a community garden. It found that disputes among gardeners over aesthetics and conduct reproduced broader gentrification struggles, with privileged gardeners leveraging resources to impose their vision. However, less privileged gardeners, through cross-class and cross-racial relationships, were able to destabilize hierarchies and defend their alternative visions for the public space.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyRooted in Rosemount: Promoting Urban Agriculture Systems
2015Laurelyn Sandkamp, Emily Jorgensen · University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy (University of Minnesota) · United States
This document is a report, presentation, and poster completed by students enrolled in the PA 5242: Environmental Planning, Policy, and Decision Making course in spring 2015. The abstract provides no further details on the content, methods, or findings of the work.
PolicyUrban–rural linkageAgricultura urbana em Porto Alegre: dinâmicas socioeconômicas no espaço local
2015Elvis Albert Robe Wandscheer, Rosa Maria Vieria Medeiros · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Brazil (Porto Alegre)
This study descriptively and qualitatively analyzed the socioeconomic dynamics of urban agriculture in Porto Alegre, Brazil. It highlighted issues in the demarcation of urban and rural spaces, showing that many areas designated as urban possess distinctly rural characteristics. The most significant impacting factors were markets and real estate speculation. The study concluded that while urban agriculture is relevant to the municipality, it faces difficulties arising from competition for space, which can lead to the extinction or displacement of production activities to other areas.
Economic viabilityEconomicsPolicyUrban–rural linkageCultivating dreams: examining community involvement and satisfaction in Fayetteville farms
2015Donna Freeman · Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science · United States (Fayetteville)
This study in Fayetteville, United States, utilized data triangulation from site analysis, policy analysis, and surveys to explore how urban farms could be improved in areas like visibility and worker comfort. The research aimed to determine what workers and volunteers value in urban farms. It developed general physical and procedural templates for farms to enhance relationships with workers and surrounding communities.
CommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageWelfareOcupação de vazio urbano como promotor do planejamento para cidade saudável
2015Ana Maria Girotti Sperandio, Lauro Luiz Francisco Filho, Édison Fávero, Marialva Motta Ribeiro, Thaís Manfrinato · PARC Pesquisa em Arquitetura e Construção · Brazil (Conchal-SP)
This article presented results from a pilot field research project in Conchal-SP, Brazil, aiming to identify aspects of urban vacant space occupation through a community garden, considering principles of the City Statute, Health Promotion, and Healthy Urban Planning. Using a case study methodology, including bibliographic and documentary research, a Post-Occupancy Walkthrough Survey, and oral histories, the community garden was found to be an efficient tool for occupying urban vacant spaces. It helped re-establish intrinsic territorial relationships, fostering social participation, intersectorality, and local governance, which contributes to a sense of comfort and pleasure in a place.
CommunityHealthPolicyA política brasileira de segurança alimentar e nutricional: concepção e resultados
2015Walter Belik · Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional · Brazil
This article discusses the use of the Food and Nutritional Security concept in Brazil's Fome Zero Project and its implementation through various programs initiated in the past decade. It concludes by calling attention to the need to improve programs related to supply, food and nutritional education, and urban agriculture to enable the functioning of an integrated Food and Nutritional Security system.
Governance failurePolicyFood sovereignty & justiceWelfareFood educationLa fuerza política de organizaciones, movimientos y no-movimientos de migrantes
2015José Luis Rocha · Envío: publicación mensual del Instituto Histórico Centroamericano · United States (Los Angeles)
This article discusses three Central American migrant organizations: CARECEN in Los Angeles and San Francisco, Casa de Maryland in Washington, and the Dolores Huerta Community Garden in Los Angeles. Despite varying sizes and profiles, all grew from the grassroots, challenging the state through civil disobedience and peaceful resistance, thereby complicating anti-immigrant powers in the United States.
CommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceInstitutionalizing Urban Agriculture Can Provide More Than Hope for Poor San Franciscans: An analysis of the Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone Act (UAIZ)
2015Rania Ahmed Mohamed Ahmed · USF Scholarship Repository (University of San Francisco) · United States (San Francisco)
This research analyzes San Francisco's 2014 Urban Agriculture Incentive Zone (UAIZ) Act, a tax incentive for using undeveloped private properties for urban agriculture. It employs GIS analysis to examine urban agriculture on private lands in relation to low-income populations, producing a vacant land inventory. Findings reveal opportunities and challenges, but the UAIZ is in its very beginning phase of implementation.
PolicyEconomicsWelfareFood sovereignty & justiceProduction Places: Evaluating Communally-Managed Urban Farms as Public Space
2015N. Claire Napawan · Landscape Journal · United States (San Francisco)
This paper evaluated five case studies of communally-managed urban farms in San Francisco to determine their ability to operate dualistically as areas for food production and public space. Using a case-study methodology, it compared the spatial characteristics of these farms against the spatial criteria for successful public space. The study identified both conflicts and compatibilities in the spatial considerations for both functions.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageCADASTRO, DIAGNÓSTICO E RECUPERAÇÃO DAS ÁREAS VERDES PÚBLICAS URBANAS DE CRICIÚMA/SC REGISTRATION, DIAGNOSIS AND RESTORATION OF PUBLIC URBAN GREEN SPACES IN CRICIÚMA/SC
2015Renan Yamashita Ferreira · · Brazil (Criciúma)
This article reports on the survey, registration, diagnosis, and restoration of urban public green spaces in Criciuma/SC, Brazil. Green spaces created in urban allotment processes were demarcated on maps, and a diagnosis describing vegetation, degradation factors, and necessary improvement actions was elaborated. Actions such as tree planting, organic matter input, fencing, and removal of invasive species and waste were carried out in some areas. Engaging the local community is recommended to aid recovery, and intrusion problems should be restrained with prompt inspection, which is more efficient with community surveillance.
CommunityPolicyBiodiversityCultivating the City: Infrastructures of abundance in urban Brazil
2015Jacques Abelman · Kobra (Universitätsbibliothek Kassel) · Brazil (Porto Alegre)
The "Cultivating the City" project attempts to apply landscape architectural thinking to integrate urban agriculture into the city. A proposed network of urban agriculture typologies, emphasizing agroforestry with native species, was developed for Porto Alegre, Brazil. These hypothetical designs aim to serve as a basis for dialogue among potential stakeholders and as catalysts for future projects.
CommunityBiodiversityPolicyUrban–rural linkage