Research & reports

Clara Irazábal, Anita Punja · Journal of Urban Affairs · United States (Los Angeles)

This qualitative case study analyzes the destruction of the 14-acre South Central Farm in Los Angeles in July 2006, arguing it was a landscape of resistance against discriminatory legal and planning practices. The study contends that environmental justice and planning ethics provided a substantive rationale for the city to prevent its dismantling. This case highlights a failure in governance to protect community gardens threatened by dismantlement in capitalist societies.

Luciana Morais de Freitas · REVISTA BRASILEIRA DE AGROECOLOGIA · Brazil

This project in the Federal District and surrounding areas of Brazil aimed to improve and expand food production and promote agroecological practices in settlements and pre-settlements. Implemented in partnership with MDS and Via Campesina, the urban and peri-urban agriculture initiative has enhanced production conditions in these settlements. It also strengthens the productive chain by training producers in agroecological practices.

Diana Lee-Smith, M. C. Campbell · Urban Agriculture Magazine · Canada (Toronto)

This article describes the "Carrot City" initiative, which began in Toronto in 2006 when Ryerson University architecture students focused on buildings incorporating urban food production. The concept expanded to include other architecture, planning, design, and landscape architecture schools across Canada and internationally, promoting the integration of urban agriculture into design and planning.

Heather Elizabeth Dalrymple · · United States

This report examines community gardens as a means to address urban food provision and promote sustainable communities. It highlights that community gardens offer benefits beyond food security, such as fostering community development and effectively utilizing open spaces. Through case studies in Cleveland, Ohio, and San Francisco, California, the report demonstrates the adaptability of community gardens in meeting diverse community needs across various urban environments.

Majora Carter · Anglican Theological Review · United States

This piece, published in the Anglican Theological Review, is a first-person essay by an author raised in the South Bronx, New York, discussing environmental injustice and hopes for greening in the neighborhood. It states that the South Bronx is the poorest congressional district in the United States, with over 20% unemployment and more than one-third of residents living in poverty, hosts four power plants and most of New York City's solid waste and sewage processing, and has a childhood asthma hospitalization rate seven times the national average, alongside fewer trees and parks per person than other parts of the city. It cites a 2006 Columbia University report finding learning disabilities in children living nearest to fossil fuel emissions sources. The piece is a personal essay drawing on the author's experience and advocacy rather than an empirical study, and presents no methodology or sample.

Allie Comet · Scholarship @ Claremont (The Claremont Colleges) · United States (California)

This historical analysis of Claremont, California, uses "The Farm" — a two-acre food forest on the Pomona College campus — as a starting point to trace the role food and agriculture have played in the development of the Claremont area, and discusses current local food system alternatives emerging in the area.

Joan M. Brehm, Brian W. Eisenhauer · Journal of Rural Social Sciences · United States

This research identifies perceived benefits, motivations, and effects of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) activity on community social capital, using quantitative data from CSA memberships in Central Illinois and New Hampshire, United States. Findings indicate that food quality is the strongest motivator for CSA members, while community building and social capital development were not significant motivators or perceived benefits. However, community attachment significantly enhanced motivations like a desire for a stronger sense of community and support for local growers.

Nathan McClintock · · United States (California)

This paper uses urban political ecology to explore the rise of urban agriculture (UA) in Oakland, California, where the city aims to source 30% of its food locally, partly from UA in "food deserts." The analysis argues that 20th-century industrial capital flows and racialized urban planning concentrated capital devaluation in the flatlands, leading to the creation of food deserts. Food justice activists are mobilizing through UA to counter these uneven transformations.

Public Affairs Office · DigitalCommons - CalPoly (California State Polytechnic University) · United States (Los Angeles)

Students and faculty at Cal Poly cultivated 4,000 fruit and vegetable plants on 180 vertical panels, which are intended for mounting on commercial building walls in Los Angeles' inner city. These vertical panels were designed to maximize growing space in congested urban locations. The project aims to provide a practical solution for accessing fresh, affordable produce.

Gary Paul Green, Michael L. Dougherty · Community Development · United States (Door County, Wisconsin)

This paper examined culinary tourism through a case study of the Kingdom So Delicious program in Door County, Wisconsin. The analysis was based on intensive interviews with owners/managers of four restaurants and surveys of 30 retailers and 40 farmers in the region. The most frequently cited concerns with producing for local establishments involved in culinary tourism were low prices and challenging logistics.

Nathan McClintock · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · United States (California)

This paper explores the rise of urban agriculture (UA) in Oakland, California, using an urban political ecology framework. A macro-level structural analysis of Oakland's history reveals how 20th-century industrial capital flows and racialized urban planning concentrated capital devaluation in the flatlands, ultimately giving rise to food deserts. The study suggests that food justice activists are mobilizing through UA to counter these uneven transformations, despite critiques that some urban garden programs are neoliberal, emphasizing self-betterment while filling state-left gaps.

Anne‐Marie Hamelin, Céline Mercier, Annie Bédard · Public Health Nutrition · Canada (Quebec City)

A study in Quebec City, Canada, interviewed 55 food-insecure households and 59 stakeholders to compare perceptions of food security needs and community programs. While both groups agreed on the need for better financial resources, households reported that food quality and access were neglected, and that existing programs, even combined, were insufficient to meet their needs. Stakeholders, however, largely perceived households as satisfied with programs and believed their primary need was a basic amount of food. The study concluded that community programs alone cannot bring about the social change needed to prevent food insecurity.

Ronald Labonté, Glenn Laverack · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · Canada

In a Canadian city, a group of single mothers living in poverty started a community garden. This garden was primarily about creating capacity and empowering experiences, such as successfully negotiating with authorities, rather than just food production. For some, it served as a tool for political activism, while for others, it provided a sense of control and coherence through gardening.

Steven M. Schnell · Geographical Review · United States

This abstract discusses the agrarian standard of local adaptation in farming, which asks what is the best way to farm in each of the world's numberless places, as defined by topography, soil type, climate, ecology, history, culture, and local need. It states that this standard requires bringing local nature, people, economy, and culture into a practical and enduring harmony. The text does not present findings from a study but rather a philosophical stance on agriculture.

John Owens · Lincoln (University of Nebraska) · United States (Lincoln)

The Lincoln Journal Star published an article featuring Community Supported Agriculture Networks and a Nebraska family selling farm products at the Haymarket Farmers-Market. This article discussed the benefits and opportunities of local food from local farms.

Kandace M. Bletzacker, David H. Holben, John P. Holcomb · The FASEB Journal · United States

This study aimed to explore community food security (CFS) in the Southeastern Appalachian region of Ohio, United States. Using the methods of Lopez and Tchumtchoua (2005), 38 indicators of CFS were measured in the largest census areas (cities, towns, townships) within the study region. These indicators included general community characteristics, community food resources, community resource accessibility, and community food production. This research was conducted in a region where no prior studies on CFS had been performed.

Manon Boulianne · Research in economic anthropology · Canada (Quebec)

In Quebec, various initiatives linked to an "economy of solidarity" trend emerged from the mid-1990s. Using empirical material from a study conducted in Quebec between 2001 and 2004, this article aims to contribute to the understanding of marginal socioeconomic systems and practices, such as urban collective gardening and local exchange trading systems. These systems rely almost entirely on local resources and contribute to local provisioning.

Urban Harvest / Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) · Urban Harvest, Centro Internacional de la Papa (CIP) · Peru

Urban Harvest, the global urban and peri-urban agriculture initiative coordinated by the International Potato Center (CIP), published in 2007 the proceedings and declaration of its Third Inter-institutional Meeting held in Lima on 25-26 August 2006. The report notes that Lima Metropolitana spans the lower basins of the Chillón, Rímac and Lurín rivers, with the Rímac's average flow of 29 m3/s far exceeding the Chillón (5 m3/s) and Lurín (0.41 m3/s), while bacterial contamination in all three rivers exceeds the vegetable-irrigation limit of 1,000 fecal coliforms per 100ml. In Villa María del Triunfo, a municipal urban agriculture program began in 2001, and by 2006 the municipality had identified 1,926 people engaged in productive urban agriculture.

Lisa Patterson · Scholarly Commons (University of Pennsylvania) · United States

This comparative case study uses ethnographic fieldwork to analyze the Urban Nutrition Initiative and a community-supported agricultural garden in the United States. It describes the organizational foundations of development agencies within a public policy framework and discusses power relationships between advocates and clientele in social service networks. The study demonstrates that power transitions in development schemes indicate social movements, which are defined as markers of successful strategies through a community empowerment model.

Kevin Lombard, Sue Forster-Cox, Dan Smeal, M. K. O’Neill · Rural and Remote Health · United States

This article reviews the development of diabetes on the Navajo Nation, a serious health problem correlated with income, poor diet, and limited physical exercise. It explores the potential role of home and community gardening in diabetes reduction, building on the Navajo tradition of farming. The benefits identified include locally grown nutritious food, physical activity from gardening, income savings or sales, and positive mental outlook. The article proposes a multidisciplinary approach involving public health officials, nutritionists, and horticultural extension agents.

Eleanor Gordon · · United States (Eugene)

This abstract poetically describes the Willamette River as central to the community of Eugene, defining its development and serving as a place for people to gather, reflect, and connect with nature. It emphasizes the importance of oral history and community engagement, including working in community gardens, as a common good. The river is portrayed as a collective memory, reflecting its historical and current significance to people.

Sidivan Aparecido Resende, João Cleps · Caminhos de Geografia · Brazil

This research examines agricultural activities in the urban area of Uberlândia (MG), Brazil, aiming to understand their role and importance in development, specifically in local supply and food security. Defining urban agriculture as rural activities occurring near or within cities, the study seeks to recognize the reality and importance of these activities in Uberlândia's urban environment by comprehending rural-urban interactions.

Julie Guthman, Amy Wilson Morris, Patricia Allen · Rural Sociology · United States (California)

Survey and interview research conducted in California during 2004–2005 examined the extent to which CSAs (Community Supported Agriculture) and farmers' markets address food security. Managers of these institutions generally supported the idea of improving food affordability and most made efforts to do so, though these efforts varied with institutional capacity. Some managers tempered their interest in supporting food security goals with concerns such as the primary need to support farmers.

Patricia Allen, Julie Guthman, Amy Wilson Morris · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · United States (California)

A research brief examining whether alternative food initiatives (AFIs) such as community supported agriculture (CSA) and farmers' markets can meet the food security needs of low-income consumers, based on interviews and surveys of farmers' market and CSA managers throughout California. The authors conclude that AFIs are not, and cannot be, substitutes for state entitlements in meeting the food security needs of low-income people.

Cristiane Cardoso Pessôa, Marcelino de Souza, Ilaine Schuch · Segurança Alimentar e Nutricional · Brazil

This study interviewed 38 and later 20 families in five neighborhoods of Santa Maria, Rio Grande do Sul, Brazil, on the contribution of urban agriculture to household income and diet. Results showed that the activity does not necessarily provide additional income but does produce meaningful savings, since certain foods no longer need to be purchased; the food produced supplies important nutrients but lacks foods richer in minerals, which the families do not grow themselves, and the activity functions more as subsistence, non-market production that supplements diets with fresh food relatively free of industrial contaminants.