Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
9385 results(282 / 376)
Urban agriculture of the future: an overview of sustainability aspects of food production in and on buildings
2014Specht K., Siebert R., Hartmann I., Freisinger U. B., Sawicka M., Werner A., Thomaier S., Henckel D., Walk H., Dierich A. · Agriculture and Human Values 31(1):33-51 · Global
Reviews sustainability of building-integrated farming (ZFarming) such as rooftop greenhouses and indoor farms, assessing economic, environmental, and social benefits and limits of its commercial development.
EconomicsCommunityVegetable Output and Cost Savings of Community Gardens in San Jose, California
2014Algert S. J., Baameur A., Renvall M. J. · Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 114(7):1072-1076 · United States
Survey of 83 San Jose community gardeners measuring yields. Plots produced 0.75 lb vegetables per square foot and saved about $435 per season, demonstrating gardens' contribution to urban food affordability.
EconomicsWelfareCan community gardens and farmers' markets relieve food desert problems? A study of Edmonton, Canada
2014Wang 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.
WelfareEconomicsPolicyGrowing Out of Poverty: Does Urban Agriculture Contribute to Household Food Security in Southern African Cities?
2014Frayne B., McCordic C., Shilomboleni H. · Urban Forum 25(2):177-189 · Southern Africa
Using data from 11 Southern African cities, this study questions whether urban agriculture meaningfully contributes to household food security, finding its impact limited and often a last resort rather than a choice for poor households.
WelfarePolicyEconomics「まちなか菜園」を事例とした都市型農園の現状と利用者ニーズの特性に関する研究
2014河野 誠, 藤田 直子 · ランドスケープ研究 77巻5号 pp.433-436 · Japan
Analyzing user needs at corporate-run rooftop and over-track rental farms such as Toho Leo's 'Machinaka Saen', this paper characterizes high fees, convenient locations, and rich services as hallmarks of pioneering private-sector urban farm models.
CommunityEconomicsHealth積極的な生産緑地の指定による農のあるまちづくりに関する調査報告書（東京都世田谷区）
2014国土交通省 都市局 · 国土交通省 委託調査報告書 · Japan
MLIT commissioned survey on Setagaya's productive-greenbelt designation, landscape-farmland districts, citizen farms and agricultural parks as models of urban farmland preservation and public-participation farming under public support.
PolicyCommunityBiodiversityFood educationEconomicsHabitat connectivity shapes urban arthropod communities: the key role of green roofs
2014Braaker S., Ghazoul J., Obrist M.K., Moretti M. · Ecology, 95(4):1010-1021 · Switzerland (Zurich)
By sampling carabid beetles, spiders, weevils and bees on green roofs and ground-level green spaces in Zurich, this study compares community composition and tests the relative importance of local environment, microclimate and connectivity. Connectivity among roofs and to ground habitats emerged as a key driver of species composition, demonstrating that green roofs can act as stepping stones that support biodiversity in the surrounding urban ecosystem — a landmark case for connectivity-aware green-roof placement in city design.
BiodiversityPollinators第2回グッドライフアワード 受賞取組概要：北加賀屋みんなのうえん
2014環境省 · 環境省 グッドライフアワード · Japan
The official write-up of 'Kitakagaya Minna no Uen' (run by NPO Co.to.hana) as a winner of the Ministry of the Environment's 2nd Good Life Award, describing how residents and experts jointly turned vacant land into a garden fostering intergenerational exchange through farming.
CommunityFood educationSustainable Food Systems: Building a New Paradigm
2014Marsden, T., Morley, A. (eds.) · Routledge / Earthscan (ISBN 9780415639545) · Global
A comprehensive theoretical volume on building sustainable food systems including the urban-rural nexus, with chapters on food practices, land access and agricultural entrepreneurship at the rural-urban interface.
PolicyMotivations for Investing in Allotment Gardening in Dublin: A Sociological Analysis
2014Kettle P. · Irish Journal of Sociology · Ireland (Dublin)
This sociological study examines why Dublin residents invest in allotment gardening, finding a significant demographic shift away from traditional older male participants toward younger, middle-class, and female growers. It contextualises Dublin's growing allotment movement within broader urban agriculture trends.
CommunityHealthEconomicsEl Programa de Agricultura Urbana de la Municipalidad de Rosario en Argentina
2014Lattuca A.L., Terrile R.H., Sadagorsky C. · Hábitat y Sociedad · Argentina (Rosario)
Documents Rosario's municipal Urban Agriculture Programme (PAU), launched in 2002, which grew to over 800 community farming projects on vacant land to address food insecurity and generate income for marginalized residents, with 65% of participants being women.
CommunityPolicyFood educationWelfareBuilding Urban Resilience: Assessing Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture in Dakar
2014Padgham J., Jabbour J. · United Nations Environment Programme (UNEP) · Senegal (Dakar)
This UNEP report presents findings from a 2012 knowledge assessment of urban and peri-urban agriculture in Dakar, identifying key sustainability threats including urban encroachment, degraded water and soil quality, fragmented policy, and farmers' limited credit access.
PolicyEconomicsCommunityHealthAgriculture in urban and peri-urban areas in the United States: Highlights from the Census of Agriculture
2014Stephanie 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.
EconomicsPolicyUrban Agriculture in the United States: Characteristics, Challenges, and Technical Assistance Needs
2014Lydia Oberholtzer, Carolyn Dimitri, Andrew Pressman · Journal of Extension · United States
Based on a national survey of and interviews with US urban farmers, this article explores their challenges and technical-assistance needs. It characterizes the sector as one of young, recently established farms and farmers, with profitability, financing, and production costs rated the highest challenges, and reports moderate-to-high technical assistance needs in areas that Extension staff can address.
EconomicsUtilizing Michigan Brownfield Policies to Incentivize Community-Based Urban Agriculture in Detroit
2014Nicholas 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.
PolicyCommunityEconomicsChallenging Inclusivity Urban Agriculture and Community Involvement in San Diego
2014Bruno 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.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsWhere have all the houses (among other things) gone? Some critical reflections on urban agriculture
2014Laura 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.
PolicyCommunityEconomicsResource needs for a socially just and sustainable urban agriculture system: Lessons from New York City
2014Nevin 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.
PolicyCommunityEconomicsAn evaluation of conventional and subirrigated planters for urban agriculture: Supporting evidence
2014Clare Sullivan, Thomas Hallaran, Gregory Sogorka, Kallie Weinkle · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · United States
This study compared crop yields, quality and labor input for subirrigated planters (SIPs), a sack-garden variant, and two conventional raised beds over one season at one location, growing cayenne pepper, cherry tomatoes and kale. Both the SIP beds and conventional beds with a soilless growing medium were more productive than conventional beds with a topsoil-and-compost mix, and tomato yield in the SIP without a root barrier exceeded both conventional beds. Most of the higher-cost beds generated a positive revenue stream in the first season, suggesting that investing in SIPs or in soil suitable for raised beds is worth the higher initial cost.
DIYEconomicsIntercultural Gardens: The Use of Space by Migrants and the Practice of Respect
2014Moulin-Doos C. · Journal of Urban Affairs · Germany
Examines how intercultural gardens in Germany respond to migrants' need for spaces of interaction outside home and work, offering a setting to build social capital and practise the mutual respect essential for integration.
CommunityWelfareVegetation composition of old extensive green roofs (from 1980s Germany)
2014· Ecological Processes · Germany
Surveys the vegetation composition of extensive green roofs built in 1980s Germany, examining how plant communities develop on green roofs over multiple decades.
BiodiversityGreenhouse gas emissions from home composting in practice
2014Ermolaev E., Sundberg C., Pell M., Jönsson H. · Bioresource Technology · Sweden
Measures CH4, N2O and NH3 emissions from home composts in practice in Sweden; methane emissions were lower than in large-scale systems and increased with temperature and mixing.
DIYCompostA Novel Low-Cost Open-Hardware Platform for Monitoring Soil Water Content and Multiple Soil-Air-Vegetation Parameters
2014Bitella G. · Sensors · Italy
Presents a low-cost open-hardware platform based on an open-source Arduino microcontroller board and inexpensive high-frequency dielectric probes to monitor soil water content at multiple depths plus air and soil temperatures.
DIYEconomicsEvaluation of the impact of a school gardening intervention on children's fruit and vegetable intake: a randomised controlled trial
2014Christian M.S., Evans C.E.L., Nykjaer C., Hancock N., Cade J.E. · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity · UK
A randomized controlled trial across 23 schools comparing an RHS-led gardening intervention with a teacher-led one; 641 children completed it, finding little evidence that school gardening alone improves children's fruit and vegetable intake.
Food educationHealthThe Multiple Functions and Services of Community Seedbanks
2014· Resources · Global
Reviews community seedbanks worldwide and classifies their multiple functions and services, including conservation, exchange, and sharing of seeds.
Heirloom & landraceBiodiversityCommunity