Research & reports

Ben Kochan, Marie Howland · Journal of urban regeneration and renewal · United States (New York City)

This record compiles book reviews for "On the Wrong Side of the Track? East London and the Post Olympics" by P. Cohen, "London 2012: How was it for us?" edited by Mark Perryman, and "From the Ground Up, Community Gardens in New York and the Politics of Spatial Transformation" by Efrat Eizenberg. Each book is reviewed by either Ben Kochan or Marie Howland.

Matthew V. Bradshaw · The William & Mary Law School Scholarship Repository (William & Mary) · United States

This Note identifies that while the urban agriculture movement is growing in popularity across the United States, legislatures have often ignored foundational laws related to the sale and distribution of goods, including inspection, labeling, labor, and compensation laws. This oversight has led to the creation of unconstitutional trade barriers in some instances. The study raises a cautionary voice to government officials regarding the potential future consequences of these regulatory gaps.

Melvin Delgado · Columbia University Press eBooks · United States

This chapter focuses on community gardening as an intervention aimed at addressing obesity, tracing its history in the United States back to the late nineteenth century as a response to social and economic crises. While community gardens can achieve various social, economic, political, educational, and health-related goals, the chapter also discusses potential pitfalls of community gardening. It emphasizes a social justice perspective for community gardens, particularly regarding community inclusion and participatory democracy.

Nicholas F. Reed · Stanford law & policy review · United States (California)

This legal note centers on California Assembly Bill 551 (AB 551), introduced on February 20, 2013 by Assemblyman Phil Ting, which would create incentives for owners of undeveloped urban residential property to lease their land for agricultural use or the creation of urban green space. It positions AB 551 as a potential "Williamson Act for cities," in contrast to the 1965 California Land Conservation Act (the Williamson Act), which was intended to protect rural agricultural land from urban development; AB 551 would instead let local governments encourage commercial agriculture where urban development is infeasible or has stalled. The author reviews the social, economic, and environmental benefits attributed to urban agriculture, legal barriers such as property tax and zoning codes, and the history of differential tax programs protecting agricultural land, before explaining the rationale for the AB 551 proposal.

Tim Glaza · ISU Red - Research and eData (Illinois State University) · United States

It has been a persistent challenge for community-based, small-to-medium-scale fruit and vegetable farmers to meet high demand for locally sourced food. Such producers have relied mainly on farm stands, farmers' markets, and community-supported agriculture (CSAs) to meet demand, but despite substantial growth in the number of farmers' markets and CSA subscriptions, a gap remains between community-based food producers and institutional, wholesale, and retail buyers. Regional food hubs are presented as a potentially critical piece for filling this gap. The Edible Economy Project, in partnership with Heartland Community College, worked on a regional food hub network project in central Illinois aimed at creating a more efficient and vibrant community-based food system. Per the USDA definition cited, a regional food hub is a business or organization that actively manages the aggregation, distribution, and marketing of source-identified food products, primarily from local and regional producers, to strengthen their ability to satisfy wholesale, retail, and institutional demand; food hubs are described as helping buyers and farmers connect and transact more efficiently. This piece places the community-based food system within the broader green economy and uses a case study approach to explain how a community with diverse stakeholders may develop a food hub.

Renee Raiden Boyer, Ben Chapman · VTechWorks (Virginia Tech) · United States

This practical guide outlines recommended agricultural practices for food safety in school and community gardens, covering topics such as food safety, site selection, pesticides and fertilizers, handwashing, water and irrigation, composting, garden design and animals, sanitation and tools, a sample community garden layout, an FAQ, and a glossary.

A. Bryan Endres, Rachel Armstrong · Food Studies An Interdisciplinary Journal · United States

A legal analysis (Food Studies: An Interdisciplinary Journal, 2013) of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in the United States—where CSA participation more than doubled between 2004 and 2009—examines "volunteer-for-food" arrangements and unpaid internships that many CSA farms offer in exchange for labor. It finds that these arrangements do not align cleanly with federal and state employment laws governing minimum wage and workers' compensation, creating a mismatch between the community-participation model embedded in CSAs and the legal regimes that govern them. The paper identifies potential points of flexibility within existing law, explores mechanisms for farmers to avoid regulatory liability, and concludes with policy recommendations to eliminate regulations it characterizes as scale-inappropriate for CSA expansion.

Seanna Berry · SMARTech Repository (Georgia Institute of Technology) · United States

A report on Atlanta, Georgia's local food system reviews the rationale for food systems planning, surveys mechanisms other cities and regions use to enhance the supply and consumption of locally grown food, and describes Atlanta's current efforts in this area. Building on goals that city officials and food advocates have set over the preceding five years toward a more localized and vibrant food system, it recommends strategic directions to help the city improve its efforts and overcome identified barriers.

Carlos Alexandre Rodrigues Pereira, Juliana Valéria de Melo, André Luís Teixeira Fernandes · BRAZILIAN JOURNAL OF AGRICULTURE - Revista de Agricultura · Brazil

A study of Santa Fé, a community about 30 km from the city center of Uberaba in Minas Gerais, Brazil, home to roughly 200 families as of 2011, examined how the transition from rural to urban status affected local livestock and farming activity. A socio-environmental survey using a semi-structured questionnaire, combining quantitative and qualitative methods, was conducted from 15 August 2009 to 19 January 2010. It found that only 33% of interviewed families practiced agropecuária (farming/livestock), and these households reported difficulties accessing markets, technical support, infrastructure, and incentive or financing policies. The study concludes that national agricultural policy does not formally recognize urban farming activity or offer it means of incentive or support, making the activity's development constrained primarily by this political-structural factor.

Lawrence B. de Graaf · Journal of American History · United States (California)

A book review of Post-ghetto, edited by Josh Sides and comprising ten essays by fourteen authors, examines South Los Angeles's (formerly South Central) long history of poverty, gangs, and violence, and changes since the 1992 riots, including a proliferation of nonprofit service providers and a declining crime rate. Three of the essays focus on "food justice" — the idea that everyone deserves healthy food — arguing this goal could be reached through more supermarkets, improved local stores, community gardens, and campaigns against liquor and junk food stores. Other chapters cover the absence of large retail and malls, art, black politics, the rising status of blacks in unions, and policy for keeping youth out of gangs.

California State Legislature · California Legislative Information · United States

California's AB-551 (enacted 2013-2014 session) allows local governments to establish Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones, letting landowners enter contracts of at least five years to have land used for agriculture assessed at the lower value based on the state's average irrigated farmland value, rather than market value. Eligible parcels must be between 0.10 and 3 acres, dwellings are prohibited on the property while under contract, and new contracts originally had to begin by January 1, 2019.

City of Chicago, Department of Planning and Development · City of Chicago, Department of Planning and Development · United States

The Chicago Department of Planning and Development publishes a dataset and map of the location, satellite imagery, and square footage of green roofs citywide, derived from high-resolution multispectral imagery acquired in September 2013. The analysis identified 509 vegetated roofs within city limits totaling 5,564,412 square feet of coverage.

Grewal S., Grewal P. · Cities · Cleveland, United States

Using Cleveland as a post-industrial case study, three maximal scenarios achieved food self-reliance of only 4.2-17.7% by weight and 1.8-7.3% by expenditure, showing even ambitious urban production can supply only a small share of a city's food needs.

Scherb A., Palmer A., Frattaroli S., Pollack K. · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development · USA

National survey of US food policy councils describing their engagement in the policy process. Finds that although councils include policy goals in their missions, their actual engagement in and impact on the policy process is very limited, exposing a gap between stated ambition and delivery.

Winifred Curran, Trina Hamilton · Local Environment · USA (Brooklyn, NYC)

Coins 'just green enough' by showing how conventional green-amenity planning triggers environmental gentrification and displacement of working-class residents; argues greening policy must be deliberately constrained to avoid the speculative development it otherwise unleashes.

Efrat Eizenberg · International Journal of Urban and Regional Research · USA (New York City)

After the Giuliani-era threat to NYC gardens, land-trust/NGO 'rescue' models became the governance solution; the paper shows how this institutionalization altered community space—trading grassroots autonomy for managerial control and revealing the trade-offs of the policy fix.

Kathryn Colasanti, Michael W. Hamm, Charlotte M. Litjens · Urban Geography · United States (Detroit)

This research explores perceptions of expanding urban agriculture in Detroit, Michigan, through semi-structured interviews and focus groups. While revealing widespread support for urban agriculture as a strategy for food security and urban sustainability, the study highlights contested aspects regarding the extent to which it should occur, its purpose, and the people it would involve.

Nathan McClintock, Heather Wooten, Alethea Brown · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States (California)

This 2012 reflective case study documented the efforts of the Oakland Food Policy Council (OFPC) in Oakland, California, to develop recommendations for urban agriculture zoning. Despite popular interest in urban agriculture, zoning often acts as an obstacle to its expansion. The OFPC faced obstacles in gaining the attention of city officials and advancing its policy agenda for new zoning definitions and operating standards for urban agriculture.

Community Gardening Works! ACGA 2011 Conference, Carolin Mees, Edie Stone · Cities and the Environment · United States

This abstract discusses the rapid expansion of the community gardening movement in US urban areas. It highlights the potential for urban agriculture planning to turn against its original community-driven roots, as suggested by the title. The movement began over 30 years ago, with residents creating gardens on abandoned land, supported by programs like New York City's GreenThumb.

Alan Hunt, Gary C. Matteson · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States

Agricultural producers are diversifying their marketing channels, but the U.S. Census of Agriculture primarily tracks only direct-to-consumer sales, organic sales, and community supported agriculture farms. This paper proposes that administrative reporting changes in the 2012 census and the introduction of new questions for the 2017 census can improve observations on marketing channel usage at both farm-level and sector-level with greater precision.

Barry E. Smith · · Canada

The British Columbia Farmland Preservation Program, established by the Land Commission Act on April 18, 1973, aims to preserve the province's valuable farmland. This program has sustained economic and social benefits from agriculture, preserved community character, and maintained natural capital. The Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) has also acted as an urban growth boundary, contributing to compact urban development and addressing land use conflicts.

Erica Giorda · · United States (Detroit)

This chapter examines the emergence of urban gardens and farms in Detroit, United States, as a grassroots response to urban decay and food deserts. It notes that while institutional support was initially limited, the number of gardens is growing, with over 300 community gardens and five self-identified farms operating. The study argues that Detroit's urban farmers envision the city's future as one of gardens, driven by concepts of food justice.

· · United States (New York City)

In New York City, social workers and community organizers engage in environmental protection practices through community organizing aimed at creating and preserving green spaces. Much of this activism takes place within community gardens, which are recognized as spaces for social engagement, community building, and social justice-based activism.

Julie L. Self, Amanda Wyatt, Aimee Webb Girard · The FASEB Journal · United States (Atlanta)

This research characterized community gardens (CGs) in two urban counties in Atlanta, Georgia, through semi-structured interviews with diverse garden leaders. The study identified primary barriers to creating and sustaining CGs as leadership constraints, reliable access to natural resources, and unclear regulations. It also found that CGs foster access to fresh food, knowledge, and community connections, with benefits varying by community.

Ana Carolina Paiva Rodrigues · VII CONNEPI - Congresso Norte Nordeste de Pesquisa e Inovação · Brazil (Natal)

In the Gramorezinho region of Natal-RN, Brazil, an exploratory study analyzed the socioeconomic and productive characteristics of urban and peri-urban agriculture. The methodology involved examining farmers' socioeconomic profiles, adopted production systems, and commercialization methods for key vegetable species. The study concluded that the legitimization of urban and peri-urban agriculture in Natal-RN is flawed, not only concerning municipal legislation but also regarding the guarantee of support and technical assistance for agricultural activities.