Research & reports

Rosângela Aparecida de Medeiros Hespanhol, Antônio Nivaldo Hespanhol · Revista Campo-Território · Cuba

In Cuba, political and economic factors have made urban cultivation an important alternative for easing food supply and food security problems. Examining cases of organopónicos (organic urban farms) in the cities of Camagüey and Cienfuegos, the article shows that urban agriculture, structured on agroecological principles, is an important food-producing and job-generating activity that is closely integrated with the city's economy, ecology, and physical planning.

Suzanne Stapleton · Journal of Agricultural & Food Information · Global

An article introduces the "4/5 paradox" in global food production: 80% of food is produced by family farmers, while at the same time 80% of the world's hungry and malnourished people are family farmers and their children. It concerns Urgenci, the international network of Community Supported Agriculture, though the available abstract is truncated and gives no further detail.

Jeltsje de Kraker, Katarzyna Kujawa-Roeleveld, Marcelo Villena, C.P. Pabon Pereira · Sustainability · Global

A case study of Peñalolén, Santiago, Chile, examining the potential for decentralized recovery of nutrient-rich residual urban waste flows — organic matter, nitrogen and phosphorus — using technical and socio-economic criteria. Kitchen waste, garden residues and urine were treated as system inputs, with urban agriculture, municipal green space and peri-urban agriculture as destinations for recovered nutrients; the technologies studied were anaerobic digestion, vermicomposting, composting, and urine storage with struvite precipitation. Material flow analysis compared the inputs and outputs of the traditional centralized waste management system against household- and municipality-level decentralized valorization scenarios. The findings show that decentralized valorization of kitchen and garden waste reduces landfill fees and waste-transport costs compared with the current centralized system.

Ioannis Manikas, George Malindretos, Konstadinos Abeliotis · Journal of International Food & Agribusiness Marketing · Global

An essay that states urban food production is exposed to high levels of urban-generated contaminants, and argues that urban floriculture - an intensive form of agriculture with income per unit area far higher than other agricultural branches - can offer a more sustainable and socially acceptable alternative to urban food production. It states floriculture may also reduce the carbon footprint of cut-flower transport and provide higher-quality seasonal product, and examines urban floriculture as an approach for mitigating the negative impacts of global floriculture supply chains.

Lucy Rose Wright, Ross Fraser Young · Manchester University Press eBooks · Global

A chapter introducing the concept of political gardening. It begins by situating the re-evaluation of "everyday space" within neoliberal processes of privatization, devolution and entrepreneurialism, then connects the rise of academic interest in urban gardening with the movement's political dimension. Drawing on Rawls' theory of social justice, it conflates political gardening with injustice, uses case studies to unpack that process of addressing injustice across six iterative stages, and arrives at a definition of political gardening as both a term and a process through which participants become "democratized" citizens.

Hans Schildermans, Joke Vandenabeele, Joris Vlieghe · Teoría de la Educación Revista Interuniversitaria · Global

This theoretical article proposes "study practices" as a response to Bruno Latour's question of "where to land" amid socio-ecological transformation. It analyzes the urban farming initiative Torekes as a study practice, identifying educational dynamics of composition, problematization, and attention, and contrasts this reading with sociological and political analyses that frame the initiative as aimed at social cohesion or political subjectification. The piece is a conceptual/theoretical discussion rather than an empirical study, arguing that study practices, by enabling the creation of a common world, may offer a way of living together on a damaged planet.

Michael Martin, Elvira Molin · Sustainability · Sweden

This study assessed the environmental impacts of urban vertical hydroponic farming through a life-cycle perspective, applied to a case-study vertical hydroponic farm in Stockholm, Sweden, comparing current performance with potential improvement scenarios. Results showed that growing medium, pots, electricity demand, and transportation of raw materials and product deliveries were the important contributors to environmental impact in this system. Replacing plastic pots with paper pots was found capable of producing large reductions in GHG emissions, acidification impacts, and abiotic resource depletion, and replacing conventional gardening soil with coir as the growing medium also led to large impact reductions. However, the study states that further reducing the system's impacts will require more resource-efficient steps specifically to address impacts from electricity demand, an issue not resolved by the pot and growing-medium substitutions, and identifies potential for more symbiotic exchanges using urban wastes and by-products.

Magdalena Grochulska-Salak · Practice, progress, and proficiency in sustainability · Global

This book chapter, a conceptual rather than empirical piece, defines urban farming as building development for producing plants to meet local community needs and discusses shaping urban farms to preserve the environmental balance of urban spaces alongside the coexistence of architecture and greenery. It argues that technologies such as hydroponic and aeroponic production integrated into buildings can complement a city's functional and spatial structure in connection with public spaces and green systems, positioning the urban farm as an element of sustainable urban development.

Ana Nadal, Daniel Rodríguez-Cadena, Oriol Pons, Eva Cuerva, Alejandro Josa, Joan Rieradevall · Urban forestry & urban greening · Global

This study assessed the feasibility of implementing rooftop greenhouses (RTGs) in the social housing neighborhood "La Comuna Santa Clara de San Millán" in Quito, Ecuador. Standard assessment methods were adapted for a social neighborhood in three steps: characterization based on criteria, determination of available roof surface, and estimation of production, self-sufficiency, and self-supply. The results showed that 33.2% (7.70 ha) of the neighborhood's rooftops had short-term feasibility for installing rooftop greenhouses, with the potential to produce 1,579,140 kg of tomatoes and 56,720 kg of lettuce per year.

Alana Mann · · Global

This book chapter surveys urban planning initiatives from across the world that engage multiple stakeholders in co-creating diverse "foodscapes" to address food sovereignty, food justice, and food security, examining them as both political and strategic acts. Some of the examples draw on notions of the informal city, while others engage struggles for land justice that cross rural/urban boundaries. The survey of international food-policy instruments and practices is not exhaustive; the chapter's aim is instead to surface the tensions, contestations, and possible bridges involved in transforming urban food environments through voice, participation, and re-learning the city.

Vanessa Daufenback, L. A. Z. Machado, Cláudia Maria Bógus · Revista Ingesta · Global

A systematic review using the Scielo database to examine the relationship between urban agriculture (UA) and food and nutrition security (SAN) in Latin America. A search for "agricultura urbana" returned 156 articles; screening by title and keywords narrowed this to 32, and excluding non-Latin-American studies left 26 articles connecting UA and SAN to some degree. Only 5 of these made a direct link between SAN and UA; the rest addressed only some dimension of the concept, and the review found no concrete, agreed definition of UA across the literature. Few studies treated the urban farmer or production scale as central to promoting SAN, despite UA's role in food-sovereignty practices such as seed exchange and preserving planting traditions. Most of the reviewed studies pointed to significant problems, including contamination of crops by heavy metals, difficulty achieving environmental, social and economic sustainability — particularly for farmers who end up working in other sectors — and a lack of technical assistance.

JTC Corporation · JTC Corporation · Singapore

Published by JTC on 27 Feb 2019, this article describes urban farming company Comcrop, whose founder Allan Lim started his first community farm in Bukit Panjang in 2011, later ran a rooftop farm at *SCAPE, and then built a 36,000-square-foot facility with six greenhouses at a JTC site in Woodlands. The Woodlands farm grows leafy vegetables such as pak choy, lettuce and mizuna at high output; CEO Peter Barber states the first greenhouse alone can produce 40 to 50kg a day. Barber envisions placing farms in every neighbourhood in Singapore to employ locals and supply supermarkets, while Lim stresses the need to build agricultural research capability in Singapore.

Luisa María Alviar Gómez · Semana · Colombia

An article on Agroarte, a Medellín Comuna 13 collective combining art, hip hop, memory and agriculture, founded in 2011 by seven women heads of household as a form of resistance following the violence of Operación Orión (2002). The group once grew 70% of the food for seven families on a 1.5-hectare farm before being displaced by conflict in 2012. It now works around three themes — social fabric, intergenerational exchange, and reclaiming territory — has produced over 300 songs, and has staged its 'Cuerpos Gramaticales' performance 16 times in Colombia and twice in Spain (Barcelona and Guernica).

Martina Artmann, Katharina Sartison · Sustainability · Global

A systemic literature review of 166 academic articles focusing on the Global North examined urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) as a nature-based solution. The review found that UPA contributes to ten key societal challenges of urbanization, including climate change, food security, and public health, by providing social, economic, and environmental co-benefits. The study developed an integrative assessment framework for evaluating UPA implementation and impact efficiency, which should be tested using edible cities as an example.

Nicholas Clinton, Michelle Stuhlmacher, Albie Miles, Nazli Uludere Aragon, Melissa Wagner, Matei Georgescu, Chris Herwig, Peng Gong · Earth s Future · Global

This study developed a quantitative framework to assess global aggregate ecosystem services from urban agriculture (UA) using global datasets in Google Earth Engine. Existing urban vegetation provides an estimated $33 billion annually in ecosystem services. An intensive UA adoption scenario projects potential annual food production of 100–180 million tonnes, energy savings of 14–15 billion kilowatt hours, nitrogen sequestration of 100,000–170,000 tonnes, and avoided storm water runoff of 45–57 billion cubic meters. Under this intensive scenario, the value of ecosystem services could reach $80–160 billion annually, with significant country-to-country variability.

Jonathan Stoltz, Christina Schäffer · Frontiers in Psychology · Global

This paper explores the salutogenic potential of urban green spaces, proposing edible forest gardens as a concept for urban green space use and management. It argues that including edible forest gardens in urban green spaces (today globally dominated by lawns) could reinforce several affordances of salutogenic importance, such as social cohesion and restoration from psycho-physiological stress and attention fatigue. Increased opportunities for contact with nature and food production processes may also reinforce pro-environmental behaviors in the population.

Michelle Tendai. Chihambakwe, Paramu Mafongoya, Obert Jiri · Challenges · Zimbabwe

This review maps the use of food sovereignty principles in urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) in Zimbabwe, addressing its potential for food security. Despite UPA being ingrained in urban households' livelihoods, institutional arrangements governing the practice remain ambivalent. The review underscores that the failure to involve all stakeholders undermines UPA, leading to heightened food insecurity and unsustainable practices.

Rachel Carey, Sarah James · · Australia (Sydney, Melbourne)

This chapter examines peri-urban agriculture in Australia, focusing on case studies in Sydney and Melbourne. It explores the pressures on peri-urban fringes, noting that while food needs are increasing due to population growth, the capacity of these areas to meet them is decreasing due to urban sprawl. The research highlights policy and planning options to protect these regions, emphasizing their potential contribution to urban sustainability and resilience amidst climate change and water scarcity.

Joana Castellar, Carlos Alberto Arias, Pedro N. Carvalho, Martina Rysulová, Joan Canals, Gabriel Pérez, Montserrat Bosch González, Jordi Farreras Morató · Desalination and Water Treatment · Global

The WETWALL design concept proposes a unique ecotechnology for secondary wastewater treatment at an urban scale, integrating constructed wetlands and modular living walls into a modular living wall hybrid flow. This article reviews existing living walls treating wastewater, focusing on nitrate and phosphate removal, and presents the WETWALL concept, including component selection (plants, substrate) and operational strategies. It also discusses potential interactions with the urban environment, aiming to substantiate WETWALL's potential as an innovative urban wastewater treatment.

Sue Booth, John Coveney, Dominique Paturel · Policy Press eBooks · Global

This chapter examines the concept of food crime within the global industrialized food system and explores citizen resistance, termed 'counter crimes,' which use food for public statements. Counter crimes encompass both oppositional activities, focusing on the current food system, and constructivist activities, which foster new food systems like farmer's markets and community gardens. These democratically-driven actions form a participatory movement, known as food democracy, enabling citizens to exert control over their food system.

Neslihan Demircan · ATLAS JOURNAL · Global

This workshop evaluated the impact of urbanization and population growth on urban agriculture. Amid challenges to food security and hygienic maintenance due to decreasing urban agricultural lands, global urban allotment models and research on their benefits to local ecosystems and the negative aspects of climate shifts were revealed.

Khadija Benis, Rukaia Gashgari, Adnan Alsaati, Christoph Reinhart · DSpace@MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) · Saudi Arabia (Riyadh)

The Urban Foodprints (UF) methodology was applied to assess the environmental sustainability of high-yield urban agriculture in Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, focusing on tomatoes. While urban production in high-yield greenhouses could reduce Global Warming Potential by 9% and water savings were significant, the energy needs of these greenhouses were considerably higher than the baseline. This indicates a trade-off where environmental benefits are partially offset by increased energy consumption.

Percy Toriro · · Zimbabwe (Harare)

This chapter explores the governance of urban food production in Harare, Zimbabwe, from 1890 to the present. Evidence indicates that while the practice has gained general acceptance through shifting positions over the years, the status of producers remains uncertain. This uncertainty stems from the lack of full incorporation of urban food production into city plans by planning officials, whose values are out of sync with Harare's lived reality.

Pushpawani Ramaloo, Chamhuri Siwar, Choong-Yeun Liong, Anizan Isahak · PLANNING MALAYSIA · Malaysia (Penang)

This study investigated the prospects of urban agriculture (UA) development in Penang state, Malaysia, from experts' perspectives using a SWOT analysis. Fifty-seven stakeholders were interviewed to identify and prioritize strategies for UA development. Strategic plans were prioritized across aspects such as legal framework, financial, infrastructure, land, water, environment and health, social, marketing, and research and development.

Rani Prihatmanti, Nooriati Taib · Arab world geographer · Global

This paper reviews the potential of biofaçades as Vertical Greenery Systems for urban food security, optimizing them as 'Vertical Edible Landscapes' on high-rise buildings. The review identifies key factors for growing edible plants on high-rises, including plant type, climatic conditions, maintenance, and pest control. Findings suggest edible biofaçades could increase vegetable consumption, lower transport emissions, minimize pesticide use, and reduce local produce expenditures.