Research & reports

Rebecca Gresh · Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) · United States (California)

This qualitative study investigated two alternative food projects in San Diego, California, to reveal how food justice is envisioned and practiced. "Project New Village (PNV)" in a low-income area resists institutional racism and class inequality through a community garden and farmers market. In contrast, the affluent "San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project (SDRS)" resists suburban sprawl and environmental destruction through sustainable food production. PNV faces obstacles like law enforcement patrols interrupting community rebuilding, indicating that alternative food movements may reproduce structures of oppression.

Elizabeth A. Mack, Daoqin Tong, Kevin Credit · International Journal of Health Geographics · United States (Phoenix)

This study used spatial optimization models in the Phoenix, Arizona metropolitan area to identify optimal locations for urban gardens near food deserts and on vacant land. Spatial analysis found that existing gardens are primarily in areas with good food access, providing an alternative food source to only 8.4% of food desert residents. The optimization model, however, identified 53 alternative garden locations that could cover 96.4% of all food deserts, demonstrating a significant improvement over the current distribution.

Pascale Joassart‐Marcelli, Fernando J. Bosco · · United States (San Diego)

The alternative food movement (farmers' markets, community gardens) in San Diego, United States, was investigated in relation to gentrification. Uneven urban food landscapes were shown to be intimately connected to gentrification processes, shaped by race, class, political decisions, and capital flows. Farmers' markets and community gardens are primarily located in affluent and gentrifying areas, providing evidence of a growing appropriation of alternative food spaces by urban developers and cultural elites.

· Policy Press eBooks · United States (Detroit)

This interview chapter features Grace Lee Boggs discussing revolution, evolution, and change in Detroit. Boggs posits that revolutions stem from communities claiming spaces to realize their desired world, viewing urban agriculture and grassroots movements as acts of revolution that "grow our souls." She highlights Detroit as a pioneer in this new form of revolution, advocating for revolution as a way of life rather than a power grab.

Megan Betz, Jacob Mills, James Farmer · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States

This study conducted a qualitative, inductive survey of community orchard organizations in the U.S. (42.64% response rate) to establish a baseline understanding. Participants were identified via internet presence, meaning little is known about orchards without an online presence. Findings showed that community orchards are primarily established on public land, with primary motivations including environmental concern, education, and a sense of community. Organizers reported that fruit and nuts produced feed residents in the immediate surrounding area.

Ruth Glasser · Journal of Urban History · United States

Scholarly literature often treats urban agriculture as a new phenomenon, but it is a neglected dimension of urban history, with some U.S. cities, especially in the Northeast, having food-raising and processing practices until the recent past. This piece explores urban development, agricultural, and immigrant history, which have largely omitted discussions of city food production, using evidence from a study of Waterbury, Connecticut. Local food production in Waterbury adapted to the growing city's needs, and the city government both supported and undermined agriculture, offering insights for urban history and current urban agriculture policy.

Lindsay K. Campbell · Cornell University Press eBooks · United States (New York City)

This chapter analyzes why urban forestry was prioritized in New York City's PlaNYC mayoral initiative while urban agriculture was overlooked. It examines the networks, public-private partnerships, elite ties, and bureaucratic structures involved in PlaNYC, revealing that certain voices were heard while others were ignored in the sustainability planning process. The analysis highlights issues of governance and equity in urban nature planning.

Lindsay K. Campbell · Cornell University Press eBooks · United States (New York City)

In New York City, chapter six revealed how civic and public actors working outside PlaNYC iteratively embedded urban agriculture and food policy into municipal planning efforts. Within the void created by city hall’s lack of engagement, other figures in the municipal government seized the opportunity to advance food policy agendas for New York City. The 2011 update to PlaNYC included a brief crosscutting section on food, although it lacked capital funding to fuel the achievement of its stated goals, and was seen by advocates as a symbolic and political achievement.

Helena C. Lyson · · United States (California)

This qualitative fieldwork in a large, urban school district in Northern California explored school food reform efforts addressing childhood obesity. Reforms transpired through three processes: sustained involvement of parent-activists, leadership by the school food service director in championing farm-to-school efforts and facilitating partnerships, and widespread community support for funding and implementation. These findings indicate how local social change transformed public school food programs to benefit youth health.

Lucy Diekmann, Leslie Gray, Gregory A. Baker · Local Environment · United States (California)

This case study in Santa Clara County, California, used interviews and surveys to explore the implications of historic drought for urban agriculture (UA). It found that metropolitan California's decentralized water supply and diverse institutional arrangements create an uneven landscape of water access for UA. This results in geographically and socially differentiated pressures on UA water users to change water-consuming practices, with responses varying due to site-specific sociotechnical arrangements and UA purposes.

Osazuwa Osayomwanbor · Open MIND · Canada

This study discusses the concept of urban agriculture in Regina, Canada, its growth, and the implications of municipal bylaws and policies on urban agricultural activities. It uses policy frameworks from other cities to suggest changes needed to improve Regina's urban agriculture landscape and presents practical actions required for urban agriculture to thrive in Regina.

John Diaz, Susan T. Webb, Erin Elsberry · EDIS · United States (Florida)

A three-page Extension fact sheet from the University of Florida outlining a framework for county garden associations, noting growing recognition of the educational, environmental, health, and social impacts of school and community garden projects, and describing how such associations allow Extension to provide technical information supporting new and existing gardens. It outlines the framework used by a pilot garden association program in Polk County, Florida, written by John M. Diaz, Susan Tyler Webb, and Erin Elsberry and published by the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication in March 2017.

Juliana Portela do Rego Monteiro · · Brazil

The available abstract consists only of the names of the thesis advisor and the six committee members (four external, two internal); no information on the study's subject, method or findings is provided.

Benjamin Iuliano, Alexandra Markiewicz, Paul Glaum · Michigan Journal of Sustainability · United States

A paper examining how community gardens have spread amid a decade of increased urban agriculture in American cities, and what effects this has on local ecosystems, with the title indicating a focus on potential effects on native pollinators. It states that socio-economic demographics may influence patterns of garden placement and quality, producing changes in biotic communities that urban ecologists are only beginning to understand. The available abstract breaks off while introducing a researcher hypothesis about increased floral resources, without stating further specific results.

Timothy F. LeDoux, B. W. Conz · CABI eBooks · United States

A chapter documenting how the food justice movement in the lower Pioneer Valley of Massachusetts, USA, has challenged inequities in the agri-food system alongside broader socio-economic and racial disparities. It examines Holyoke-based Nuestras Raíces and Springfield-based Gardening the Community, two organizations using urban agriculture to alleviate food insecurity and improve food access while reimagining ecological and socio-spatial relationships in a region marked by decades of de-industrialization and neoliberal economic reform. Drawing on urban political ecology, it argues their assertion of a "right to the city" underlies attempts to dismantle institutional racism and socio-economic stratification embedded in both the current food system and the region.

Cassandra Lee Hamilton · cIRcle (University of British Columbia) · Canada

A qualitative descriptive case study of the urban agriculture policy community in Kelowna, British Columbia, Canada, used Sabatier's Advocacy Coalition Framework and semi-structured interviews with 11 policy actors representing a variety of food system sectors. Policy actors largely understood urban agriculture in similar terms, pointing to its importance for fostering a healthy community, though many recognized their own roles were evolving. Some challenges with partnerships were identified. The policy community overall was found not to be well networked, with most actors not collaborating with each other and often unaware of one another, though collaboration among a few actors suggested the modest formation of a policy coalition. Participants shared a clear desire to work together and agreed that urban agriculture is beneficial for Kelowna and that more opportunities for it should be pursued and promoted.

Mahbubur Meenar, Alfonso Morales, Leonard Bonarek · Journal of the American Planning Association · United States

As municipalities across the United States gradually recognize urban agriculture as part of planning, land use and zoning ordinances, this study reviews the literature on urban agriculture regulation and examines current regulatory practices in 40 metropolitan and 40 micropolitan municipalities across the four U.S. Census regions. It finds municipalities filling policy vacuums by adopting enabling ordinances (zoning ordinances, land use designations, resolutions), regulations on urban agriculture production (backyard animals, built structures, practitioner responsibility), and fiscal policy instruments (restrictions on sales of agricultural products, tax abatement, urban agriculture fees). The study identifies three principal knowledge gaps: the need for a complete typology of regulatory possibilities, a better understanding of how local, state and federal legislation constrains or enables urban agriculture, and empirical evidence of urban agriculture's economic, social and environmental impacts.

Antônio Cordeiro de Santana, Gisela Romariz Sequeira, Cyntia Meireles de Oliveira, Sérgio Castro Gomes · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Brazil

This study examined how government institutional food-purchasing programs support urban and peri-urban agriculture in Curuçambá, one of the oldest agricultural areas of Ananindeua municipality in Brazil's Belém metropolitan region, based on secondary data plus interviews, direct observation and a questionnaire administered in 2013 to 50 producers of the Cooperativa dos Produtores da Gleba Guajará-Pará. Results showed 48% of production went to the Food Acquisition Program, but the research also found gaps in municipal and state support, particularly technical assistance and promotion, with much production still sold to middlemen because producers lacked real knowledge of prices, scale and markets; the study concludes the institutional market can sustain producer income but should serve as a step toward broader markets for urban and peri-urban family agriculture.

Eli Zigas · SPUR · United States

SPUR's May 2017 article reports on four years of implementation of California's Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones law (AB-551). San Francisco, Sacramento, San Jose and Santa Clara County had opted into the program, with four parcels across three cities under contract at the time; five more jurisdictions including San Diego, Los Angeles and Long Beach were considering it. The article reports the resulting loss in property tax revenue was minimal, under $7,000 per year in all but one case.

Clendenning J., Dressler W. H., Richards C. · Agriculture and Human Values 33:165-177 · United States

Through interviews with activists in Oakland and New Orleans, analyzes how food justice and food sovereignty have become embedded as concepts, strategies and practices in the rise of US urban food movements.

Brown S.L., Chaney R.L., Hettiarachchi G.M. · Journal of Environmental Quality, 45(1):26-36 · United States

A review examining the risk that urban soil lead poses to urban agriculture. It concludes that adding compost, organic matter and phosphorus improves soil properties and reduces both the bioavailability of soil lead and fugitive dust, so urban agriculture is unlikely to raise children's blood lead. The findings support the safety of compost-centred soil management in urban gardens.

Bessie DiDomenica, Mark Gordon · Journal of Social Change · United States

This study explores urban farms as a secondary food source and examines common themes across the public, nonprofit, private, and academic sectors, using a Northeastern U.S. city that implemented a formal urban agriculture program as its case study. It notes that food systems can be disrupted by external forces (weather extremes) and internal forces (zoning regulations). The authors argue that urban farms offer greater food visibility and access in low-income areas, but conclude that local food alone cannot feed large populations.

Yuki Kato, Scarlett Andrews, Cate Irvin · Urban Affairs Review · United States (New Orleans)

Based on interviews with 44 urban growers in New Orleans, this study examines their experiences establishing urban agriculture projects on publicly and privately owned lots through purchase or lease. It finds that publicly owned lots are easier to identify but insecure to access due to bureaucratic processes and shifting policy, while privately owned lots are easier to lease but hard to identify; neither offers significantly more secure land tenure, raising concerns about the long-term sustainability of urban agriculture.

Michelle Kondo, Bernadette Hohl, SeungHoon Han, Charles Branas · Urban Studies · United States (Youngstown)

Using a difference-in-differences design, this study evaluates Youngstown's 'Lots of Green' program, comparing crime around newly treated vacant lots—via a cleaning-and-greening 'stabilization' treatment and a 'community reuse' treatment involving mostly community gardens—to matched untreated control lots. It finds statistically significant reductions across crime classes for at least one treatment type, with community-initiated greening associated with greater reductions in serious, violent crimes, alongside spillover reductions in contiguous areas but increases in motor vehicle thefts.

Walker Samuel · Urban Geography · Canada/USA (Vancouver, Detroit)

Critical analysis of how Vancouver and Detroit governments deployed urban agriculture rhetorically within economic-development narratives as a 'sustainability fix'. Argues municipal embrace of UA was selective and discursive, serving governance legitimacy more than substantive food or equity outcomes.