Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
7626 results(291 / 306)
Study on the Development Strategy of Multi-functional Urban Agriculture in Tianjin city
2006Wenna Liu · Ecological Economy · China
This study examines strategies for developing multi-functional urban agriculture in Tianjin, China. It notes that traditional urban agriculture, aimed primarily at food production through intensive production systems, has caused ecological and environmental problems that hinder the multi-functional development of agriculture. Based on an analysis of current conditions and existing problems, the paper proposes strategic directions, a development model, and specific measures for multi-functional agriculture.
PolicyCommunityEconomicsEco-symbolic Landscape Characteristics in Community Gardens and Common Spaces of Eco-Villages in Europe
2006Kim Geun Ho, Tongbuhm Cho, 김미향 · Journal of the Korean housing association · Europe
Seven eco-villages in Germany, Denmark, and the UK were selected for field surveys of settlement background, social and economic aspects, architectural specifications, recycled energy, and landscape characteristics of external spaces, analyzing the landscape characteristics of community gardens and common spaces and the ecological symbolism of landscapes created by residents. The eco-village landscapes were found to intend neither a return to primitive society nor control of nature through technology but rather coexistence with nature, with primitive nature symbolically restored and residents who share this outlook intending to cultivate this common sense together, landscape creation playing an important role in establishing a shared relationship between human living and nature.
CommunityBiodiversityCan Sunn Hemp Decrease Nitrogen Fertilizer Requirements of Vegetable Crops in the Southeastern United States?
2006Laura Avila, Johannes Scholberg, Nancy E. Roe, C. M. Cherr · HortScience · United States (Florida)
Sunn hemp (Crotalaria juncea) was tested as a summer cover crop in a Community Supported Agriculture vegetable operation in Southeast Florida, United States, from 2003 to 2005. The farm system compared sunn hemp (SH) with a conventional summer fallow, followed by winter/spring tomato and pepper and then sweet corn. Tomato and pepper received 0, 67, 133 or 200 kg N/ha in 2003, and 0, 100 or 200 kg N/ha in 2004/05; sweet corn received 133 or 200 kg N/ha in 2003 and 100 kg N/ha in 2004/05. Average SH biomass was 3.7 Mg/ha. In 2003, tomato yields following SH without supplemental nitrogen were similar to the fallow treatment fertilized with 200 kg N/ha. By the third year, tomato and pepper yields in SH plots were 25% and 26% higher, respectively, than conventional plots, while conventional pepper fertilized with 200 kg N/ha showed only 8% higher yield than plots given 100 kg N/ha plus cover crop. Sweet corn yields were low overall but increased when the preceding tomato/pepper crop received higher nitrogen rates: in 2003, sweet corn fertilized with 200 kg N/ha following an SH-fall vegetable rotation produced 17% higher marketable yield than the fallow treatment, and in 2004–2005, sweet corn within the SH–unfertilized tomato system produced 29% higher yields than a comparable conventional system. The results indicate that in this rotation, both fall vegetable crops and sweet corn benefit from residual nitrogen, with SH mineralization affecting not only the immediately following crop but also yields later in the year.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityOrganic cycleEconomicsResearch Brief #9, Meeting Farm and Food Security Needs through Community Supported Agriculture and Farmers’ Markets in California
2006Patricia 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.
Economic viabilityCSA & TeikeiCommunityWelfareFood sovereignty & justiceAspectos socioculturales en la eficiencia productiva del ganado menor en el municipio Primero de Enero, Ciego de Ávila, Cuba
2006Ángela Borroto, Águeda C. Arencibia, J.L. López, Liliam J. Leyva, Carlos Mazorra, Gladys E. Dopico, R. Maurelo, A. Caraballoso · Redalyc (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México) · Cuba
A study in Primero de Enero municipality, Ciego de Ávila province, Cuba, surveyed 19 backyard livestock producers participating in the National Urban Agriculture Program across three local council districts over two years. Ninety percent of producers received family support as a supplementary rather than primary livelihood, and 60% combined this with fixed state-sector jobs. Only 22% were organized or linked to receive training or technology transfer; average rearing experience was three years and average age was 49, with 63% wage workers, 18% retirees and 12.5% housewives. Production results were described as favorable, but practical adoption of more efficient, sustainable rearing methods was not found.
CommunityEconomicsWelfareHortas comunitárias de Teresina : agricultura urbana e perspectiva de desenvolvimento local
2006Juliana Portela do Rego Monteiro, Maria do Socorro Lira Monteiro · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · Brazil
A study of 43 urban gardens in Teresina, Piauí state, Brazil, analyzed via primary data collection and field research whether the gardens function as a means of generating work and income and improving socioeconomic conditions without degrading the environment. Most gardeners were women over 45 with incomplete elementary education, earning up to one minimum wage, originally from the state's interior, who had worked in agriculture before joining the gardens and worked them as a family. Most had not participated in training since entering the program, used their own resources for production, concentrated 70.08% of output on cilantro, chives and lettuce, and sold produce mainly on-site; soil amendment relied mostly on manure with limited chemical fertilizer, and only 36.81% of gardeners used pesticides. The study concludes that low remuneration, stemming from limited crop diversity, poor organization and lack of financing, led some family members to seek alternative income.
Economic viabilityCommunityEconomicsWelfare全面实施院“十一五”科技发展规划 为推进我市社会主义新农村建设作出新的贡献
2006程春建 · Acta Scientiarum Naturalium Universitatis Sunyatseni · China
This is an institutional annual work report summarizing implementation of the "11th Five-Year Plan" for science and technology development, along with work plans for 2006. It states that, under the guidance of the municipal party committee and government and with support from relevant departments, the institute completed the tasks set out at the start of the year and contributed to the development of urban agriculture, but the text gives no specific figures or concrete results.
PolicyCommunityNourishing with drip irrigation
2006Carol Posthumus · SA Irrigation = SA Besproeiing · South Africa
An extracted text describing an Agricultural Research Council (ARC) project in South Africa that brings lower-cost alternative irrigation technologies, including drip irrigation, to smallholder farmers and community gardens. The project targets areas where water is scarce but irrigation access exists, aiming to establish best management and operation practices that lower costs and save water, with drip irrigation also framed as a way of ensuring food security.
CommunityOrganic cycleMaraîcher à Khartoum : entre intégration et marginalisation
2006Alice Franck · Revue internationale des études du développement · Sudan
A study of market gardeners in Khartoum, Sudan, sheds light on thinking about the integrating capacity of urban agriculture. The uncontrolled urbanization now under way in the Sudanese capital is causing unprecedented competition for property, pointing to limits on the potential integration of these farm-workers in the downtown area. The fact that this activity is strictly commercial and carried out mainly by a migrant population makes the analysis more notable still.
CommunityEconomicsUrban–rural linkage유럽 생태마을의 커뮤니티 정원과 공유공간의 경관적 특징
2006김근호, 조동범, 김미향 · · Europe
A field survey of seven eco-villages in Germany, Denmark, and the UK examined each settlement's background, social and economic aspects, architectural specifications, recycled energy use, and the landscape characteristics of external spaces, analyzing the ecological symbolism of the landscapes residents created. It concluded that eco-village landscapes were oriented neither toward returning to primitive society nor toward controlling nature through technology, but toward coexistence with nature, with primitive nature symbolically restored and community garden landscape design expressing a meaningful relationship between human life and nature.
CommunityBiodiversityWhere am I? Locating Myself and its Implications for Collaborative Research
2006Regina Day Langhout · American Journal of Community Psychology · Global
A paper examining how a younger white female graduate student and an African American female undergraduate student differently understood the relationship between the graduate student and older, working-class African American women, formed around a community garden project. The graduate student framed the relationship around shared gender and class background, while the undergraduate framed it around racial difference and unexamined white privilege. The paper challenges both interpretations as unidimensional, raises questions about why researchers rarely situate themselves through their identities, and argues that reflexivity is essential to community psychology research.
CommunityAgricultura urbana e segurança alimentar: estudo no município de Santa Maria – RS
2006Cristiane 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.
Food sovereignty & justiceCommunityEconomicsContinuable Developing Model of Chinese Urban Agriculture and Its Constructing
2006Zhu Mi-juan · Ecological Economy · China
This paper reviews prior research on urban agriculture and compares Chinese and foreign urban agriculture in terms of their emergence, scope, industry structure, development direction, and functions. It concludes that the basic development models used in foreign countries are not suited to China and that China should build its own "sustainable" (continuable) development model by modernizing and adapting elements drawn from foreign sustainable agriculture practice, rather than adopting foreign models directly.
PolicyCommunityClimate changeCommunity development: Creating spaces for deep democracy, social action, and resistance
2006Heather Mair · Leisure/Loisir · Global
This theoretical paper examines the potential for community development to serve as a vehicle for politics, resistance, and social change, arguing that change-oriented efforts — from community-led initiatives limiting "big box store" encroachment to community-supported agriculture and new forms of media — create important opportunities for public dialogue about, and expression of, power, equality, and democracy. It explores reconsidering the spaces where politically oriented leisure activities occur through the concepts of deep democracy, social learning, empowerment, and resistance. Drawing on Shaw (2000), the author argues that examining these community-led struggles counters the view of leisure as increasingly bound up in individualized, consumption-oriented activity, and can deepen leisure studies by recognizing, understanding, and validating its political nature.
Food sovereignty & justiceCommunityPolicySocial Integration of "Village-in-the-urban"
2006Hui Zhi-jua · Journal of Huaibei Professional and Technical College · China
Urbanization is described here not only as a process in which population aggregates in cities, the farming economy transforms into an urban economy, and rural areas become urban areas, but also as a transition in people's behavioral and living styles. "Village-in-the-urban" is presented as a logical result of the expansion of towns and cities in China, where constant collision and conflict, along with interaction and fusion, occur between original rural culture and urban culture, and between native and foreign culture. From a sociological perspective, this paper analyzes the conflict and fusion characterizing villages-in-the-urban.
CommunityUrban–rural linkagePolicyFood educationParticipatory Technology Development for Sustainable Intensification of Urban Agriculture 1
2006Gordon Prain, R. van Veenhuizen · · Global
The production of food, feed, fuel, and construction material in and around cities is almost as old as human settlement itself: the earliest cities of the Fertile Crescent, China, and South and Central America show evidence of local food production that served as an essential component of urban food security in times of conflict. The available abstract text ends at this historical framing and does not describe the specific participatory technology development methods or results referenced in the title.
Food sovereignty & justiceCommunityThe Analysis of the Urban Agriculture Location
2006Zhao Di-fei · Journal of Minjiang University · China
Urban agriculture (UA), a new form of agriculture that emerged in the 1950s in Europe and America, is examined here through a review of recent Chinese research on the topic. The paper defines UA as a rural-type industry located within urban areas, one that draws on garden landscapes and environmental resources and combines UA with rural industry and rural culture. Using J.H. von Thünen's agricultural location theory as its basis, it analyzes the origin of UA's location and the "UA belt" in China, and examines the production, development, and spatial layout of urban agriculture there.
PolicyCommunityComportamento econômico e produtivo da horta comunitária agroecológica de Nova Descoberta.
2006Myreide Marinez Da Silva, J. L. P. Araujo, Aryon de Almeida Barbosa, Ariana Ferreira da Silva, Leyla Menezes de Santana, C. R. R. S. França · · Brazil
This study assessed the economic viability of an agroecological system for growing vegetables in the Nova Descoberta community, in the interior of Petrolina, Pernambuco state, Brazil. Coriander (Coriandrum sativum) was the economically dominant crop, accounting for nearly 85% of the garden's total monetary income, followed by lettuce (Lactuca sativa) at over 13%, while all remaining crops together reached only 2.3% of total sales value, though the study notes their cultivation was expected to expand with the continuing agroecological conversion process to diversify species grown.
CommunityEconomicsOrganic cyclePeri-urban agricultureMulticultural School Gardens: research report 1
2006Amy Cutter‐Mackenzie, Kate Eastwood · ePublications@SCU (Southern Cross University) · Australia
An evaluation of the Multicultural School Gardens project in Australia, covering its 2006 phase (the project ran through 2008). Six schools took part in 2006 — Rosewell Primary School, Dandenong North Primary School, Bayswater Secondary College, Laverton Primary School, Meadowbank Primary School and St Albans Heights Primary School — and the report draws on children's research plus progress and post-project surveys. It reports the project meeting most of its stated objectives, with key contributing factors including learning outside the classroom, curriculum enrichment, school enthusiasm, health and wellbeing, students' knowledge of plant physiology and development, and alignment with existing environmental education programs. It identifies engaging the community as the greatest challenge, to be a specific focus of future work.
Food educationCommunityWelfareHealthContinuous Productive Urban Landscapes: Designing Urban Agriculture for Sustainable Cities
2005André Viljoen, Katrin Bohn, Joe Howe · Architectural Press / Routledge · Global
A pioneering work proposing the concept of 'Continuous Productive Urban Landscapes (CPUL)' that integrates urban agriculture into urban spatial planning. It frames urban agriculture as green infrastructure linking food-producing sites with other open spaces into a continuous linear landscape across the city, and has become a theoretical starting point for productive green infrastructure and edible-city research.
CommunityBiodiversityFood educationEconomicsCorporate social responsibility: a case study of the UK's leading food retailers
2005Jones P., Comfort D., Hillier D., Eastwood I. · British Food Journal · United Kingdom
Analyzes CSR reporting by the UK's leading food retailers, finding support for local food producers, healthy eating, charitable donations, and local community initiatives as principal CSR themes promoted in stores.
CommunityEconomicsPolicy農のあるコモン広場を備えた住宅地
2005ミサワホーム株式会社 · 都市農地活用支援センター『農のある暮らし』事例集 · Japan
A case report on Misawa Home's Kitasenju detached-housing district 'A Town with Herbs and Orchards', introducing edible landscaping through leasehold housing with common plazas and shared rear gardens as a model for integrating farming and community space into private housing development.
CommunityBiodiversityHealthBuilding Relationships, Accessing Resources: Mobilizing Social Capital in Community Garden Contexts
2005Troy D. Glover, Diana C. Parry, Kimberly J. Shinew · Journal of Leisure Research · Global
This study aimed to understand how social relationships formed within community garden settings assist community garden leaders in accessing resources. Findings suggest that "leisure episodes" are particularly important for building strong ties, which are a common source of social capital. These episodes therefore serve as the social lubricant for social capital production, aiding the preservation and advancement of grassroots associations.
CommunityEconomicsHealthUpdating a fresh food access guide for a low literacy audience
2005Goldsmith, Leah · Occidental College Scholar (Occidental College) · United States (Los Angeles)
Low-income neighborhoods, communities of color, and immigrant communities in Los Angeles often experience unjust access to fresh, healthy foods. Project CAFE published the "Los Angeles Fresh Food Access Guide" in 2002 to inform residents of fresh food resources like farmers' markets and community gardens. This study conducted research on language and formatting to make information easy to understand, aiming to revise the guide for a lower literacy audience. The revised guide will include updated food resource information and new content focusing on the linkages between food and health.
CommunityHealthFood sovereignty & justiceGale Woods Farm Curriculum Directory
2005Courtney Tchida · University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy (University of Minnesota) · United States (Minnesota)
This report develops an educational curriculum for teachers to use at Gale Woods Farm and in classrooms. Gale Woods Farm, a 410-acre educational farm in Minnetrista, Minnesota, aims to connect people to their food source through sustainable farming methods. The curriculum focuses on creating awareness of farming, food production, and agricultural practices emphasizing environmental stewardship.
Food educationCommunityCSA & Teikei