Research & reports

Gabriela Ivonne Pérez Rodríguez, Rafael Delgado Morales, Lydia Guadalupe Bernal Negrete · · Mexico

This is a progress report on research into urban agriculture (UA) in the Guadalajara Metropolitan Zone (ZMG), Mexico, aimed at understanding the actions being taken to promote and develop UA there and identifying cases of success or failure. The paper presents only the first phase of a research project intended to reproduce the ZMG's UA model in the Laja-Bajío zone of Guanajuato state, consisting of a study and analysis of the current state of UA and urban gardens in the ZMG. It is organized into three sections: the first covers the current state of urban agriculture worldwide, in Mexico, and in the ZMG, including its relevance to regional development, how it develops in different countries, and public policies and their shortcomings; the second describes the desk and field research conducted in the ZMG and its results; and the third addresses the prospects for UA in Mexico and areas of opportunity.

Vikram Bhatt, Leila Marie Farah · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Canada

This paper examines the development of urban agriculture in Montreal, Canada, through the lens of citizen action, community group involvement, and formal institutions. Urban agriculture activity in Montreal began in the early 1970s and gained momentum after the 1973 oil crisis. The paper is organized in three parts: the first traces the history of community gardens; the second presents Montreal-based pilot projects that the authors developed and implemented; the third discusses a 2012 citizens' action that used a municipal bylaw to hold a public consultation, leading to the formation of the city's Permanent Committee on Urban Agriculture (Comité de travail de la collectivité montréalaise en agriculture urbaine).

Jennifer E Gutierrez · USF Scholarship Repository (University of San Francisco) · United States

A planning proposal examines how agriculture could be integrated into Chula Vista, California, a city with both distinctly urban and suburban character. The project reviews the city's history, demographics, and existing urban agriculture policies compared with other California cities, then develops evaluation criteria applied to two contrasting sites at opposite ends of the city. Its stated purpose is to demonstrate how agriculture could be integrated into both urban and suburban settings and to serve as a policy guide, rather than to report implementation outcomes or measured effects.

Efrat Eizenberg · · United States

A book chapter on community gardens in New York City, United States, analyzes the formation, boundaries, and shared social visions of the groups that produce them, examining three structural units — garden groups, neighborhood coalitions, and citywide New York City gardeners. It finds that neighborhood coalitions provide the organizing platform for struggles to save gardens, and that group size matters because it translates into funding and political leverage within the community-garden world.

California State Legislature · California State Legislature · United States

California's SB 1383 (2016) targets short-lived climate pollutants, setting statewide goals to cut organic waste disposal by 50% by 2020 and 75% by 2025 (both from a 2014 baseline), recover at least 20% of currently disposed edible food for human consumption by 2025, and reduce dairy and livestock methane emissions 40% below 2013 levels by 2030.

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.

Berezowitz C., Bontrager Yoder A., Schoeller D. · Journal of School Health, 85(8):508-518 · United States

A review examining the academic and dietary effects of school garden programs. It found that garden-based learning does not harm academic performance and may favorably affect science and math achievement as well as fruit and vegetable intake and preferences.

Eizenberg E., Fenster T. · ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies · Israel (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv-Jaffa)

This critical geography study examines how community gardens in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv-Jaffa are framed by urban decision-makers and NGOs within neoliberal governance, documenting 50 gardens in Jerusalem and 26 in Tel Aviv-Jaffa established since 2000.

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.

Reynolds K. · Antipode · New York City, USA

A two-year study of New York City urban agriculture found race- and class-based disparities among practitioners: health-focused efforts were largely white-led while justice-focused efforts were BIPOC-led. Using critical race theory, it argues urban agriculture can perpetuate an inequitable system unless it explicitly confronts these structures.

Ramirez M. M. · Antipode · Seattle, USA

Drawing on two Seattle community food organizations, the article argues that well-meaning 'inclusive' food efforts fail to address underlying power asymmetries and can erase Black food geographies rooted in histories of slavery and dispossession.

Roman-Alcala A. · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development · USA

A commentary on the whiteness and privilege pervading urban farming and food justice activism, warning that well-intentioned white activists can re-inscribe white supremacy, and offering practical ways to avoid doing so.

Coplen Amy K., Cuneo Megan · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development · USA (Portland, Oregon)

Reflective case study of the Portland Multnomah Food Policy Council, established in 2002 and dissolved in 2012 after city agencies deemed it had lost relevance. Documents how weak institutional embedding, unclear mandate, and volunteer-reliance led a nationally celebrated council to fail.

Clayton Megan L., Frattaroli Shannon, Palmer Anne, Pollack Keshia M. · PLOS ONE · USA

Analyses policy activities of US food policy councils and their dependence on partnerships. Shows that councils lacking strong government and stakeholder partnerships achieve little concrete policy change, indicating structural fragility in this widely promoted governance model.

Christopher Bryant, Ghalia Chahine · Geographical Research · Canada (Montreal)

This 2015 case study from the Montreal Region, Canada, analyzed an action research project initiated in 2008 to reduce the vulnerability of peri-urban agriculture. Despite initiatives since the mid-1960s, significant pressures continue to increase the vulnerability of peri-urban farming, with farmland often removed from agricultural reserves. The project in Senneville involved farmers, non-farm actors, and municipal presentations over three years, aiming to integrate conservation and leisure activities.

Sofya Aptekar · Sociological Forum · United States (New York City)

This 2015 ethnographic study, conducted between 2011 and 2013 in a diverse and gentrifying New York City neighborhood, analyzed conflicts within a community garden. It found that disputes among gardeners over aesthetics and conduct reproduced broader gentrification struggles, with privileged gardeners leveraging resources to impose their vision. However, less privileged gardeners, through cross-class and cross-racial relationships, were able to destabilize hierarchies and defend their alternative visions for the public space.

Laurelyn Sandkamp, Emily Jorgensen · University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy (University of Minnesota) · United States

This document is a report, presentation, and poster completed by students enrolled in the PA 5242: Environmental Planning, Policy, and Decision Making course in spring 2015. The abstract provides no further details on the content, methods, or findings of the work.

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.

Donna Freeman · Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science · United States (Fayetteville)

This study in Fayetteville, United States, utilized data triangulation from site analysis, policy analysis, and surveys to explore how urban farms could be improved in areas like visibility and worker comfort. The research aimed to determine what workers and volunteers value in urban farms. It developed general physical and procedural templates for farms to enhance relationships with workers and surrounding communities.

Ana Maria Girotti Sperandio, Lauro Luiz Francisco Filho, Édison Fávero, Marialva Motta Ribeiro, Thaís Manfrinato · PARC Pesquisa em Arquitetura e Construção · Brazil (Conchal-SP)

This article presented results from a pilot field research project in Conchal-SP, Brazil, aiming to identify aspects of urban vacant space occupation through a community garden, considering principles of the City Statute, Health Promotion, and Healthy Urban Planning. Using a case study methodology, including bibliographic and documentary research, a Post-Occupancy Walkthrough Survey, and oral histories, the community garden was found to be an efficient tool for occupying urban vacant spaces. It helped re-establish intrinsic territorial relationships, fostering social participation, intersectorality, and local governance, which contributes to a sense of comfort and pleasure in a place.

Walter Belik · Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional · Brazil

This article discusses the use of the Food and Nutritional Security concept in Brazil's Fome Zero Project and its implementation through various programs initiated in the past decade. It concludes by calling attention to the need to improve programs related to supply, food and nutritional education, and urban agriculture to enable the functioning of an integrated Food and Nutritional Security system.

José Luis Rocha · Envío: publicación mensual del Instituto Histórico Centroamericano · United States (Los Angeles)

This article discusses three Central American migrant organizations: CARECEN in Los Angeles and San Francisco, Casa de Maryland in Washington, and the Dolores Huerta Community Garden in Los Angeles. Despite varying sizes and profiles, all grew from the grassroots, challenging the state through civil disobedience and peaceful resistance, thereby complicating anti-immigrant powers in the United States.

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.

N. Claire Napawan · Landscape Journal · United States (San Francisco)

This paper evaluated five case studies of communally-managed urban farms in San Francisco to determine their ability to operate dualistically as areas for food production and public space. Using a case-study methodology, it compared the spatial characteristics of these farms against the spatial criteria for successful public space. The study identified both conflicts and compatibilities in the spatial considerations for both functions.