Research & reports

Ricardo Massulo Albertín, Daniel Augusto, Boaventura Almeida Mubai, Bruno Luiz Domingos De Angelis, Márcia da Silva, Frederico Fonseca da Silva, Fábio Angeoletto · Boletim de Geografia · Brazil (Maringá)

This study aimed to diagnose the socioeconomic aspects of vegetable producers and identify the perception of passersby around urban gardens (community gardens) in Maringá (PR), as a means to mitigate negative social impacts like food insecurity caused by urbanization. A case study was conducted in five community gardens in the northern zone of Maringá, Paraná State. Results showed that the activities within these gardens and public sector involvement characterized them as public policies for promoting quality of life, rather than mere government policies. Questionnaire responses from passersby evidenced that the public policy for creating and consolidating urban gardens in Maringá promoted quality of life. The community garden project was found to have significant socioeconomic, landscape, and sentimental value for both producers and passersby, with producers opting for diverse production, self-consumption, and vegetable sales.

Lal, 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.

Alfred Wong, Alan Hallsworth · Kobra (Universitätsbibliothek Kassel) · Canada (Vancouver)

This paper examines urban/community gardening in Vancouver, Canada, from the perspective of basic farming realities such as growing season and land availability. It was found that securing low-cost land within dense urban limits, insufficient ambient temperature and water supply during the growing season, and contemporary societal structures pose significant obstacles to community gardening producing affordable food. Overcoming these fundamental hurdles carries significant negative environmental and economic consequences.

Tammy E. Parece, Elena Serrano, James B. Campbell · The Professional Geographer · United States (Roanoke)

A socioeconomic evaluation in Roanoke, Virginia, analyzed ten variables, including food options, across census block groups to identify neighborhoods that would benefit from urban agriculture. The study found that one block group qualified in all ten variables, and two-thirds showed need in at least half, with most of these areas located in the city's middle. This analysis produced a hierarchy of locations based on socioeconomic need for new urban agriculture sites.

Won Kim · Korean Journal of Sociology · United States

A 2016 study based on in-depth interviews with farmers participating in farmers' markets and community supported agriculture (CSA) in the United States analyzes their common features and differences. Contrary to Hinrichs' argument, it finds that both farmers' markets and CSA rely on strong marketability as their foundation for existence. Social embeddedness was more pronounced in CSA than in farmers' markets, with spatial embeddedness showing a similar partial trend, while natural embeddedness was equally pronounced in both with little difference. Building on this feature analysis, the study also explores ways to revitalize both forms.

Connor J. Fitzmaurice, Brian J. Gareau · Yale University Press eBooks · United States

This 2016 book chapter profiles Scenic View Farm in New England, United States, run by owners John and Katie, surveying the farm's history and characteristics relative to other New England farms and describing its landscape. Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs, which farms like Scenic View depend on for stable sales, require growing diverse crops to meet consumer demand; flowers enhanced the farm's appearance and yielded consistent profits in years when other crops merely broke even. Among the challenges organic farms face, the chapter describes a tomato blight outbreak that swept the region, which Scenic View's CSA helped the farm weather while maintaining its organic certification. Access to supplemental income is described as critical to the farm's continuation, and the chapter portrays farmers, including some who feel they cannot eschew pesticides entirely, trying to farm as responsibly as their circumstances allow.

Cristian Suzin Magrin, Angélica Ferari Rodrigues · Mostra IFTec em Resumos · Brazil

This report from Brazil describes aquaponics — a system combining fish farming and soil-free hydroponic plant cultivation, in which fish waste nourishes plants that in turn filter the water for the fish — through a literature review and an experimental simulation of an aquaponic setup with a physically separate fish tank and hydroponic unit connected by pumping. It states the system requires no removal of final filtration waste and less complex filtration than aquaculture, has lower pest losses and earlier harvests than soil-based gardens, and operates at low cost, and concludes it is a sustainable, economical food-production approach suited to both household and industrial scale.

Innovation Network · Innovation Network, Inc. · United States

The 2016 edition of Innovation Network's nationwide survey of nonprofit evaluation, running since 2010, with responses from 1,125 US-based 501(c)(3) organisations. The share engaging in any evaluation in the past year reached an all-time high of 92 per cent, and the share receiving evaluation funding from at least one source rose from 66 per cent in 2012 to 92 per cent. Yet the share showing a promising mix of evaluation characteristics and practices held flat at 28 per cent, only 12 per cent of organisations spent 5 per cent or more of their budget on evaluation, and only 8 per cent had evaluation staff, internal or external — both sizeable decreases.

Vera Institute of Justice · Vera Institute of Justice · United States

Published 21 September 2016. The Vera Institute of Justice reports its independent evaluation of ABLE, a programme for 16- to 18-year-olds at New York City's Rikers Island funded through the first US social impact bond. Using a quasi-experimental design comparing a 2013 cohort with people entering jail from 2006 to 2010 and with ineligible 19-year-olds, it tracked recidivism bed days over one year. The change in recidivism for eligible 16- to 18-year-olds was not statistically significant; the programme missed its pre-defined 10 per cent threshold and was discontinued on 31 August 2015.

Guillaume 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.

Daftary-Steel S., Herrera H., Porter C. M. · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development · USA

A reflective essay arguing that the expectation that urban agriculture can simultaneously provide affordable food, job training, and generate profit without sustained outside funding is a myth, criticizing the assumption of financial self-sufficiency.

Rose Tardiff · Syracuse University Libraries (Syracuse University) · United States

The Salt City Harvest Farm (SCHF) in Kirkville, NY, is an all-volunteer project with limited capacity and concerns about long-term sustainability, despite providing benefits to New American participants. Research identified challenges and suggested organizational improvements, including clearly defining roles and integrating New Americans into decision-making. The study found that the SCHF would best suit participants' interests by remaining a place for growing their own food rather than transitioning to an incubator model.

Altair Luiz da Silva, Ester Pereira de Oliveira Gomes, Alfeu Ohlweiler, Flavio Renato da Silva · Cadernos de Agroecologia · Brazil

The agroecological community garden in the Patativa do Assaré settlement, 54 km from Sao Gabriel do Oeste-MS, Brazil, operates through a partnership involving the Settlers' Association, Agrarian Development and Rural Extension Agency, and Municipal Government. From May to August 2014, ten settler families, mostly women, commercialized over 780 kg and 1770 bunches of 24 different vegetable items. Produce is sold at municipal open-air markets and through the National School Feeding Program (PNAE).

Timothy A. Woods, Debra Tropp, Woods, Timothy A., Tropp, Debra · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · USA

This paper explores the strategic positioning of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in a changing food market, where competition for the local food dollar has expanded. Drawing on observations from a survey of CSA managers, it documents specific trends in adaptations to the CSA business model. CSA managers generally perceive other CSAs and farm markets as their closest competition.

Margaret Ellen Kubek · UWM Digital Commons (University of Wisconsin–Milwaukee) · United States (Wisconsin)

This thesis explored the food provisioning strategies of year-round and seasonal residents of Phelps, WI. Ethnographic data gathered in the summer and fall of 2011 found that Phelps, WI, is classified as food insecure, leading residents to modify routines for lengthy drives to purchase food, while year-round residents utilized self-provisioning strategies. Newly initiated farmers' market and community supported agriculture projects increased overall food availability, but these efforts were mostly utilized by seasonal residents, with year-round residents finding these options unaffordable and inconveniently scheduled.

Andrew Koval · Educational Media Reviews Online · United States (New York City)

The 27-minute documentary film "Brooklyn Farmer" (2014) covers organic urban rooftop farming as a business. The film offers perspectives on the cost of farm labor's exposure to pesticides versus the increased cost of organic vegetables, citing aesthetics, supply chain reduction, and human health as benefits of urban farming. While noted for its informative text and enhanced production value, a stated limitation is that it should have featured farmers in a more traditional vegetable production capacity to provide a diversity of opinion concerning the market.

Yuki Kato · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States (New Orleans)

This case study, based on ethnographic observation and interviews, examined an alternative food market in a New Orleans neighborhood to understand different views of "community." The study identified four distinct groups—community gardeners, locavores, hipsters, and local residents—each with different expectations for the organization. Findings did not demonstrate a unified community emerging around this organization, with no single group staking a claim on it.

Elvis 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.

Rosangela Medeiros Hespanhol · Confins · Brazil (Natal)

This study analyzed the trajectory of farmers from AMIGS (Association of Friends and Producers of Vegetables Residents of Sitio Gramoré and Adjacencies), a significant vegetable supplier in Natal, Brazil, who have been transitioning from conventional to organic production since 2012. The organization of farmers through the association and partnerships with companies and institutions were crucial for enabling this change, reducing dependence on intermediaries through direct sales at ecological fairs. However, problems related to the individual acquisition of inputs and conflicts with farmers still using conventional systems were observed.

Yves T. Ilunga, Sayed Saghaian · 2015 Annual Meeting, January 31-February 3, 2015, Atlanta, Georgia · United States

This study used a linear regression econometrics model with USDA county-level data to measure the economic impact of access to healthy food on obesity in the U.S. Results showed that many factors beyond access to healthy food explain variations in obesity rates. Increased household income and more full-service restaurants both had a negative impact on obesity rates, and age played a significant role, with people over 65 likely eating healthier than those under 18.

Ryan E. Galt, Katharine A. Bradley, Libby Christensen, Julia Van Soelen Kim, Ramiro Lobo · Sociologia Ruralis · United States (California)

A study of 111 CSA farms in California examined the effects of competition within alternative food networks. Analysis showed that perceived competition is negatively correlated with CSA farms' profitability, farmer satisfaction, various indicators of CSA's social embeddedness, and two community food security strategies. Competition was found to undermine some commonly held CSA values, specifically fair farmer compensation and strong member-farmer relationships.

Rania 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.

Felipe de Jesús Cruz Celis, María Sánchez Zarate, Martha Lis Garrido Cardona · · Mexico

This study surveyed 384 residents in Ixtepec, Juchitan, Tehuantepec, and Salina Cruz in the Istmo Oaxaqueño, Mexico, regarding urban agriculture and tomato consumption. Findings indicate that 73.06% of respondents buy Saladet tomatoes, and 84.87% purchase 1 to 2 kg per week. Additionally, 79.34% buy tomatoes in the local market, and 54.98% state that price is the main characteristic they seek when buying.

Taina Tremblay · Western CEDAR (Western Washington University) · United States

This research outlines the intent to examine the correlation between access to healthy, organic food and poverty, and the increasing problem of food insecurity in the United States. Urban agriculture and urban gardening are considered as solutions to food instabilities in poverty-stricken areas. The study aims to uncover reasons for the lack of access to healthy food and to discover solutions for promoting better food access and eating habits.

Eleni Papaoikonomou, Matías Ginieis · Revista Internacional de Organizaciones · United States (New York City)

This study conducts an empirical comparison between two local food systems: Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Manhattan, New York, and Responsible Consumption Cooperatives in Catalonia, Spain. Using a qualitative methodology, the research identifies and explores the practices and narratives established between producers and consumers, which are also defined by the orientation and raison d’être of the local system. The study aims to empirically verify romanticized discourses about local food systems.