Research & reports

Ellen Kohl, John A. Knox · Weather Climate and Society · United States (Georgia)

This paper examines the relationship between scientific definitions of drought and water management politics, using a case study of the 2007–09 drought in Georgia, USA. Data from archival research, direct observation, and interviews with urban agricultural sector members, environmental regulators, and government officials revealed how stakeholders produced and utilized multiple understandings of drought. The study found that stakeholders can leverage drought complexity to achieve political goals and alter water management, as demonstrated by the green industry in Georgia in 2009.

Rúbio José Ferreira, Cláudio Jorge Moura de Castilho · Ateliê Geográfico · Brazil (Recife)

This text examines the place of urban agriculture and its practitioners in the urban planning process in Recife, Pernambuco, Brazil. The main results indicate that urban agriculture and urban farmers are not effectively considered by Recife's urban planning technicians. This may be due to urban agriculture being a social practice used by people from the "lowest layers" of society in a marginal area of the local urban economy.

Roger Mark Selya · Journal of Urban Affairs · United States (New York City)

Efrat Eizenberg's study on community gardens in New York City and the politics of spatial transformation explores how groups of poor, ethnic, and racial minorities managed to obtain land for community gardens. This abstract only presents the research questions and does not detail the methodology or findings.

Alexandra Grace Lancey · · United States (Florida)

This ethnographic study in Pinellas County, Florida, investigated school gardening efforts at Title I elementary schools, focusing on an organization that installs gardens in "failing" schools. The research found that strict public school standards and neoliberal education reform paradoxically prevent teachers and administrators from fully utilizing school gardens for nutrition education. This limits their effectiveness in discussing nutrition, healthy eating, and local food, as the focus shifts to state-regulated education standards, revealing significant infrastructural challenges.

David J. Bettez · · United States (Kentucky)

During World War I, President Woodrow Wilson appointed Herbert Hoover as head of the US Food Administration to promote food conservation and increase production. In Kentucky, Fred Sackett served as federal food administrator, implementing programs like “meatless” and “wheatless” days, encouraging housewives to use substitutes and children to grow school gardens. The federal government also established a Fuel Administration, headed in Kentucky by Wiley Bryan, who encouraged fuel conservation and increased production, and attempted to ensure equitable coal distribution during the 1917-1918 winter shortage.

Starecheski, Amy · · United States (New York City)

This chapter examines the contested nature of value, urban citizenship, and property claims through the study of squatting, urban homesteading, and community garden activism in the South Bronx, New York City. It highlights how squatters' initiatives, while challenging neoliberal privatization, could also be coopted into a discourse of individual responsibility in a neoliberalizing city. The research explores how squatters claimed a right to the city based on their labor and citizenship, and used history and property rights to redefine their urban presence amidst renegotiated meanings of debt and homeownership.

N. Claire Napawan, Stacie A. Townsend · Landscape Research · United States (California)

This study investigated the landscape of urban agricultural practice in Sacramento, California, examining past and present urban agricultural projects, advocacy, and city and state policies. The research found that community interest in urban agriculture is outpacing local policies in Sacramento. The authors concluded that city-wide initiatives might improve efforts at increasing opportunities for new urban agriculture projects.

Amy Laura Cahn, Paula Z. Segal · ˜The œFordham urban law journal/Fordham urban law journal · United States

This paper argues that the invisibility of community-stewarded spaces, such as community gardens, within urban governance frameworks in North American cities leads to their enclosure and loss. It highlights that marginalized residents often have the least acknowledged claim to urban space. The study suggests that making existing community-stewarded places visible and exposing pathways to access is crucial to prevent enclosure and promote equity.

Amanda Rees, Bert Melix, Chuck Lawson, Cory Hart · CSU ePress (Columbus State University) · United States (Columbus, Georgia)

During the 2016-2017 academic year, a professor and student from Columbus State University collected data from community garden sites in Columbus/Phenix City. This project involved the creation of a GIS digital map, which was then used to develop a quad-fold map for distribution at Georgia Organics events. Georgia Organics provided a mini-grant for the project.

Sérgio Luiz de Oliveira Vilela, Maria Dione Carvalho de Moraes · Revista Econômica do Nordeste · Brazil (Teresina)

This article discusses the importance of Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (UPA) and the challenges of its management, particularly the need to institutionalize a Localized Agri-Food System (SAL) in Teresina, Brazil. The concentration of 46 gardens, occupying almost 140 hectares within Teresina, meets the basic requirements for establishing a SAL. Based on bibliographic research and empirical knowledge, the study concluded that adopting a SAL is a fruitful measure for Teresina to address necessary transformations in UPA, making it a significant part of the municipal planning agenda.

Laura Castrejon Violante · Open Collections · Canada (Vancouver)

This paper proposes the concept of an "agricultural road" in Vancouver, reshaping a low-transit street into a multipurpose space for urban agriculture. Defined as a pedestrian-oriented area, it would offer plots for growing food while also achieving sustainable urban development outcomes like social inclusion, recreational space, and greening the urban landscape. The agricultural road aims to reconnect urban life with food by providing a space for growing edible plants and fostering discussion and education.

Suleiman Osman · Journal of Planning History · United States (New York City)

The origins of public-private parks in New York City trace back to the 1970s fiscal crisis. Due to severe budget cuts at the Parks and Recreation Department, thousands of volunteers in block associations and community groups began maintaining parks through "do-it-yourself" urbanism, including guerrilla horticulture and community gardens. These self-help efforts evolved into new public-private parks by the early 1980s, reflecting antistatist impulses from both the left and right in the 1970s.

Dra. Ana Maria Girotti Sperandio, Mg. Arq.Adriana Aparecida Carneiro Rosa, Carolina Guida Cardoso do Carmo, rq. Danielle Pereira Montrezor · ARQUISUR Revista · Brazil (Conchal)

A Post-Occupancy Evaluation (POE) was conducted on a community garden project in Conchal, São Paulo, Brazil, implemented through a public-community alliance. The study, involving residents with plots in the garden, observed positive impacts such as improved quality of life for participants, enhanced social integration and participation, and an increased sense of belonging to the neighborhood. This type of urban intervention was concluded to have the potential for positive reverberations on directly involved users, the urban territory, and their relationship.

Alesia Montgomery · International Journal of Urban and Regional Research · United States (Detroit)

A case study of downtown Detroit theorizes that the history of clashes between racial capitalism and social movements in public space reappears in the contradictory design of market-driven placemaking. This placemaking subordinates the black urban poor, even while incorporating black entrepreneurs and culture. Consequently, it suppresses the ability of African Americans to shape public space, despite the return of the white middle class to central cities.

Sandy Smith‐Nonini · Anthropology in Action · United States

This article discusses lessons learned from Eco-Cycle, a social enterprise supporting sustainability education in central North Carolina, U.S.A., since 2011. Eco-Cycle faced the challenge that many social justice-oriented green initiatives emulating urban agriculture models are grant-dependent in early years and achieve economic sustainability with difficulty. However, this non-profit co-op of upcycler crafters and vintage vendors grew from the production and marketing of upcycled rain barrels, pursuing economic sustainability through a social enterprise approach.

Lorelei L. Hanson, Deborah Schrader · Interdisciplinary Environmental Review · Canada (Edmonton)

This case study critically examined the development of a food and urban agriculture strategy in Edmonton, Canada, using survey data and semi-structured interviews with citizens and stakeholders. It explored the transformative potential of local urban food initiatives and identified hurdles in moving beyond maintaining the status quo. The study aimed to identify leverage points for long-term local food system transformation within conceptualizations of sustainability.

Kevin C. Hartzell · ScholarWorks@UMassAmherst (University of Massachusetts Amherst) · United States (Massachusetts)

The University of Massachusetts Amherst’s Waltham Experiment Station in Waltham, Massachusetts, is slated for redevelopment as a model for multi-use urban agriculture production, research, and education. This project will focus on educational and research categories within the theme of cultural ecosystem services. The aim is to strengthen urban and peri-urban agriculture activities through this new vision for extension.

Bethany 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.

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.

Kate 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.

Renée 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.

Becky 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.

Ina Opitz, Kathrin Specht, Regine Berges, Rosemarie Siebert, Annette Piorr · Sustainability · United States

An empirical study based on 17 qualitative interviews conducted in New York City, Philadelphia and Chicago identified the areas, drivers and obstacles of innovation in U.S. urban agriculture. Learning and innovation were found to occur predominantly in four areas — financing and funding; production, technology and infrastructure; markets and demands; and social acceptance and cultural learning — with some novelties showing potential to contribute to broader societal change.

Wende Marshall · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States (New York City)

A book review of Kristin Reynolds and Nevin Cohen's Beyond the Kale, which analyzes the grassroots urban farming and gardening movement in New York City. The review frames the book's account, likening it to Antonio Gramsci's "war of position", as depicting urban gardening not merely as food growing but as a challenge to race- and class-based structures of oppression, oriented toward environmental justice and liberation.

Kris Scheerlinck, Yves Schoonjans · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · United States

This paper presents a theoretical framework treating gardens (flower or vegetable gardens, front and back yards, allotment gardens, community playing fields) as structural elements of streetscapes, and discusses a case study in Williamsburg, New York. The case is part of the international Streetscape Territories Research Project run by the Department of Architecture at KU Leuven, which compares streetscapes across cities including New York, Barcelona, Ghent, Brussels, Havana, and Addis Ababa. It argues that streetscapes are delimited not only by building facades but also by garden walls, fences, strips of grass, tree lines, muddy roads, and parking slabs as territorial borders, and poses the research question of whether the structural role of gardens in the making and use of contemporary streetscapes can be described. No specific empirical findings are reported in the abstract.