Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
667 results(19 / 27)
The role of urban agriculture in Philadelphia: a sociological analysis from a city perspective: summary report: Philadelphia, USA 02/12/2015-03/10/2015
2015Charlotte Prové · Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) · United States (Philadelphia)
This project aimed to understand the dynamics of urban agriculture in Philadelphia and formulate how governance processes can address its developments. A literature study and interviews with diverse stakeholders, including farmers, project founders, public officers, and researchers, were conducted. The City of Philadelphia's Greenworks plan sets a goal to establish twelve commercial agriculture projects over the next eight years, developing necessary infrastructure such as distribution facilities and water sources.
PolicyEconomicsCommunityFood production in the city: (re)negotiating land, food and property
2015Gerda R. Wekerle, Michael Classens · Local Environment · Canada (Toronto)
This paper examines approaches to urban agriculture in Toronto that renegotiate land access for food production between private property owners and landless growers. It documents three methods challenging current property relations: temporary use of development sites, redesignating suburban backyards for farmer training and production, and garden sharing of private backyards. These initiatives promote collaboration and a sharing economy to expand urban agriculture's land base.
PolicyCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsThe dynamics of an expanding community economy
2015Luke Drake · · United States
This study examined the role of networks in producing community gardens. Focusing on community gardening in New Jersey, USA, the research involved a survey of 445 community gardening organizations in the U.S. and Canada, discourse analysis of archival documents from the 1890s to 2010s, 48 semi-structured interviews in 19 municipalities, and two years of participant-observation. These methods revealed a complex web of resource flows and the mechanisms through which they are configured.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsPrivilege and Allyship in Nonprofit Food Justice Organizations
2015Danny Tarng · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States
This commentary discusses how nonprofit urban agriculture organizations, central to the U.S. food justice movement, can foster better allyship. It highlights that as the movement expands, the transformation of allies' privilege into empowerment at an organizational level is crucial for ongoing growth and success. The text provides insights into organizational policies and practices that can improve allyship.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceWhat Are You Eating??
2015Fa-Tai Shieh · Gastronomica The Journal of Food and Culture · United States (New York City)
This article is by Fa-Tai Shieh, director of citywide food procurement for NYC and involved in urban farming projects in New York City. This content is only available via PDF.
CommunityPolicyLegal Risk Management Solutions for Community Supported Agriculture in Maryland
2015Mayhah Suri, Paul Goeringer · University Libraries (University of Maryland) · United States (Maryland)
This report highlights the results of a survey conducted in summer 2014 by the Maryland Department of Agriculture on contract use and risk management tools by Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operators in Maryland. It also details workshops and materials developed by the Department of Agricultural and Resource and the Ag Law Education Initiative in winter 2015. Additionally, the report mentions state programs that verify CSA operators in California.
CSA & TeikeiEconomicsPolicyDiversity-Grown: Participatory Evaluation of a Community Gardening Initiative through Photovoice
2015P. Qasimah Boston, Ivette A López, Krista Harper · Practicing Anthropology · United States (Tallahassee)
This study used Photovoice to evaluate an urban agricultural food movement event in Tallahassee, Florida. Youth were trained to collect and interpret data, describing the event's value and highlighting cultural influences on the food environment, including diversity and inclusion. The evaluation method, termed Evaluation for Community Action (EFCA), linked improving the food environment with innovative assessment.
CommunityFood educationPolicyGardens of Sabotage
2015Gabriel R. Valle · Aztlán A Journal of Chicano Studies · United States
This essay explores the self-valorization of work in community gardens to advance a grounded theory of time and value, which has been lacking in Chicana/o studies. Urban community gardens are pivotal to the environmental justice movement, with Chicana/os playing a central role. The essay proposes a revolutionary logic of labor through reframing time and value, aiming to reconnect community gardeners to the means of their own production and reproduction. By creating "gardens of sabotage," communities challenge capitalism by reclaiming the value of work and confronting orthodox notions of economy, work, citizenship, community, and time.
Economic viabilityCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsPolicyUsing a Choice Experiment to Assess the Multiple Values of Land in Agricultural Uses in a Peri-urban Area: An Application to Edmonton, Canada
2015Haoluan Wang, Brent Swallow · 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California · Canada (Edmonton)
This research aims to assess the multiple values of agricultural land in the Alberta Capital Region, Canada, where significant agricultural land conversion has occurred. The study's objectives are to estimate residents' values for conserving land in different agricultural uses, explore links between these values and residents' affinity for ecosystem goods and services, and identify public interest areas for agricultural conservation. The methodology began with focus group discussions.
Peri-urban agricultureEconomicsPolicyUrban–rural linkageChapter^>10: Agroecology, Food Sovereignty, and Urban Agriculture in the United States
2015V. Ernesto Mendez, Christopher M. Bacon, Roseann Cohen, Stephen R. Gliessman · Agroecology · United States
This chapter discusses the rise of movements for just and sustainable food systems in the United States over the last 15 years, encompassing areas like urban agriculture and food sovereignty. It notes that while most practitioners in US alternative agrifood movements do not use the term "agroecology," they share similar principles. The chapter also describes the evolution of agroecology from a farm-scale focus to a systems-based, transdisciplinary approach for sustainable food systems.
Food sovereignty & justicePolicyCommunityUrban–rural linkageCan community gardens and farmers' markets relieve food desert problems? A study of Edmonton, Canada
2014Wang H., Qiu F., Swallow B. · Applied Geography 55:127-137 · Canada
Analyzes whether community gardens and farmers' markets improve fresh food access in Edmonton. They relieve food desert problems somewhat, especially in mature inner-suburban neighborhoods, but several areas remain food deserts citywide.
WelfareEconomicsPolicyAgriculture in urban and peri-urban areas in the United States: Highlights from the Census of Agriculture
2014Stephanie Rogus, Carolyn Dimitri · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · United States
Using US Census of Agriculture data, this study examines whether urban and peri-urban farming has grown as an actual practice rather than just a concept. It finds urban farms are smaller than typical farms, and although urban/peri-urban farmland declined between 2002 and 2007 the total number of farms increased, with farmland growth positively related to land values. Spatial analysis of the Northeast detected significant vegetable-farm clusters around Providence, Boston, and Hartford.
EconomicsPolicyUtilizing Michigan Brownfield Policies to Incentivize Community-Based Urban Agriculture in Detroit
2014Nicholas Leonard · Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law · United States (Detroit)
This article argues that Detroit could use the Michigan Brownfield Redevelopment Financing Act to incentivize community-based urban agriculture on abandoned properties. It contends that many cities where urban farming has flourished are riddled with brownfields, and that leveraging brownfield policy could promote urban agriculture as a cost-effective revitalization tool while protecting farmers and food from toxic contamination, giving Detroit a viable strategy to reverse blight.
PolicyCommunityEconomicsChallenging Inclusivity Urban Agriculture and Community Involvement in San Diego
2014Bruno Monardo, Anna Laura Palazzo · Advanced Engineering Forum · United States (San Diego)
This article discusses how urban agriculture is being used across US cities—shaped by 'food deserts' that limit access to fresh, local, healthy food—to give new perspectives to blighted post-crisis neighborhoods and address social distress linked to migration. Focusing on the New Roots Community Farm in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego, it highlights the farm's potential to combine social inclusion with physical and economic redevelopment.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsWhere have all the houses (among other things) gone? Some critical reflections on urban agriculture
2014Laura B. DeLind · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · United States (Lansing)
Using Urbandale Farm in Lansing, Michigan as a case, this paper critically reflects on how urban agriculture can inadvertently rationalize the displacement and continued inequity of urban neighbors rather than reinforce place-making and neighborhood empowerment. It questions the movement's underlying assumptions and beneficiaries and suggests how UA might be reconfigured to shed its neoliberal tendencies.
PolicyCommunityEconomicsResource needs for a socially just and sustainable urban agriculture system: Lessons from New York City
2014Nevin Cohen, Kristin Reynolds · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · United States (New York)
Drawing on the two-year "Five Borough Farm" study of urban agriculture projects in New York City, this paper examines the resource needs of urban farms and gardens in terms of viability and equity. It documents that resource needs extend beyond land, soil and money to include government support and networks of practitioners, nonprofits and philanthropies, and that significant disparities in access to resources make the city's urban agriculture system unequal. The paper concludes with strategies to align resource needs with urban agriculture goals in New York and other cities.
PolicyCommunityEconomicsGreening the urban frontier: Race, property, and resettlement in Detroit
2014Safransky S. · Geoforum · Detroit, USA
Analyzing plans to repurpose Detroit's vacant lots as urban farms and green infrastructure, the article argues that framing this land as 'empty' and 'wasted' legitimizes the racialized dispossession of nonwhite residents, distributing the costs and benefits of 'green' redevelopment unevenly.
PolicyCommunityRadical, reformist, and garden-variety neoliberal: coming to terms with urban agriculture's contradictions
2014McClintock N. · Local Environment · USA
Argues that urban agriculture, by filling the void left by the 'rolling back' of the social safety net, underwrites neoliberalization; its discourse of entrepreneurialism and self-help shifts responsibility onto individuals, exposing the movement's contradictions.
WelfarePolicyEconomicsInnovation in urban agricultural practices: Responding to diverse production environments
2014Anne Pfeiffer, Erin Silva, Jed B. Colquhoun · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · United States
A project centered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison gathered data through site visits and interviews with urban agricultural organizations in seven US cities. It examined how structural and strategic food system factors shape urban agricultural efforts, considering diverse business and production models. The study discusses unique innovations in space-intensive agricultural production and assesses significant challenges facing urban agriculture.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsUrban–rural linkageConceptualizing Community Buy-in and Its Application to Urban Farming
2014Melissa N. Poulsen, Marie L. Spiker, Peter J. Winch · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States (Baltimore)
This study explored the perceived importance of community buy-in for urban farming, along with its barriers, facilitators, and strategies, through participant observation at urban farms and interviews with urban farmers, neighborhood leaders, residents, and key stakeholders in Baltimore, Maryland. Findings revealed that residents' unfamiliarity with urban farming, concerns about negative neighborhood impacts, and perceptions of urban farms as "outsider projects" were barriers to buy-in. Strategies for gaining buy-in were shown to follow three main phases: gaining entry into a neighborhood, introducing the urban farm idea, and engaging the neighborhood.
Governance failureCommunityEconomicsPolicyUrban Community Gardeners' Knowledge and Perceptions of Soil Contaminant Risks
2014Brent F. Kim, Melissa N. Poulsen, Jared D. Margulies, Katie L. Dix, Anne Palmer, Keeve E. Nachman · PLoS ONE · United States (Baltimore, Maryland)
This study characterized urban community gardeners' knowledge and perceptions of soil contaminant risks in Baltimore, Maryland, United States, through surveys with 70 gardeners from 15 gardens and interviews with 18 key informants. It found low levels of concern and inconsistent knowledge regarding heavy metal and organic chemical contaminants among gardeners. Furthermore, barriers to investigating garden site history and conducting soil tests, along with limited knowledge of best practices for reducing exposure, were identified.
Contamination & food safetyCommunityHealthPolicyGearing up to support urban farming in California: Preliminary results of a needs assessment
2014Rachel Surls, Gail Feenstra, Sheila Golden, Ryan E. Galt, Shermain Hardesty, Claire Napawan, Cheryl Wilen · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · United States (California)
Urban agriculture (UA) in California has been slower to gain momentum compared to other urban states, partly due to limited availability of relevant information and technical assistance for urban farmers and municipal decision-makers. A University of California Cooperative Extension project is developing web-based educational resources based on a needs assessment, which includes a literature review, an internal survey of personnel, and community interviews. Preliminary findings indicate challenges in supporting urban farming due to resource constraints and information gaps.
Governance failurePolicyEconomicsCommunityCity of Rosemount Community Gardens Evaluation Proposal
2014Elizabeth McNamara, Danielle Proulx, Luke Hanson, Yue Zhang, T.H. Stephan · University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy (University of Minnesota) · United States
This report was completed by students enrolled in PA 5311: Program Evaluation, taught by Hanife Cakici and Jodi Sandfort in fall 2014.
CommunityPolicyReversing food desertification: examining urban farming in Louisville, Chicago and Detroit
2014Nadra Hashim · Local Environment · United States
This study examines the early stages of the urban farming movement in Louisville, Kentucky, considering its relation to land use, segregation policies, obesity, and food security. While the urban farm movement is largely a success in New York, it is suggested that in Louisville, Chicago, and Detroit, where trans-fat bans did not succeed, the urban farm movement may be the primary means of addressing malnutrition in the form of obesity.
Food sovereignty & justiceHealthPolicyCommunitySetting the Table for Urban Agriculture
2014Margot J. Pollans · Pace Digital Repository (Pace University) · United States
This article examines the various roles law plays in the cultivation of urban agriculture. It argues that despite growing enthusiasm for urban agriculture, serious equity and ecological concerns exist within the forms of modern urban agriculture, recommending that careful strategic planning should align the implementation of available legal tools to address these concerns.
Equity & displacementPolicyCommunityEconomics