Research & reports

Parisi A., Walthall B., Clerino P., Firmbach P., Onyszkiewicz M., Vicente Vicente J. L. · Environmental Evidence · Global

A protocol for a systematic map of the scholarly literature on the relationship between urban agriculture (UA) and gentrification. The authors note that existing accounts variously present gentrification as a possible outcome of UA activities, as a risk that UA initiatives themselves face, and as other kinds of relationship, and argue that these divergent accounts are partly explained by different theoretical engagements with gentrification and by the breadth of activities gathered under 'urban agriculture'. It sets out the search and review strategy and aims to expose gaps in dominant academic discourses. Being a protocol, it reports no findings yet.

Sunamis Fabelo Concepción, Elizabeth Peña Turruellas, Maruchi Alonso Esquivel · Latin American and Caribbean Studies · Global

A discussion piece examines opportunities for cooperation on food security and sovereignty between Cuba and the Republic of Korea following the reestablishment of diplomatic relations between the two countries. It highlights the importance of a legal framework recognizing healthy, adequate nutrition as a fundamental right, and identifies urban agriculture — an area of success for both nations — as a key strategy for pursuing sovereign, local, and sustainable food systems. The piece frames this as an opening for scientific diplomacy grounded in mutual respect and long-term partnership, presenting no empirical data or measured outcomes.

Ylva Wallinder · Local Environment · Europe

A study of Gothenburg, Sweden, examines the city council's shift over the past decade from associational (collective) urban gardening toward entrepreneurial gardening on municipal land, promoted through a scheme called "from garden box to hectare" that draws residents into entrepreneurial training while taking municipal gardening classes. Analyzing the consequences of this commodification of urban sustainability projects, the study finds that socio-economic resources and social relations both limit and strengthen entrepreneurial gardening practices and participants' quality of life, and that perceived competition among gardeners has turned urban gardening into a lonely, precarious, and individualized activity compared with the formalized associational gardening the municipality previously promoted. The finding points to a mismatch between the local government's sustainability visions and gardeners' actual experience.

Ouiam Fatiha Boukharta, Loïc Sauvée, Fabiana Pena-Fabri, Leticia Chico-Santamarta, Luis Manuel Navas-Gracia · Cities · France

In Rouen, France, a two-level urban agriculture governance system—the metropolitan authority and the City of Rouen—was examined through 19 semi-structured interviews with project stakeholders. The two levels shared similar approaches to social aspects, education, fresh produce consumption, and the goal of long-term project viability, but differed in project selection criteria: the metropolis applied less strict requirements than the city regarding plot size and soil analysis.

Ayu Amanda Sulistiana, Titik Akiriningsih, Made Prasta Yostitia Pradipta · JELAJAH Journal of Tourism and Hospitality · Indonesia

A descriptive qualitative study—based on observation, interviews, and documentation—examined community empowerment and environmental management practices in Kampung Glintung Go Green, a community-based tourism village in Malang City, Indonesia. It found organizing structures, training and education, active participation, cooperative and local-economy support, awareness campaigns, monitoring and evaluation systems, and partnership-building; environmental management incorporating urban farming promotion improved environmental quality and community awareness, but the study identified needs to strengthen education, partnerships, technology use, regular evaluation, and promotional efforts going forward.

Jennifer Newell, Siobhan Cox, Rory Doherty · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Global

A systematic review synthesized literature on the oral bioaccessible fraction (BAF) of arsenic, cadmium, chromium, nickel, and lead in vegetables grown on contaminated soils, drawing values from multiple online databases across potentially toxic elements (PTEs), in vitro test methods, and vegetable types. The review starts from the premise that many urban and peri-urban brownfield sites carry a legacy of soil metal and metalloid contamination, so crops grown there may pose human health risks. Median PTE BAFs ranked Cd > Ni > Cr > As > Pb; among in vitro methods, the unified BARGE method (UBM) produced the highest median BAFs (63.0% gastric, 59.6% gastrointestinal); and by crop type, BAFs ranked non-vegetables (e.g., rice, fungi) > legumes > root vegetables > bulb vegetables > leafy vegetables.

Anderson Luis Ferreira · Revista fisio&terapia. · Brazil

A qualitative, exploratory-descriptive study based on bibliographic and documentary review examines urban agriculture as a socio-environmental alternative to the contradictions of the Green Revolution. Drawing on classic and contemporary national and international literature and reports from multilateral bodies such as the FAO and UN-Habitat, it characterizes the Green Revolution as having raised agricultural productivity while deepening social inequality, homogenizing crops, and causing serious environmental impacts. It positions urban agriculture as valuing production diversity, strengthening community autonomy, and fostering new forms of sociability, concluding that examples across different contexts converge in strengthening food sovereignty, social inclusion, and urban sustainability.

· 農林水産省 農村振興局 · Japan

MAFF's tally of certifications under the Urban Farmland Leasing Facilitation Act, broken down by prefecture and municipality. As of end-March 2025: 840 cases covering 1,358,850 m², up from 725 cases and 1,167,531 m² a year earlier. Split between leases for the tenant's own cultivation and specified urban farmland lettings (allotment gardens).

· 農林水産省・経済産業省 · Japan

Statistics on projects certified under the agriculture-commerce-industry collaboration scheme, tallied by region (Hokkaido, Tohoku, Kanto, Hokuriku, Tokai, Kinki, Chugoku-Shikoku, Kyushu, Okinawa) — showing where collaborations between small businesses and primary producers are actually forming.

Javier Bayo, Joaquín López-Castellanos, Marta Doval-Miñarro, Sonia Olmos · Scientific Reports · Spain

An ATR-FTIR analysis of 11 commercial compost products found microplastics in every sample, averaging 137.65 ± 6.01 items/kg dry weight and up to 631.14 mg/kg. Eco-labeled composts had significantly lower microplastic abundance, size, and concentration than non-eco products. Microplastic concentration correlated negatively with pH and nitrogen content and positively with organic matter content.

US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) · US Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) · United States

An EPA summary of its 2024 survey of anaerobic digestion facilities processing food waste in the U.S., covering 313 identified facilities with 65 operating facilities responding (24% response rate). Excluding beverage-industry waste, processed tonnage rose from about 1.36 million tons in 2022 to about 1.43 million tons in 2023.

環境省 · 環境省 環境再生・資源循環局 廃棄物適正処理推進課 · Japan

A press release from Japan's Ministry of the Environment summarizing FY2023 nationwide municipal solid waste generation and disposal. Total waste generation was 38.97 million tonnes (down 3.4% year on year), the recycling rate was 19.5%, and final disposal volume was 3.16 million tonnes. Of 1,004 incineration facilities, 411 had power generation equipment, generating 10,254 GWh in total.

農林水産省 · 農林水産省 新事業・食品産業部 · Japan

Industry-specific targets for food-recycling implementation rates set under Japan's basic policy on promoting the recycling of food-related resources (Food Recycling Act), published March 14, 2025: 95% for food manufacturing, 75% for wholesale, 65% for retail, and 50% for food service.

環境省 · 環境省 環境再生・資源循環局 廃棄物適正処理推進課 · Japan

Japan's Ministry of the Environment statistical compendium on FY2023 municipal solid waste management. The national waste-flow chart shows total waste generation of 38,974 thousand tonnes and total recycled volume of 7,633 thousand tonnes (recycling rate 19.5%). Of the 6,234 thousand tonnes recycled by municipalities, 119 thousand tonnes (1.9%) went to fertilizer and 6 thousand tonnes (0.1%) to animal feed.

消費者庁 · 消費者庁（農林水産省・環境省と連携） · Japan

Japan's Consumer Affairs Agency published its FY2023 food loss estimate on June 27, 2025. Total food loss was 4.64 million tonnes, down from 4.72 million tonnes the prior year, split between 2.31 million tonnes from businesses and 2.33 million tonnes from households.

ADEME · ADEME Infos · France

One year after France's January 2024 mandate for source-separated food waste, ADEME reports that about 50% of residents (32.1 million people) now have access to municipal sorting services, 56% sort their food waste, and 9 million tonnes of biowaste per year have been diverted from incineration and landfill, backed by €100 million in green-fund investment since 2023.

Anne Lenormand · Banque des Territoires (Localtis) · France

Reporting that France's source-separation infrastructure for biowaste has tripled in three years since the January 2024 legal mandate, giving 32.1 million French residents (about 50%) access to sorting solutions (municipal collection, individual and shared composting). The rollout had a difficult start but is now accelerating, with 20 million more residents expected to gain access.

Jacob Wallace · Waste Dive · United States

NYC's Department of Sanitation began enforcing mandatory curbside organics separation on April 1, 2025, issuing nearly 2,000 summonses in the first week, but Mayor Adams paused broad enforcement through 2025 on April 18, limiting fines to persistent violators. The city had distributed about 190,000 free bins and sold 63,000 more, and organics diversion had risen 65% from FY2022 to FY2024.

FAO · FAO (FAOSTAT Analytical Brief) · Global

According to a FAOSTAT analytical brief, global agricultural use of inorganic fertilizers rose 34 percent, from 142 million tonnes in 2002 to 190 million tonnes in 2023. Per-hectare application rates of nitrogen, phosphorus and potassium all increased over the period, and world production reached 208 million tonnes in 2023, up 40 percent since 2002.

US Environmental Protection Agency · U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) · United States

The Resource Conservation and Recovery Act (RCRA) was passed on October 21, 1976, amending the 1965 Solid Waste Disposal Act, and established three programs: solid waste (Subtitle D, landfill criteria), hazardous waste (Subtitle C, cradle-to-grave management), and underground storage tanks (Subtitle I).

US Environmental Protection Agency · U.S. Environmental Protection Agency (EPA) · United States

U.S. municipal solid waste (MSW) generation reached 292.4 million tons in 2018. The landfilling rate fell from 94 percent in 1960 to 50 percent in 2018, while the combined recycling and composting rate rose from just over 6 percent in 1960 to 32.1 percent in 2018, including 25 million tons composted and 69 million tons recycled.

U.S. Environmental Protection Agency · US EPA Landfill Methane Outreach Program (LMOP) · United States

According to US EPA's LMOP page, landfill gas is roughly 50% methane and 50% CO2, and methane is at least 28 times more effective than CO2 at trapping heat over 100 years. Municipal solid waste landfills are the third-largest source of human-related methane emissions in the US, accounting for about 14.4%. There are 542 operational LFG energy projects nationwide, about 63% generating electricity and about 20% producing renewable natural gas.

環境省 · 環境省 · Japan

Japan's Ministry of the Environment estimates FY2023 food loss at about 4.64 million tonnes (2.33 million tonnes household, 2.31 million tonnes business), down from 4.72 million tonnes the previous year. Under the Food Loss Reduction Promotion Act's basic policy, Japan targets halving household food loss and cutting business food loss 60% by FY2030, both against a FY2000 baseline.

国土交通省 · 国土交通省 · Japan

Japan's Civic Green Space Certification system, based on Article 60 of the Urban Green Space Act, lets a private landowner who establishes and manages green space for community use obtain municipal certification for a management plan. Qualifying sites must be at least 300 square meters, have at least 20% greenery coverage, and be maintained for at least 5 years. Certified green spaces managed by a Midori Corporation receive a fixed-asset and city-planning tax reduction — in principle one-third off for 3 years (municipalities may set 1/2 to 1/6 by ordinance) — under a time-limited measure running through 31 March 2027.

国税庁 · 国税庁 · Japan

According to Japan's National Tax Agency, when a qualifying heir inherits farmland from a deceased person who had been farming it and continues farming (or leases it under a designated arrangement), payment of the portion of inheritance tax corresponding to the value of the land above its agricultural investment value is deferred. This deferred tax is forgiven if the farming heir dies while still farming, among other conditions. Designated leasing arrangements include those under the Act on Facilitation of Leasing Urban Agricultural Land.