Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
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Summary of the Open Discussions during the Netanya Workshop (June 23–27, 1996) and Concluding Remarks
2019David C. Grossman, L.M. van den Berg, Hyacinth I. Ajaegbu · · Global
This is a record of the open discussions from a four-session workshop held in Netanya in June 1996. The first session addressed forming growers' associations to secure access to land and to consumers; the second covered technology transfer for water management; the third examined ecological aspects of urban and peri-urban gardening; and the fourth compiled mission statements each participant wrote after the presentations and discussions. The main synergy expected from urban and peri-urban farming was identified as its use of urban waste products to yield fresh agricultural produce, with geographers and cartographers seen as playing an important role in supporting peri-urban and urban farmers.
CommunityPeri-urban agriculturePolicyEconomicsDigging through urban agriculture with feminist theoretical implements
2019Mary Anne Martin · Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l alimentation · Canada
This article revisits a case study of Durham Integrated Growers (DIG), an umbrella organization supporting urban agriculture in Durham Region, Ontario, Canada, through feminist theoretical framings of knowledge, work, power, care, and community. It states that community-based food initiatives, which strive to provide alternatives to dominant food production practices, are often constrained by limited access to financial, labour, time, and political resources, and notes that the feminization of urban agriculture initiatives in Canada -- despite parallels to what has traditionally been dubbed "women's work" -- has received little attention in the academic literature. Prior research on DIG revealed themes involving the need for community expertise to be recognized, the role of public policy, the effects of relying on unpaid labour, and the centrality of building community.
Equity & displacementCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceReturning water to urban life
2019Irene J. Klaver, J. Aaron Frith · · Global
This chapter considers cities as agents of change by examining the socio-cultural-political implications of transitioning urban hydrological infrastructure from "gray" to "green." It argues that traditional gray infrastructure -- especially impermeable surfaces -- is costly, inefficient, and damaging to ecosystem processes, while green infrastructure -- hybrid planned spaces such as parks, wetlands, non-concrete detention ponds, and rooftop gardens -- creates permeable surfaces that allow water infiltration and other natural processes. Using a case study of detention pond SCS16 in Denton, Texas, the chapter suggests that making urban water infrastructure visible can renew community connections with water and allow urban dwellers to experience water as more than a mere utility.
CommunityClimate changePengaruh Komposisi Media Tanam dan Jumlah Tanaman terhadap Pertumbuhan dan Hasil Tanaman Kailan (Brassica oleraceae L. var. Alboglabra) dalam Sistem Budidaya Vertikultur
2019Zatalini Putri Permatasari, Ninuk Herlina · Jurnal Produksi Tanaman · Indonesia
Conducted from April to June 2016 in Pandanrejo Village, Bumiaji District, Batu City, Indonesia, this study aimed to determine the appropriate planting-media composition and plant number to increase the growth and yield of kailan (Brassica oleracea var. Alboglabra) in a vertikultur (vertical cultivation) system. Using a randomized complete block design, the results showed that planting-media composition and plant-number treatments significantly affected plant height, leaf number, leaf area, total fresh weight per plant, fresh root weight per meter, and total and root dry weight per plant and per meter, but did not significantly affect total fresh weight per meter, fresh consumable weight per plant and per meter, or fresh root weight per plant.
Food educationDIYUrban–rural linkageUma aldeia vertical: vivências indígenas no Rio de Janeiro
2019Camila Bevilaqua · Revista do Arquivo Geral da Cidade do Rio de Janeiro · Brazil
A study focused on the experiences and trajectories of three people from different indigenous groups living in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, in a building from the "Minha Casa, Minha Vida" public housing program known as the "Vertical Village." Based on fieldwork begun in 2016, the research centers on a community garden the interlocutors created in partnership with the Rio de Janeiro City Hall in a set of favelas in the city center; the garden emerges as a space of resistance and a form of political action toward the city and its inhabitants. Drawing on the work of Gow, Battaglia, and Strathern, the paper outlines relations to planting found in other indigenous contexts, arguing that the act of planting forms a mesh of relations connecting family and cultural knowledges, bound up with the formation of bodies through food and particular ways of inhabiting space.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceThe girl with the garden gloves: researching the affordances of sensual materialities in the school garden
2019Anna Maria Hipkiss, Sally Windsor, Dawn Sanders · Ethnography & Education · Global
An article that uses vignettes and photographs drawn from ethnographic research to reframe the methodological assumptions underlying school garden research. Applying Actor Network Theory and Social Semiotics to previous empirical school garden research, it develops a deeper understanding of the teaching and learning of ecoliteracy in these material contexts and highlights the affordances of school garden spaces. It also makes public the conversations of a small research group discussing a perceived ethnographic turn toward materiality, aesthetics, and agency.
Food educationPenguatan Konsep Kearifan Lokal sebagai Bentuk Keharmonisan Lingkungan Hidup dan Sosial pada Perancangan Perumahan Dhuafa di Kota Lhokseumawe
2019Ana Raihan Putri · Jurnal Ilmiah Mahasiswa Arsitektur dan Perencanaan · Indonesia
The design of low-income housing (perumahan dhuafa) in Lhokseumawe city, Indonesia, is presented as an effort by the city government and community to provide livable housing for residents classified as below the poverty line, proposing a design concept that embodies harmony between the living environment and society. The planned housing forms a "fostered area" intended as a new district where Lhokseumawe's poor can develop their economic quality of life by drawing on surrounding environmental resources; it will include public facilities such as a mosque, commercial space, hall, early-childhood education center, and park, alongside facilities for the fostered economy, including skills-training rooms for processing organic and inorganic waste into commercial goods, fish farming, and urban farming. The design's goal is to create better-organized urban space free of slums while raising living standards through livable housing equipped with facilities that support the poor's economic activities, applying a contextual architecture approach emphasizing local wisdom and natural materials in local vernacular style, intended to bring harmony among culture, the natural environment, and society within a framework of modern development.
CommunityWelfareGuide R.E.F.U.G.E. Caractérisation de la contamination des sols urbains destinés à la culture maraîchère et évaluation des risques sanitaires. Cas de la région Île-de-France.
2019Anne Barbillon, Christine Aubry, Nastaran Manouchehri · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · France
This French guide, "R.E.F.U.G.E.," developed by AgroParisTech, sets out a four-step methodology to help urban-planning actors in the Île-de-France region assess and manage soil contamination risk before establishing urban agriculture on available land: a historical and environmental site study, a sampling strategy, interpretation of soil analyses, and, where warranted, a formal health risk assessment. Based on France's national methodology for managing polluted sites and soils, it is intended as a first harmonized technical tool for the field and was slated for a testing phase applying it to future urban agriculture projects. The abstract itself does not report contamination measurements or findings from any specific site; it describes the assessment procedure rather than presenting soil contamination data.
Contamination & food safetyPeri-urban agricultureHealthPolicyDIAGNÓSTICO SOCIOECONÔMICO DE MARITURA (PA): REFLEXÕES E SUA INFLUENCIA NO DESENVOLVIMENTO DA AGRICULTURA URBANA E PERIURBANA
2019Josiane Santos da Silva, Marta Cristina Marjotta-Maistro · Nucleus · Brazil
Using a case-study approach with secondary data from official sources (including IBGE) and scientific literature, this study built a socioeconomic diagnosis of Marituba, a municipality in Pará state, Brazil, to inform public policy for urban and peri-urban agriculture (AUP). Findings show precarious infrastructure development relative to Belém, particularly in security and basic sanitation, but relatively better education and health indicators, contributing to a medium Municipal Human Development Index among Brazilian municipalities; agriculture in Marituba is diversified and mainly vegetable production, characterized as family-run and urban/peri-urban, conducted near the urban center.
PolicyFood sovereignty & justicePeri-urban agricultureAgricultura urbana e Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional
2019Vanessa Daufenback, L. A. Z. Machado, Cláudia Maria Bógus · Revista Ingesta · Global
A systematic review using the Scielo database to examine the relationship between urban agriculture (UA) and food and nutrition security (SAN) in Latin America. A search for "agricultura urbana" returned 156 articles; screening by title and keywords narrowed this to 32, and excluding non-Latin-American studies left 26 articles connecting UA and SAN to some degree. Only 5 of these made a direct link between SAN and UA; the rest addressed only some dimension of the concept, and the review found no concrete, agreed definition of UA across the literature. Few studies treated the urban farmer or production scale as central to promoting SAN, despite UA's role in food-sovereignty practices such as seed exchange and preserving planting traditions. Most of the reviewed studies pointed to significant problems, including contamination of crops by heavy metals, difficulty achieving environmental, social and economic sustainability — particularly for farmers who end up working in other sectors — and a lack of technical assistance.
WelfareHealthPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceDEVELOPMENT OF A PROTOTYPE SELF-WATERING RAISED SOIL BED SUITABLE FOR URBAN AGRICULTURE
2019· UMUDIKE JOURNAL OF ENGINEERING AND TECHNOLOGY · Africa
Describes the design, development and evaluation of a portable raised soil bed with a self-regulated subsurface irrigation system, intended for urban settings where arable soil is scarce or costly. Tested with palm fruit fibre filled to a thickness of 0.15 m, the system released moisture when saturated throughout the full 0.20 m thickness of the overlying soil, at an application efficiency of 65%, a fibre efficiency of 18% and an overall efficiency of 12%. Soil moisture data recorded at different depths in the profile indicated the system provided subsurface irrigation sufficient for vegetable growth, and no moisture overflow or surface flooding was recorded during evaluation.
DIYThe Community Food Forest Handbook: How to Plan, Organize and Nurture Edible Gathering Places eds. by Catherine Bukowski and John Munsell
2019Nancy Hoalst‐Pullen · Southeastern geographer · United States
This is a review of "The Community Food Forest Handbook: How to Plan, Organize and Nurture Edible Gathering Places," edited by Catherine Bukowski and John Munsell (Chelsea Green Publishing, 2018, 242 pp.). The book, based on observations, interviews and meetings from around twenty community food forest projects, is described as a scholarly guide explaining the social factors affecting the planning, installation and maintenance of community-scale food forests. The review notes the book's framework of "ingredients" — including function (purpose) and elements — for defining what does and does not constitute a community food forest.
CommunityFood educationUrban gardening and spatial justice from a mid- size city perspective
2019Giuseppe Aliperti, Silvia Sarti · Manchester University Press eBooks · Italy
This study analyzes, as a case study, an urban gardening initiative in the central neighbourhood of a mid-size Italian city, developed through participatory planning interventions and the requalification of urban sites. Noting that most existing research on spatial justice has focused on metropolitan settings, it examines the issue in a smaller urban area. Several actors were involved in implementing the initiative, and residents and local retailers were identified as the groups potentially subject to spatial injustice. Comparing the perspectives of these different stakeholders, the study measures both the positive and negative impacts of the initiative on the local community.
CommunityPolicySharing economy
2019Barbara Hartl, Eva Hofmann · Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · Global
"Sharing economy" has become a popular umbrella term for a variety of consumer activities involving the sharing of goods and services, covering transactions across almost all business areas including accommodation (e.g., Airbnb), food (e.g., community gardens), and transport (e.g., Uber, BlaBlaCar). This chapter focuses on sharing-economy research from a consumer perspective, summarizing current findings and identifying research gaps. It examines factors that foster or hinder consumer involvement in the sharing economy, such as demographic aspects (age, digital literacy) and motivational aspects (environmental friendliness, monetary considerations), and looks at the relationship between consumers and other actors (providers and other consumers), such as trust, while discussing the use of social-science methods and practical implications for future research.
CommunityEconomicsEnvironmental and spatial filtering of ladybird beetle community composition and functional traits in urban landscapes
2019Heidi Liere, Monika Egerer, Stacy M. Philpott · Journal of Urban Ecology · United States (California)
Ladybird beetles (Coleoptera: Coccinellidae) were collected from 19 community gardens across three counties of the California Central Coast during June to September of 2014 and 2015. Of the 19 species collected, only three were non-native to California (three specimens could not be identified to species). Similarity in species composition between gardens was not related to geographic distance, indicating no dispersal limitation among these mobile beetles. Instead, three landscape-level and seven garden-scale variables correlated with changes in community composition, and garden management practices such as ground cover altered the taxonomic and functional makeup of the ladybird beetle community.
BiodiversityPollinatorsPrática das farmácias vivas do município de Fortaleza, Ceará, e a necessidade de uma ação de extensão sistêmica
2019Leonardo Lopes Rufino, Guillermo Gamarra-Rojas, Mary Anne Medeiros Bandeira, José Ribamar Furtado de Souza, José Newton Pires Reis · Extensão Rural · Brazil
A multi-case study based on content analysis examined the "Living Pharmacy" (Farmácia Viva, FV) initiative in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil, characterizing its operating dynamics, social actors, and alignment with the state's medicinal plant policy. The FVs operate in areas marked by poverty and social marginality, handling production, consumption, and distribution of medicinal plants, with 30% also supplying phytotherapeutic demand for Brazil's public health system (SUS); the social actors envisioned by the policy were largely absent except at the FVs run by the Federal University of Ceará (UFC) and the Phytotherapeutics Center, where community members, academics, and patients partially substituted for them, acting simultaneously as producers, processing technicians, and beneficiaries.
CommunityFood educationThinking on Growing Urbanization, Sustainability and Food Supply: The Need of Urban Agriculture
2019Florian C. Guenther · Current Urban Studies · Global
Anticipating that 68% of the world's population will live in cities by 2050, this discussion paper argues for integrating agriculture into urban planning through ecological agricultural practices. It contends that ecological practices such as Conservation Agriculture improve soil health and crop yield, making them key to producing vegetables and fruit for urban demand while reducing transport emissions, and that extending green space through ecologically cultivated land can reduce the urban heat island effect, store more carbon in healthy soils, and improve water run-off to reduce flood risk; the paper presents no empirical data.
PolicyClimate changeCommunitySystematic Approach to Meeting the Needs of School Garden Clients
2019Becky Griffin · Journal of Extension · United States
A report on the University of Georgia Extension's multitiered approach to supporting school gardens, developed to assist educators with no horticultural experience while making efficient use of Extension agents' time and resources. The approach combines a beginning-steps publication, hands-on garden training, and school garden associations, and is reported to have produced more sustainable school gardens with reduced frustration for both school gardeners and Extension agents.
Food educationCommunityPolicyPerceived Importance of Climate Change Adaptation and Mitigation According to Social and Medical Factors Among Residents of Impacted Communities in the United States
2019Jennifer M. Kreslake · Health Equity · United States
An online survey of 605 residents in California (Los Angeles/Orange), Florida (Miami-Dade/Broward), and Arizona (Maricopa) counties, conducted in July 2018, used multivariable ordered logistic regression to test whether perceived importance of local climate change adaptation and mitigation measures differed by social and medical factors, controlling for age, political party, and county. Lower income was associated with higher perceived importance of improved emergency alerts, government-subsidized air conditioners and energy-efficient appliances, strengthening buildings against extreme weather, greenhouse gas regulation, "cooling" urban planning technologies, and expanding community gardens and local agriculture. Black respondents rated evacuation services for those with financial barriers, subsidized appliance costs, and government communication about climate impacts as significantly more important than non-Black, non-Hispanic respondents, while Hispanic respondents rated several measures, including improved emergency alerts, as significantly more important than non-Hispanic respondents.
CommunityClimate changePolicyHealthFrom Oil to Soil. Learning for Sustainability and Transitions within the School Garden: a project of cultural and social re-learning.
2019Donald Gray, Laura Colucci‐Gray, R.A. Donald, Aristea Kyriacou, Daniel Wodah · Scottish Educational Review · United Kingdom
A study of a school garden project in three regeneration areas of a Scottish city, run in partnership among a teacher education institution, an NGO, a city council planning and infrastructure department, and three primary schools, used a semi-ethnographic approach to collect observation data, visual data, and teacher and pupil interviews. Analyzed through a socio-material lens, the findings articulate significant changes in the discourses and practices of learning associated with school gardening: beyond delivering curricular outcomes or practical skills, tending the gardens and growing food contributed to a learning aesthetics that foregrounds the centrality of the body in learning, acknowledges the living state of materials, and positions children's actions as ways of being and becoming in the world.
Food educationCommunityClimate changeAGRICULTURA URBANA: UMA ANÁLISE DAS POSSIBILIDADES DE IMPLANTAÇÃO DE UMA HORTA ORGÂNICA E COMUNITÁRIA NO PARQUE DA LAGOA ERIVALDO CERQUEIRA
2019Jamille Cavalcante Santos, Valdinéia Gusmão Silva · · Brazil
A study analyzed the feasibility of establishing an organic community garden at Erivaldo Cerqueira Lagoon Park in Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brazil, using interviews with park visitors. It concluded that implementing the garden is viable and desired by the majority of the visitors interviewed.
CommunityOrganic cyclePelatihan Teknologi Budidaya Tanaman Sayuran Di Lahan Sempit Kepada Anggota Poktan Kelurahan Bampu Apus Kecamatan Cipayung Jakarta Timur
2019Reni Nurjasmi, Siti M. Sholihah, Suryani Suryani, Luluk Syahr Banu, Maria Aditia Wahyuningrum · Jurnal Pelayanan dan Pengabdian Masyarakat (Pamas) · Indonesia (Jakarta)
A community outreach program at RPTRA Bambu Petung in the Bambu Apus urban village, Cipayung district, East Jakarta, Indonesia, trained 20 members of the Bambu Apus Cipayung farmer group (Poktan) using pre- and post-tests alongside lectures, discussion and hands-on demonstration, covering hydroponic cultivation in basins, onion cultivation in polybags and polyculture vegetable cultivation in polybags. Before the activity, participants already had knowledge of urban farming and some already practiced polybag cultivation at home (growing ornamental plants, vegetables and family medicinal plants), though only in their spare time. Afterward, participants reported gaining more knowledge of urban farming techniques, including simple technologies, and expressed enthusiasm for applying them at home and sharing the results with neighbors.
Food educationCommunityThe economic performance of urban gardening in three European cities – examples from Ljubljana, Milan and London
2018Glavan M., Schmutz U., Williams S., Corsi S., Monaco F., Kneafsey M., Guzman Rodriguez P.A., Čenič-Istenič M., Pintar M. · Urban Forestry & Urban Greening, 36:100-122 · Europe
A study collecting rare economic data (yields, inputs, outputs, gross margins, contribution to household economy) from 180 urban gardeners across Ljubljana, Milan and London. It is one of the few quantitative assessments of the economic performance of urban gardening in Europe.
EconomicsCommunityFood lossFood Waste Recovery with Takakura Portable Compost Boxes in Offices and Working Places
2018Jiménez-Antillón, J., Calleja-Amador, C., Romero-Esquivel, L. G. · Resources (MDPI), 7(4):84 · Global (Costa Rica; Japan-origin method)
A field study placing the Kitakyushu-origin 'Takakura' composting method—widely diffused in Surabaya, Indonesia—as small portable boxes in university offices and workplaces in Costa Rica. Processing food waste from 45 staff over six months, it shows that low-cost, citizen/workplace-scale fermentation composting is viable.
CompostFood lossOrganic cycleCommunityGuerrilla gardening and green activism: Rethinking the informal urban growing movement
2018Hardman M., Chipungu L., Magidimisha H., Larkham P.J., Scott A.J., Armitage R.P. · Landscape and Urban Planning, 170:6-14 · Global
Reviews informal urban-growing (guerrilla gardening) practices across Europe, North America and Africa, showing how in Salford, UK, local authorities have begun tolerating and even encouraging informal growing. It rethinks how a movement of residents greening and growing food on gap spaces and vacant land without permission can be integrated into urban planning and green-space policy.
CommunityPolicyBiodiversity