Research & reports

Janet Music, Charlotte Large, Sylvain Charlebois, Kydra Mayhew · Local Environment · Canada

This systematic scoping review revealed the extent of existing knowledge regarding the governance and management of urban grassroots agri-food organizations in Canada. Among Canadian studies, 15 were qualitative case studies, 11 were exploration/analysis papers, one was a literature review, and one was a quantitative analysis. It was found that for greater success in urban agriculture, municipal policymakers need to intentionally and radically shift policy to plan for and integrate urban agriculture networks into the urban environment without taking over the networks themselves. The review also indicated a lack of broad research into the influence of gender dynamics on the organization and management of urban agriculture or community gardens.

Michele Hartmann Feyh · Revista Verde de Agroecologia e Desenvolvimento Sustentável · Brazil

A community garden was implemented in Vila Buritis II, Planaltina, Brasília, Federal District, Brazil, a socially vulnerable urban area with low purchasing power. The garden transformed an idle area into a productive space, planting 27 edible species, and 30 to 40 residents regularly visit to collect food. However, the maintenance and increase of garden productivity still require technical assistance and resources.

Margaret Marcy Emerson · Digital Commons - LIU Promoting Scholarship and Creative Work of LIU Students, Faculty, and Staff (Long Island University) · United States

In 2019, an estimated 35% of all food was lost or wasted in the U.S., and organic waste in landfills generates methane, a potent greenhouse gas. Composting significantly cuts the amount of food going into landfills, reducing climate and environmental impacts. Compost enhances soil, reduces the need for chemical fertilizers, improves soil water retention, provides carbon sequestration, and local composting conserves energy and reduces transport emissions.

Abdolzaher Ghezeljeh, Jutta Gutberlet, Denise Cloutier · Canadian Geographies / Géographies canadiennes · Canada (Victoria)

This study used qualitative research methods to explore the main barriers to urban agriculture as perceived by community-based groups in Victoria, British Columbia. Data from 18 semi-structured interviews and two community mapping workshops with residents, government officials, and non-governmental groups revealed "urban agriculture zones" and "garden-style" apartment housing as important avenues. However, progress towards far-reaching changes requires an efficient urban agriculture development process, including creating site inventories, increasing stakeholder participation, reducing waitlists, and tackling high land prices.

Contingent Horizons · Contingent Horizons The York University Student Journal of Anthropology · Canada (Winnipeg)

This paper uses the Rainbow Community Garden in Winnipeg as a case study to discuss the benefits and challenges of community gardening for new immigrant and refugee families. Through a literature review and interviews with gardeners, the study emphasizes the role of food and community gardens in facilitating cross-cultural interactions, providing culturally appropriate food, and expressing cultural identity. The main conclusion is that for new immigrant and refugee participation, a garden is not only physical soil but also an important place for practicing culture and engaging in meaningful cross-cultural interaction beneficial for adjusting to a new life in Canada.

Rose Seguin, Mark Lefsrud, Treena Delormier, Jan Adamowski, Helen Fyles · ARCTIC · Canada

This review explores interregional differences in agricultural development across circumpolar Canada, including Yukon, Northwest Territories, Nunavut, Nunavik, and Nunatsiavut. Yukon and the Northwest Territories are the most agriculturally developed, with government support for commercial agriculture. In contrast, Nunavut, Nunavik, and Nunatsiavut have fewer agricultural initiatives, though local efforts exist for community gardens and greenhouses.

Marília Alves dos Santos, W. D. B. S. Bonaci, L. S. FOGANHOLO · Fractal Revista de Psicologia · Brazil (São Paulo)

This report describes a supervised internship experience in Social and Community Psychology conducted in 2017 with an intergenerational community garden group at a social assistance institution in rural São Paulo state. Key observed results of this intervention among group members included the learning of various cultivation techniques, the strengthening of interpersonal relationships, the development of group autonomy and self-organization, and the group's formation as an important support network.

Audrey Ferreira Rosa · Formação (Online) · Brazil (Presidente Prudente)

A survey was conducted among 13 urban and peri-urban farmers in Presidente Prudente/SP, Brazil, to analyze their profiles. This survey was part of a master's research conducted between 2018 and 2019. The findings indicated that there is no single or homogeneous profile characterizing urban and peri-urban farmers, and the information obtained differed from farmers in other Brazilian municipalities and states, highlighting the heterogeneity of individuals involved in urban and peri-urban agriculture.

Meike Rombach, David Dean, Tim Baird, Jacob Kambuta · Foods · United States

This study investigated factors determining US consumer preferences for growing and processing horticultural products (fruit, vegetables, wine, beer) versus buying them, both before and after the COVID-19 pandemic. Using PLS-SEM, findings showed that engagement with horticulture pre- and post-pandemic influenced preferences for growing/processing, and this engagement was significantly impacted by attitudes towards US growers. Attitudes towards COVID-19 and human values like self-enhancement, conservation, and self-transcendence were also significant, but openness to change was not.

Ainsley C. McStay, S.L. Walser, Eric C. Sirkovich, Nicolas Perdrial, Justin B. Richardson · Journal of Environmental Quality · United States

This study evaluated portable X-ray fluorescence (pXRF) measurements of macronutrients, micronutrients, and toxic elements (As, Pb) in soils and plants from 10 urban community gardens across the eastern United States. It found that pXRF and traditional methods provided agreeable estimates for some elements (Mn, Cu, Zn, Pb) but not for macronutrients (Ca, K, P). While pXRF is an accurate tool for screening Mn, Cu, Zn, and Pb, macronutrients were poorly estimated in fruits, leaves, and roots, and genus-specific and garden-specific factors may be important for plant uptake models.

Aria Razfar, Beverly Troiano · · United States (New York City)

This chapter presents action research conducted by an elementary teacher in a second-grade classroom in New York City, United States, where a gardening unit was implemented. The gardening unit was part of a thematic unit on "community," a theme that emerged from surveys of student interests, experiences, and problems. The origins of critical urban gardening trace back to 1970s New York, when communities reappropriated green space.

Manuela Alves da Cunha, Ryzia de Cássia Vieira Cardoso · Ambiente & sociedade · Brazil (Salvador)

A descriptive study was conducted to highlight the contribution of urban gardens to promoting Food and Nutrition Security and sustainable development in Salvador, Brazil. Data collected from urban garden farmers in the city showed that the gardens have been promoting work and generating income for families, contributing to food supply and security. In addition to producing fresh vegetables for the local population, the activity contributes to ecosystem balance and sustainability.

Ana Clara Aparecida Alves de Souza, Fernando Dias Lopes · Cadernos EBAPE BR · Brazil (Porto Alegre)

This two-year participatory investigation of Horta da Formiga, a collective urban garden in Porto Alegre, Brazil, analyzed how key agents reconcile inherent contradictions. The study found that while individuals exhibit agency, structured conditions within the social field prevent the organic and diverse reconciliation of contradictions. This occurs despite agents aligning with state-legitimized capital.

Joshua Arnold · Processes · United States (California)

A survey of 29 urban farms in the San Francisco Bay Area from 2014 to 2017 examined on-farm spatial composition, management practices, and estimated productivity. Findings showed a large proportion of farm area dedicated to infrastructure and underutilized potential production space. All surveyed farms adopted diverse agroecological practices, and measured farms were productive with estimated seasonal yields of 7.14 kg/square meter, comparable to actual yields at two farms.

Elizandra Flávia Araujo, Marcos Paulo Fuck · Cadernos de Ciência & Tecnologia · Brazil (Curitiba)

This study aimed to identify and characterize different categories of urban agriculture practitioners in Curitiba. A descriptive study using bibliographic and documentary analysis found that urban agriculture activities are concentrated in peripheral areas of the city, with most participants having a monthly family income of up to two minimum wages. Despite a wide range of actors engaging in these practices, their visibility and inclusion in the political agenda occur asymmetrically.

Universidad de Guadalajara, Ofelia Barrios Vargas, María Lourdes Rebolledo García, Adán Rubio Cuevas · GESPYE Gestión Pública y Empresarial · Mexico

This study diagnosed urban gardens in Lázaro Cárdenas de Ocampo, Michoacán, Mexico, identifying private and community gardens and a 20% increase in gardens in 2020 compared to the previous year. A cross-sectional study with on-site interviews, recordings, and photographs was conducted. The findings suggest that urban gardens served as occupational therapy and family integration during COVID-19 confinement, demonstrating promising resilience in the population.

Doralice Sátyro Maia, Miriam Hermi Zaar · Revista Espaço e Geografia · Brazil

A study of João Pessoa (Paraíba) and Natal (Rio Grande do Norte), two cities on Brazil's northeastern coast, analysing the persistence of rural practices - small-scale cattle farms (vacarias) in João Pessoa and agricultural practices in Natal - as "islands of rurality" that resist real-estate speculation and urbanization mechanisms within areas classified as urban. Arguing that the spread of new technologies and communication networks, along with the homogenization of social and labour relations, has produced a multiscalar and complex territorial structure that calls for rethinking methods of distinguishing rural from urban, the study combines fieldwork (observation, photographic records, questionnaires, and informal conversations with those involved), findings from prior research, and data gathered from government institutions to examine what is now called "urban agriculture" alongside the persistence of small-scale cattle raising in both cities.

Yadira Méndez–Lemus, António Vieyra, Lorena Poncela, Beatriz de la Tejera, Cinthia Ruiz-López · Frontiers in Sustainable Cities · Mexico

A paper examining the interactions between peripheralization, vulnerabilities of agricultural livelihoods, and local collective agency in creating new capabilities in intermediate Mexican cities, based on a study in Tarímbaro municipality, part of the intermediate city of Morelia. The unit of analysis was the ejido, a form of social land tenure granted to landless peasants in 1917 after the Mexican Revolution and one of the most important forms of social organization in rural Mexico; about half of Mexican territory comprises more than 30,000 community-based land tenures, mainly ejidos, and a high proportion of land now occupied by urban centres was formerly ejido land. The study used the example of 15 ejidos notably affected by the expansion of Morelia, conducting semi-structured interviews with each ejido's president in 2015, followed by a survey of 61 individuals from 11 of the 15 ejidos. The peripheralization of Morelia was found to have produced inequalities in the adjacent municipality of Tarímbaro, with differential vulnerabilities in peri-urban agricultural livelihoods found among the participating ejidos; not all ejidos succeeded in addressing vulnerabilities linked to the urbanization of agricultural land, but those that achieved some success shared characteristics that reinforced common values and motivations toward shared goals for sustaining local livelihoods. The paper highlights the importance of functional rural organizations in regulating access to, and distribution of, resources in the peripheries of intermediate cities.

André Ferreira, Wanderley José Deina · Revista NEP - Núcleo de Estudos Paranaenses da UFPR · Brazil

This study examines the activities of MOB-PR (Movimento de Organização de Base do Paraná, founded in 2014), a grassroots organizing movement in Comunidade Portelinha, an urban occupation in Curitiba, Brazil formed 13 years earlier. It focuses on two of the movement's working groups: "Ciranda," popular education activities for children and adolescents, and the "Horta Comunitária Eduardo Felipe" community garden. Fieldwork combined audio-recorded interviews, field diaries, children's drawings and photographs. The article concludes that grassroots work is itself applied popular education, which should not be reduced to simple didactics but should remain in constant relation with other political work. Since its founding, the occupation has demanded basic public services such as water and electricity and land tenure regularization.

Adam D. Kay, Eric J. Chapman, Jelagat D. Cheruiyot, Sue Lowery, Susan R. Singer, Gaston E. Small, Anne M. Stone, Ray Warthen, Wendy Westbroek · Ecology and Evolution · United States

Reviewing major U.S. undergraduate biology programs, reports on campus garden use, and case studies from five higher-education institutions, this paper assessed how much urban agriculture is incorporated into undergraduate biology education. It found that while field experiences are fairly common in biology programs, community engagement opportunities are rare and urban agriculture is almost absent from course descriptions, and that although many U.S. institutions have campus gardens, evidence indicates they are rarely used in biology courses.

Dorceta E. Taylor, Ki’Amber Thompson, Dominique Abednour-Brown, Ember McCoy, Socorro Martha Meg-ay V. Daupan, Clarice Hollenquest · American Behavioral Scientist · United States

This 2022 study analyzed 53 community gardens in Michigan, United States, surveyed from summer 2020 through winter 2021, examining how garden managers' race/ethnicity and sex, along with neighborhood characteristics, relate to garden activities. White managers ran 66% (35) of the gardens and people of color ran 34% (18); roughly half the gardens were managed by men and the remainder by women. None of the gardens had paid staff and all relied on volunteers. About 53% were located in low-income census tracts with a median household income of $40,000 or less. During the COVID-19 pandemic, 31% of gardens reduced staff, 51.4% had fewer volunteers than before the pandemic, and 51.9% saw increased numbers of people seeking food.

Cara A. Rockwell, Alex Crow, Érika R. Guimarães, Eduardo Recinos, Deborah La Belle · Urban Planning · United States

Tree species richness, stem density and canopy cover in food forest gardens at 10 public schools in Miami-Dade County, Florida, were investigated and compared with results from neighboring properties around each school. Food forest canopy cover was comparable to neighborhood urban tree cover, while arborescent species richness — including a greater share of edible taxa — and stem density were both higher in food forests than in adjacent neighborhood plots.

Madeline McIntosh, Victoria Chillscyzn · Purdue Journal of Service-Learning and International Engagement · United States

As part of Purdue University's Environmental and Ecological Engineering course EEE 49500 (Urban Water Projects), student-led service-learning aimed to improve water quality and quantity in the Wabash River watershed; two students, Victoria Chillscyzn and Madeline McIntosh, worked with the local nonprofit Home with Hope to ensure previously implemented installations would succeed long-term. Through interviews, a survey, and site visits, the team identified action items to improve the form and function of the installations, and a grant from the Purdue Student Service-Learning Grant Program was submitted and accepted to fund an additional rain barrel and an edible garden at the nonprofit, along with educational materials and a maintenance schedule.

Cristiane Veeck, Renata Menasche, Carolina Borges · AntHropológicas Visual · Brazil

A photo essay documents the relationship between hibiscus (Hibiscus sabdariffa) and humans at the Horta Comunitaria da Lomba do Pinheiro, a collective agroecological urban agriculture project in the eastern zone of Porto Alegre, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, begun by community initiative in 2011. Following a growing cycle that begins with sowing around August and ends with harvest between February and May, the plants trace back roughly eight years to seeds obtained from an agroecological farmer nearby; the harvest season ends with jam-making workshops, and the informal sale of dried hibiscus provides funds for maintaining the garden.

J. Dominique Gumirakiza, Autumn Milliner · Journal of Agricultural Science · United States

Using data from 172 consumers responding to a 2020 mail survey in the Southcentral Kentucky region, USA, a study applied Multinomial and Ordered Logit models to analyze farmers market attendance and likelihood of participating in a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program. Relative probabilities for 'never attend,' 'attend occasionally,' and 'attend frequently' were 55%, 29%, and 16% respectively, with male consumers, rural residents, primary shoppers, and those with a 2-year associate degree less likely to attend farmers markets, while more educated consumers and those satisfied with prior market experiences attended more frequently. Consumers interested in using an app to purchase fresh produce were more likely to attend farmers markets and join CSA programs, while rural residents were less likely to join a CSA program.