Research & reports

Michael Koch, Martin Köhler · · Germany

Against the backdrop of debates on densifying German cities to meet housing demand and searching for new partnerships between citizens, businesses and municipalities, a study focuses on "new open spaces" beyond officially recorded green and open areas — traffic junctions, rail embankments, industrial brownfields, parking lots, streets, sidewalks, private gardens, schoolyards, corporate green areas, delivery zones, courtyards, rubble sites, quays, allotment gardens, dikes, drainage channels, retention basins, bridges, building setback areas, and driveways. These spaces host trends such as urban gardening, urban exploration and parkour, and across four volumes on Hamburg the study examines their actual and potential contribution to open-space provision for the whole urban population, not only the inner city or young urban milieus.

Sylvie Lardon, Salma Loudiyi · OpenEdition (OpenEdition) · France

Set against the mid-21st-century demographic challenge, in which urban growth projections toward 2050 raise alarms over cities' food security, food sovereignty, and the sustainability of increasingly fragile territorial food systems, a French essay questions our capacity to think through change and devise new modes of action. The available abstract is truncated at this point and provides no further detail.

Julián Briz Escribano, Isabel de Felipe Boente · · Global

This piece reports on a conference on commercialization and food value chains as a tool for socioeconomic development and urban agriculture, held in Bolivia by the Institute for Rural Development for South America (IPDRS), the CIDES-UMSA graduate development studies program, and Agronomes et Veterinaires Sans Frontieres Bolivia. Invited speakers Julian Briz Escribano and Isabel de Felipe, researchers at the Technical University of Madrid, have published three books of methodological and case studies on food value chains with contributions from 80 authors across 60 countries.

Jae Yeon Kim, Yun Soo Kim, Yuen Sook Lee · KIEAE Journal · South Korea

This study sought to comprehensively identify evaluation items for measuring the effects of community gardens, which have emerged in South Korea as a response to environmental problems (climate change, green-space shortage) and social problems (weakened neighbor interaction) tied to rapid urbanization and industrialization. Through literature review of domestic and overseas sources and content verification via domestic case studies, it identified 39 measurement items, grouped into five categories, ecological, production/economic, physical, psychological and social effects, further divided into 12 types.

Rob Porter, Heather McIlvaine-Newsad · Leisure/Loisir ·

This ethnography examines the origins and growth of a rural community garden through the lenses of food security, leisure and social capital within an environmental justice framework. Community residents, including low-income populations, people with disabilities and senior citizens, came together with support from local leaders to grow healthy produce out of concerns over produce cost and commercial growing practices; participants entered mainly for food security but came to recognize leisure benefits such as socializing, and the external social networks that facilitated the garden also generated internal social capital, including increased gardening knowledge and shared skills.

Qin Zhon · Shengtai kexue · China

This study applied SWOT analysis to examine the necessity, strengths, weaknesses, opportunities, and threats of low-carbon agricultural development in Guangzhou, China. Based on the continuous optimization of urban agricultural structure, strengthened industrialized agricultural operation, accelerated agricultural scientific and technological innovation, strong agricultural infrastructure, and achievements in technology-dissemination systems, it proposes developing modern low-carbon urban agriculture as the strategic direction, to be pursued by improving technological innovation capability, promoting the demonstration and industrialization of new agricultural technologies, and continuously improving socialized service systems.

Afton Halloran, Jakob Magid · Geografisk Tidsskrift-Danish Journal of Geography · Global

Using participatory action research, this comparative study examined stakeholder interactions and the barriers to conserving existing urban agriculture and pursuing future initiatives in two cities: Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, and Copenhagen, Denmark. It found that urban agriculture is often left out of urban policy and lacks comprehensive, formalized regulatory tools, and that municipal recognition and institutional support are important components in increasing the sustainability of urban agriculture initiatives, with local and central governments playing a role in legitimizing and institutionalizing urban agriculture through facilitating multi-stakeholder processes, policy development, and land conservation and allocation.

Rebecca Bramall · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · United Kingdom

An essay (United Kingdom) centered on a 2007 allotment project - a "victory garden" set up in St James's Park, London, by the Imperial War Museum London with the Royal Parks - that traces connections between the Second World War "Dig for Victory" campaign and contemporary discourses of sustainability and austerity. Focusing on urban agricultural projects, it considers how austerity discourse might shape British consumers' understanding of agricultural systems and the formation of consuming subjects.

Romborah Simiyu, Dick Foeken · Gender Place & Culture · Kenya

The study examined labour divisions between men and women in urban crop cultivation in Eldoret, Kenya. Divisions were shaped by social constructs of masculinity and femininity, gendered differences in entitlements and farming knowledge, and intra-household power relations, and showed up in which crops each gender took responsibility for, which tasks they performed, and spatial separation of activities. Traditional gender-related labour boundaries were being challenged and reworked. Women's labour contributed more directly to household food security, while men's growing involvement in subsistence farming held prospects for improved productivity and food security.

Tim Glaza · ISU Red - Research and eData (Illinois State University) · United States

It has been a persistent challenge for community-based, small-to-medium-scale fruit and vegetable farmers to meet high demand for locally sourced food. Such producers have relied mainly on farm stands, farmers' markets, and community-supported agriculture (CSAs) to meet demand, but despite substantial growth in the number of farmers' markets and CSA subscriptions, a gap remains between community-based food producers and institutional, wholesale, and retail buyers. Regional food hubs are presented as a potentially critical piece for filling this gap. The Edible Economy Project, in partnership with Heartland Community College, worked on a regional food hub network project in central Illinois aimed at creating a more efficient and vibrant community-based food system. Per the USDA definition cited, a regional food hub is a business or organization that actively manages the aggregation, distribution, and marketing of source-identified food products, primarily from local and regional producers, to strengthen their ability to satisfy wholesale, retail, and institutional demand; food hubs are described as helping buyers and farmers connect and transact more efficiently. This piece places the community-based food system within the broader green economy and uses a case study approach to explain how a community with diverse stakeholders may develop a food hub.

Iris T. Stewart, Elizabeth K. Purner, Patricia D. Guzm ́n · Children Youth and Environments · United States (California)

In Santa Clara County (SCC), located at the southern end of the San Francisco Bay Region and marked by high income disparities and an ethnically diverse population, this study used surveys and Geographic Information Systems (GIS) to examine links between the presence and use of school gardens and the socioeconomic and ethnic composition of surrounding neighborhoods. Statistical analysis found that school gardens in SCC are more likely to exist in economically stronger and ethnically less-diverse neighborhoods, showing that garden provision is not equitably distributed. School gardens can be maintained with relatively modest resources — a coordinator, planting area, small budget, and school-community support — yet securing these resources can itself be a significant barrier for some schools. Because natural play areas suited to environmental exploration were not typically found at SCC schools, the study suggests school gardens can play an important role in reconnecting children with the natural world.

Renee Raiden Boyer, Ben Chapman · VTechWorks (Virginia Tech) · United States

This practical guide outlines recommended agricultural practices for food safety in school and community gardens, covering topics such as food safety, site selection, pesticides and fertilizers, handwashing, water and irrigation, composting, garden design and animals, sanitation and tools, a sample community garden layout, an FAQ, and a glossary.

Monique Poulot · Bulletin de l Association de géographes français · France

Drawing on examples from the Île-de-France region and elsewhere in France, this piece discusses urban and peri-urban agriculture. It frames urban and peri-urban agriculture — once considered marginal and destined to disappear — as now an issue for both the sustainable city and sustainable agriculture, noting that most visions of the post-carbon 'city of tomorrow' describe a city made up of a concentration of compact urbanized zones alongside landscape fragments, each serving specific urban functions.

Jimmy Álvarez Díaz, Christian Gómez, Fabián Andrés Monsalve Herrera, Monika Cristina Echavarria Pedraza · ELEMENTOS · Colombia (Bogotá)

As part of the Bogota Botanical Garden's (JBB) Urban Agriculture Project in Colombia, a small-scale closed composting device was redesigned and optimized. The research proceeded in three phases: a diagnostic assessment of the existing prototype's dimensions and handling of organic materials to evaluate product quality and identify improvements, construction of a redesigned device, and experimentation to verify its efficiency. Oxygen, pH, humidity and temperature — the factors controlling an aerobic composting process — were tracked throughout, with improvements made to the device's size, ventilation mode, thermal insulation and ease of turning to increase small-scale composting efficiency.

Susan L. Johnson · Planning for higher education · United States

This article discusses urban agriculture on the campus of the Medical University of South Carolina (MUSC) in the United States, centered on the MUSC Urban Farm. Against a backdrop of rising chronic disease and obesity, it describes community gardens as improving nutritional status and increasing physical activity, community engagement, safety and local economic strength while providing environmental benefits, citing a study by Zick et al. (2013) in the American Journal of Public Health that found community garden participants had a significantly lower body mass index (BMI) than non-participants. The MUSC Urban Farm is presented as a living classroom where students, faculty, staff and the community explore the connection between food and health.

Carol Posthumus · SABI Magazine - Tydskrif · South Africa

This article traces the history of Oranjezicht City Farm near Cape Town, South Africa. In the 1700s, the farm Oranje Zigt on the site supplied ships on the trade route with fresh fruit and vegetables. A bowling green was built on the site in the 1950s, which over time fell into disuse and became derelict. That site has since been reincarnated as Oranjezicht City Farm, a neighbourhood non-profit project celebrating local food and community.

Sylvester Jatta · Munich Personal RePEc Archive (Ludwig Maximilian University of Munich) · Global

A paper using a newly compiled dataset combining comparable, nationally representative household survey data from 15 developing or transition countries to analyze, in comparative international perspective, the importance of urban agriculture for the urban poor and food insecure. The potential for urban agriculture to play a substantial role in reducing urban poverty and food insecurity should not be overemphasized, the study finds, as its share of income and of overall agricultural production is often quite limited. At the same time, its role should not be too easily dismissed either: particularly across much of Africa, agriculture provides a substantial share of income for the urban poor and constitutes an important livelihood source for the households that rely on it. The study finds fairly consistent statistical evidence of an association between engagement in urban agriculture and dietary adequacy indicators.

Rebecca J. McLain, Patrick T. Hurley, Marla R. Emery, Melissa R. Poe · Local Environment · United States

Drawing on an integrated urban political ecology and human-plant geographies framework, researchers examined foraging for wild food across Baltimore, New York City, Philadelphia, and Seattle. Foraging is a vibrant, ongoing practice among diverse urban residents, yet regulations, planning practices, and the attitudes of conservation practitioners frame it as out of place in urban landscapes and something to be discouraged.

Adriana Allen, Alexandre Apsan Frediani · City · Ghana

Drawing on a four-year research collaboration between the Development Planning Unit (DPU), the International Water Management Institute (IWMI), People's Dialogue, and the Ghana Federation of the Urban Poor, this paper examines the trajectories of female and male farmers working under different and rapidly changing land tenure systems across the Accra-Ashaiman corridor in the Greater Accra Metropolitan Area, Ghana. It argues that urban agriculture can be interpreted not merely as gardening for beautification, subsistence, or therapy, but as a means through which marginalized groups actively claim spaces of daily sociability and political voice in the city.

김희수, 강현경, 백승준 · · South Korea

Against the backdrop of expanding rooftop greening projects amid Seoul's rapid urban development, this study examined usage patterns and customer satisfaction and preferences at rooftop gardens of three hotels in Seoul and Incheon, South Korea. Satisfaction analysis found that C Hotel and P Hotel, both located in downtown Seoul, scored lower than H Hotel in Incheon on the number and variety of plants. Preference analysis showed that an ideal green space was expected to host cultural and community events, provide space and opportunities for physical exercise, and serve multiple other purposes.

Filipe Ribeiro Cardoso Porto, Jacionira Coêlho Silva · Americanae (AECID Library) · Brazil

This study describes the ethnobotanical practices of horticulturists and consumers surrounding chili pepper (malagueta pepper, Capsicum frutescens L.), cultivated at the Vila Poti municipal community garden in southeastern Teresina, Piauí, Brazil. Information gathered on pepper production reported various purposes and methods of medicinal use of different plant parts, applied for ailments otherwise treated with industrial pharmacological medication. The study characterizes these as traditional knowledge with anthropological elements that go beyond systematized science, functioning as an identity marker of the human-environment relationship in cultural production.

Manuel Ângelo Rodrigues, Diana Peixinho, Sílvia Nobre, Paula Sara Teixeira de Oliveira, Margarida Arrobas · · Europe

Noting that, in developing countries and in developed countries during periods of economic depression, creating land for urban agriculture has served as a politically significant instrument to strengthen food security and ease poverty and unemployment, and that more recent urban agriculture projects in developed-country cities aim to enhance social activity and quality of life, this paper reports on the "social gardens" project run by the Polytechnic Institute of Bragança (IPB), Portugal, since 2011. It reports on some practices with high agroecological significance adopted by the gardeners, namely organic fertilization, composting, mulching, intercropping, and shelter systems.

Michiel Korthals · Wageningen Academic Publishers eBooks · Global

A conceptual essay (Wageningen Academic Publishers, 2013) contrasts the "productionist paradigm" in agriculture—criticized for reducing biodiversity, increasing erosion, harming animal welfare, depleting resources and widening rich-poor gaps despite feeding the world—with an "agrosystem" approach rooted in local farming practices, including variants such as agrarianism (farmer-led) and urban gardening (consumer-led). The paper proposes a revised, pluralist agrosystem framework built on negotiation and cooperation between farmers and consumers, redefining justice as fair recognition of diverse farming and food styles rather than fair distribution of outputs alone.

Rachel Slocum, Arun Saldanha · · Global

An edited collection (2013) argues that an unacknowledged racial dimension underlies the production and consumption of food under globalization, examining this across three "socio-physical spatialities"—fields, bodies, and markets—through international, multidisciplinary case studies. The volume states that human groups become entrenched in racial hierarchies through food at scales ranging from the household to the slave trade and empire, and includes a chapter specifically addressing urban agriculture and race in South Africa (by Jane Battersby) among contributions covering topics such as bracero labor in California and food-justice organizing in Newtown. The abstract presents this as the collection's conceptual argument rather than as findings from a single empirical study.

A. Bryan Endres, Rachel Armstrong · Food Studies An Interdisciplinary Journal · United States

A legal analysis (Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2013) of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in the United States—where CSA participation more than doubled between 2004 and 2009—examines "volunteer-for-food" arrangements and unpaid internships that many CSA farms offer in exchange for labor. It finds that these arrangements do not align cleanly with federal and state employment laws governing minimum wage and workers' compensation, creating a mismatch between the community-participation model embedded in CSAs and the legal regimes that govern them. The paper identifies potential points of flexibility within existing law, explores mechanisms for farmers to avoid regulatory liability, and concludes with policy recommendations to eliminate regulations it characterizes as scale-inappropriate for CSA expansion.