Research & reports

Renan Yamashita Ferreira · · Brazil (Criciúma)

This article reports on the survey, registration, diagnosis, and restoration of urban public green spaces in Criciuma/SC, Brazil. Green spaces created in urban allotment processes were demarcated on maps, and a diagnosis describing vegetation, degradation factors, and necessary improvement actions was elaborated. Actions such as tree planting, organic matter input, fencing, and removal of invasive species and waste were carried out in some areas. Engaging the local community is recommended to aid recovery, and intrusion problems should be restrained with prompt inspection, which is more efficient with community surveillance.

Jacques Abelman · Kobra (Universitätsbibliothek Kassel) · Brazil (Porto Alegre)

The "Cultivating the City" project attempts to apply landscape architectural thinking to integrate urban agriculture into the city. A proposed network of urban agriculture typologies, emphasizing agroforestry with native species, was developed for Porto Alegre, Brazil. These hypothetical designs aim to serve as a basis for dialogue among potential stakeholders and as catalysts for future projects.

Charlotte Prové · Ghent University Academic Bibliography (Ghent University) · United States (Philadelphia)

This project aimed to understand the dynamics of urban agriculture in Philadelphia and formulate how governance processes can address its developments. A literature study and interviews with diverse stakeholders, including farmers, project founders, public officers, and researchers, were conducted. The City of Philadelphia's Greenworks plan sets a goal to establish twelve commercial agriculture projects over the next eight years, developing necessary infrastructure such as distribution facilities and water sources.

Gerda R. Wekerle, Michael Classens · Local Environment · Canada (Toronto)

This paper examines approaches to urban agriculture in Toronto that renegotiate land access for food production between private property owners and landless growers. It documents three methods challenging current property relations: temporary use of development sites, redesignating suburban backyards for farmer training and production, and garden sharing of private backyards. These initiatives promote collaboration and a sharing economy to expand urban agriculture's land base.

Luke Drake · · United States

This study examined the role of networks in producing community gardens. Focusing on community gardening in New Jersey, USA, the research involved a survey of 445 community gardening organizations in the U.S. and Canada, discourse analysis of archival documents from the 1890s to 2010s, 48 semi-structured interviews in 19 municipalities, and two years of participant-observation. These methods revealed a complex web of resource flows and the mechanisms through which they are configured.

Danny Tarng · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States

This commentary discusses how nonprofit urban agriculture organizations, central to the U.S. food justice movement, can foster better allyship. It highlights that as the movement expands, the transformation of allies' privilege into empowerment at an organizational level is crucial for ongoing growth and success. The text provides insights into organizational policies and practices that can improve allyship.

Fa-Tai Shieh · Gastronomica The Journal of Food and Culture · United States (New York City)

This article is by Fa-Tai Shieh, director of citywide food procurement for NYC and involved in urban farming projects in New York City. This content is only available via PDF.

Mayhah Suri, Paul Goeringer · University Libraries (University of Maryland) · United States (Maryland)

This report highlights the results of a survey conducted in summer 2014 by the Maryland Department of Agriculture on contract use and risk management tools by Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operators in Maryland. It also details workshops and materials developed by the Department of Agricultural and Resource and the Ag Law Education Initiative in winter 2015. Additionally, the report mentions state programs that verify CSA operators in California.

P. Qasimah Boston, Ivette A López, Krista Harper · Practicing Anthropology · United States (Tallahassee)

This study used Photovoice to evaluate an urban agricultural food movement event in Tallahassee, Florida. Youth were trained to collect and interpret data, describing the event's value and highlighting cultural influences on the food environment, including diversity and inclusion. The evaluation method, termed Evaluation for Community Action (EFCA), linked improving the food environment with innovative assessment.

Gabriel R. Valle · Aztlán A Journal of Chicano Studies · United States

This essay explores the self-valorization of work in community gardens to advance a grounded theory of time and value, which has been lacking in Chicana/o studies. Urban community gardens are pivotal to the environmental justice movement, with Chicana/os playing a central role. The essay proposes a revolutionary logic of labor through reframing time and value, aiming to reconnect community gardeners to the means of their own production and reproduction. By creating "gardens of sabotage," communities challenge capitalism by reclaiming the value of work and confronting orthodox notions of economy, work, citizenship, community, and time.

Haoluan Wang, Brent Swallow · 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California · Canada (Edmonton)

This research aims to assess the multiple values of agricultural land in the Alberta Capital Region, Canada, where significant agricultural land conversion has occurred. The study's objectives are to estimate residents' values for conserving land in different agricultural uses, explore links between these values and residents' affinity for ecosystem goods and services, and identify public interest areas for agricultural conservation. The methodology began with focus group discussions.

V. Ernesto Mendez, Christopher M. Bacon, Roseann Cohen, Stephen R. Gliessman · Agroecology · United States

This chapter discusses the rise of movements for just and sustainable food systems in the United States over the last 15 years, encompassing areas like urban agriculture and food sovereignty. It notes that while most practitioners in US alternative agrifood movements do not use the term "agroecology," they share similar principles. The chapter also describes the evolution of agroecology from a farm-scale focus to a systems-based, transdisciplinary approach for sustainable food systems.

Geneviève S. Metson, Elena M. Bennett · Elementa Science of the Anthropocene · Canada

A study of Montreal, Canada, examining the potential and barriers for phosphorus (P) recycling through organic waste, noting that currently only 6% of P in Montreal's waste is recycled. Combining semi-structured interviews with 19 key stakeholders, participant observation over more than 1.5 years, and document review, the study identified key barriers and facilitators to achieving a high level of organic waste recycling through composting. A provincial law mandating 100% recycling of organic matter was found to have great potential to facilitate increased P recycling, but this potential is inhibited by a lack of shared vision about the roles of government, the private sector, and citizens in producing high-quality compost, along with cultural inertia, lack of knowledge, and lack of infrastructure. Urban agriculture, which benefits from strong citizen support and is both a consumer and producer of compost, could help overcome some of these barriers, but limited access to garden space and training, and diversity in the fertiliser qualities gardeners want, somewhat limit this potential.

Dorceta E. Taylor, Kerry Ard · Environmental Practice · United States

A study of Detroit, Michigan, United States, combining environmental justice analysis with systems thinking to examine the city's food environment. Data were collected from ReferenceUSA, Orbis and the Michigan Department of Agriculture between 2011 and 2013 to build a database of food outlets, analyzed and mapped using SPSS 22 and ArcGIS 10.1. The study examined the locations of 3,499 food outlets across 34 categories, including 96 supermarkets or full-line grocery stores, 1,110 small groceries/convenience stores/mini marts/liquor stores, 279 specialty food stores, 306 pharmacies/dollar/variety stores, 1,245 full-service and fast-food restaurants and other food service outlets, 157 supply chain operations, 206 farms/community and school gardens/farmers markets/produce markets, and 100 food assistance programs. It found that although Detroit has areas lacking food outlets, characterizing the entire city as a "food desert" is misleading, and that the traditional food desert research approach — relying only or primarily on the presence or absence of supermarkets and full-line grocery stores — ignores many important venues people use to obtain food and the coping strategies people employ in response to limited food access.

Joana Chan, Bryce DuBois, Keith G. Tidball · · United States (New York City)

This study conducted ethnographic research -- including participant observation, exploratory and in-depth interviews, and archival research -- at five community gardens in New York City's coastal "red zones" affected by Hurricane Sandy in 2012, from April 2013 to February 2014. It found that community gardens functioned as multi-purpose community refuges that hosted meaningful, restorative greening practices and developed supportive communities for residents and garden members in the aftermath of the disaster.

Duncan Hilchey · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States

This 2015 editorial for the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems and Community Development introduces the issue's articles, describing them as addressing barriers and limitations of local and regional food initiatives while also presenting opportunities and strategies. It highlights pieces including John Ikerd's proposed 'Food Ethic,' a viewpoint on local food, food democracy and food hubs, a paper on the limits of urban agriculture to deliver food, job training and income without outside funding, a study of municipal ordinances governing backyard slaughter, and an analysis of how farmers' market ownership structures affect market conduct.

Paul Goeringer, Ashley Newhall, Sarah Everhart, Wele Elangwe · University Libraries (University of Maryland) · United States

This guide from the University of Maryland describes what a typical Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) arrangement involves — members pledging to help cover a farm's anticipated production costs in exchange for a share of crops over a specified period, usually summer through early fall — and outlines what farm owners and members should include in a CSA membership agreement.

Sidney F Ansbacher, Michael T. Olexa, Kathleen Maurer · Scholarly Commons - FAMU Law (Florida Agricultural and Mechanical University) · United States

A legal article examines Florida local government regulations governing the urban planting, growing and selling of produce and animals. Using the U.S. Supreme Court's invocation of broccoli in National Federation of Independent Business v. Sebelius as a framing device, it traces the history of urban agriculture and local zoning laws before analyzing Florida's current laws and proposing future directions.

Wang H., Qiu F., Swallow B. · Applied Geography 55:127-137 · Canada

Analyzes whether community gardens and farmers' markets improve fresh food access in Edmonton. They relieve food desert problems somewhat, especially in mature inner-suburban neighborhoods, but several areas remain food deserts citywide.

Stephanie Rogus, Carolyn Dimitri · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · United States

Using US Census of Agriculture data, this study examines whether urban and peri-urban farming has grown as an actual practice rather than just a concept. It finds urban farms are smaller than typical farms, and although urban/peri-urban farmland declined between 2002 and 2007 the total number of farms increased, with farmland growth positively related to land values. Spatial analysis of the Northeast detected significant vegetable-farm clusters around Providence, Boston, and Hartford.

Nicholas Leonard · Michigan Journal of Environmental & Administrative Law · United States (Detroit)

This article argues that Detroit could use the Michigan Brownfield Redevelopment Financing Act to incentivize community-based urban agriculture on abandoned properties. It contends that many cities where urban farming has flourished are riddled with brownfields, and that leveraging brownfield policy could promote urban agriculture as a cost-effective revitalization tool while protecting farmers and food from toxic contamination, giving Detroit a viable strategy to reverse blight.

Bruno Monardo, Anna Laura Palazzo · Advanced Engineering Forum · United States (San Diego)

This article discusses how urban agriculture is being used across US cities—shaped by 'food deserts' that limit access to fresh, local, healthy food—to give new perspectives to blighted post-crisis neighborhoods and address social distress linked to migration. Focusing on the New Roots Community Farm in the City Heights neighborhood of San Diego, it highlights the farm's potential to combine social inclusion with physical and economic redevelopment.

Laura B. DeLind · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · United States (Lansing)

Using Urbandale Farm in Lansing, Michigan as a case, this paper critically reflects on how urban agriculture can inadvertently rationalize the displacement and continued inequity of urban neighbors rather than reinforce place-making and neighborhood empowerment. It questions the movement's underlying assumptions and beneficiaries and suggests how UA might be reconfigured to shed its neoliberal tendencies.

Nevin Cohen, Kristin Reynolds · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · United States (New York)

Drawing on the two-year "Five Borough Farm" study of urban agriculture projects in New York City, this paper examines the resource needs of urban farms and gardens in terms of viability and equity. It documents that resource needs extend beyond land, soil and money to include government support and networks of practitioners, nonprofits and philanthropies, and that significant disparities in access to resources make the city's urban agriculture system unequal. The paper concludes with strategies to align resource needs with urban agriculture goals in New York and other cities.

Safransky S. · Geoforum · Detroit, USA

Analyzing plans to repurpose Detroit's vacant lots as urban farms and green infrastructure, the article argues that framing this land as 'empty' and 'wasted' legitimizes the racialized dispossession of nonwhite residents, distributing the costs and benefits of 'green' redevelopment unevenly.