Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
3275 results(32 / 131)
Social Metabolism in Buruan SAE: Individual Rift Perspective on Urban Farming Model for Food Independence in Bandung, Indonesia
2023Purnomo D., Sitepu G.L., Nugraha Y.R., Rosiyan M.B.P. · Sustainability · Indonesia (Bandung)
Using a social metabolism framework derived from individual variables, this paper analyses urban farming activities in Bandung's Buruan SAE programme and finds that implementation paradoxically stifled agricultural development, with most groups unable to sustain activities beyond two years. The study reveals how top-down policy formulation undermines the emergence of independent urban farmers.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsA scoping study of urban community gardening promoted by the Philippine National Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture Banner Program (NUPAP)
2023Bayot R.S., Schreinemachers P., Mwambi M., Dominguez D.D., Oro E.M., Gonsalves J.F. · World Vegetable Center (CGIAR) · Philippines (Metro Manila)
This scoping study evaluated urban community gardening sites under the Philippines' National Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture Banner Program (NUPAP) across Metro Manila, covering 26 sites in 7 cities. Findings showed the program lacked targeted support for vulnerable populations despite coordinating numerous urban farming initiatives.
CommunityPolicyFood educationHealth"It's Not Only Our Task": Administrative Barriers of Enabling Urban Gardening in Tampere, Finland
2023Willman K. · ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies, Vol. 22, No. 2 · Finland (Tampere)
Through discourse analysis of interviews with eight Tampere city officials, this study reveals how bureaucratic caution and institutional ambiguity create a constrained operational space for community gardening, despite political-level support for its expansion.
CommunityPolicyDrivers of Innovative Urban and Peri-Urban Agriculture in Bamenda City, Cameroon
2023Ngetleh N., Bime-Egwu M., Tambi M. · Agricultural Sciences · Cameroon (Bamenda)
This study identifies the socioeconomic and institutional drivers behind innovative urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) adoption in Bamenda City, Cameroon, demonstrating that UPA is a critical livelihood strategy for the urban poor amid rapid urbanization. The findings inform policy recommendations to support sustainable urban food production.
EconomicsCommunityPolicyFood educationPlanning the foodshed: Rural and peri‐urban factors in local food strategies of major cities in Canada and the United States
2023Kerstin Schreiber, Klara J. Winkler, Killian Abellon, Graham K. MacDonald · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · United States
This study analyzes 25 local food strategy and action-plan documents from 22 major US and Canadian cities (over 300,000 residents) to assess how cities plan for peri-urban and rural food production. It finds that topics such as farmland access and quality, farm viability, agricultural training, processing infrastructure, and the needs of marginalized groups (including BIPOC) are often overlooked, and that fewer than half of cities defined how progress would be measured.
PolicyEconomicsCommunity‐Engaged Assessment of Soil Lead Contamination in Atlanta Urban Growing Spaces
2023Samuel J. W. Peters, Sydney M. Warner, Eri Saikawa, P. Barry Ryan, Parinya Panuwet, Dana B. Barr, Priya E. D'Souza, Gil Frank, Rosario Hernandez, Taranji Alvarado, Arthur Hines, Chris Theal · GeoHealth · United States (Atlanta)
Using community-engaged research, researchers and community gardeners co-designed a study measuring soil lead concentrations via XRF and ICP-MS at 19 urban agricultural and residential sites in west Atlanta and three rural Georgia sites. Most sites were below the EPA residential screening levels but above the University of Georgia's low-risk agricultural levels, and some sites containing metal-refining waste or slag reached three times the EPA level. The findings led local and federal agencies to initiate cleanup of the slag residue.
CommunityHealthPolicyDigging in: Toward a more just urban garden land policy
2023Hannah Ramer, Kristen Nelson · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development · United States (Minneapolis)
Using a contextualized case comparison of the City of Minneapolis and the independently elected Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, this study examines how urban garden land policies granting access to publicly owned land can either reduce or exacerbate racial inequities. It argues that seemingly minor policy details systematically shape who benefits, and that the Park Board went substantially further on racial equity—aided by more intensive public participation in developing the policy details.
PolicyCommunityLand tenure security and luxury support plant species and trait diversity in urban community gardens
2023Stacy M. Philpott, Peter Bichier, Genesis Perez, Shalene Jha, Heidi Liere, Brenda B. Lin · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · United States (California)
This study examined how garden physical features, garden "luxury," and land-tenure security influence plant species richness, functional diversity, and composition in community gardens on the California central coast. It found that land-tenure-secure gardens had higher plant and crop richness, while luxury-associated variables raised ornamental richness and flower abundance but lowered crop richness.
CommunityBiodiversityPolicyCollaborative survival in the city: Envisioning alternative urban futures through Black agrarian praxis
2023Justine Lindemann · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · United States (Cleveland)
This article explores the potential for "collaborative survival" in deindustrialized urban spaces, arguing that abundant so-called vacant parcels offer a pathway toward more self-determined food systems. Using the work of Black gardeners and farmers in Cleveland, Ohio as a case, it frames urban food production as a praxis of liberation that contests structural racism and reimagines alternative urban futures.
CommunityPolicyUrban vegetable production in Beijing, China
2023· Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · China (Beijing)
Examines the state and challenges of urban vegetable production in Beijing, China.
EconomicsPolicyAssessing the Foodshed and Food Self-Sufficiency of the Pearl River Delta Megacity Region in China
2023· Foods · China (Pearl River Delta)
Quantifies the foodshed and food self-sufficiency of the Pearl River Delta megacity region using land footprints, finding regional and urban self-sufficiency is not achievable.
PolicyEconomicsGoverning for food security during the COVID-19 pandemic in Wuhan and Nanjing, China
2023Chang Y., Si Z., Crush J., Scott S., Zhong T. · Urban Governance · China (Wuhan, Nanjing)
Examines central, provincial, and municipal government responses to ensuring stable urban food supply during zero-COVID measures in Wuhan and Nanjing, China.
PolicyWelfareClassification of Urban Agricultural Functional Regions and Their Carbon Effects at the County Level in the Pearl River Delta, China
2023· Agriculture · China (Pearl River Delta)
A study classifying urban agricultural functional regions at the county level in the Pearl River Delta, China, and analyzing their carbon effects from 2002 to 2020.
PolicyEconomicsUrban agriculture as nature-based solutions: Three key strategies to tackle emerging issues on food security in Chinese cities under climatic and non-climatic challenges
2023· Frontiers of Engineering Management · China
A paper framing urban agriculture as nature-based solutions and proposing three key strategies to address food security in Chinese cities under climatic and non-climatic challenges.
PolicyBiodiversityAdapting to urban gardening in China: how will policymaking help migrant and native gardeners?
2023· Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · China
A study discussing how policymaking can support both migrant and native gardeners engaged in urban gardening in China.
PolicyCommunityThe Promoting Effect of Mass Media on Participatory Landscape Revitalization—An Analysis from Newspaper Coverages of Participatory Urban Gardening in China
2023· Land · China
Analyzes newspaper coverage of participatory urban gardening in China to examine how mass media promotes participatory landscape revitalization.
CommunityPolicyCommunity-supported agriculture as food democratic experimentalism: Insights from Germany
2023· Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Germany
Analyzes Community-Supported Agriculture (Solidarische Landwirtschaft) in Germany as a form of food-democratic experimentalism, in which producers and consumers share the costs, risks and governance of production.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsHolistic wild bee management in urban spaces
2023· Frontiers in Sustainable Cities · Germany (Freising)
Developed a holistic assessment of bee and flowering-plant diversity in the medium-sized city of Freising using citizen science, identifying 22 bee-diversity hotspots and evaluating planted flower patches as stepping stones for oligolectic bees.
PollinatorsBiodiversityPolicyA large share of Berlin's vegetable consumption can be produced within the city
2023De Simone M., Pradhan P., Kropp J. P., Rybski D. · Sustainable Cities and Society · Germany (Berlin)
Evaluates five urban space types (residential areas, allotments, rooftops, supermarket parking lots, cemeteries) and estimates the potential to produce a large share of Berlin's vegetable consumption locally.
EconomicsCommunityPolicyAgrotourism and fast urbanisation: The double pressure of development on peri‐urban agriculture in Hôi An, a small city of central Vietnam
2023Pham · Asia Pacific Viewpoint · Vietnam (Hôi An)
Case study of peri-urban agriculture in Hôi An, Vietnam, analyzing how agrotourism development and rapid urbanisation jointly pressure farming.
EconomicsPolicyCommunityRight to the city or environmental gentrification? A discussion about risks and potential of urban agriculture
2023· Urban Geography · Global
A critical discussion arguing that urban agriculture can drive environmental gentrification: by boosting neighborhood attractiveness through greening it may attract affluent newcomers and contribute to the displacement of lower-income residents and people of color.
CommunityPolicyInvestigating local policy instruments for different types of urban agriculture in four European cities: A case study analysis on the use and effectiveness of the applied policy instruments
2023Marini M., Caro D., Thomsen M. · Land Use Policy · Europe (Barcelona, Lyon, Trieste, Udine)
Reviews 83+ policy documents and surveys local managers in four EU cities. Finds land-use frameworks fail to prioritise urban agriculture, that only allotment gardens are meaningfully supported, and that local policies are formulated ad hoc outside any comprehensive UA framework, weakening effectiveness.
PolicyEconomicsMeasuring the Effectiveness of Food Policy Councils in Major Cities in the United States
2023Range Camille, O'Hara Sabine, Jeffery Tia, Toussaint Etienne C. · Foods · USA
Assesses effectiveness of food policy councils in major US cities, highlighting how unstable funding and weak institutional support undercut their ability to influence policy. Concludes that many councils underperform relative to their mandate due to resource and capacity constraints.
PolicyGovernance tools for urban food system policy innovations in the Milano Urban Food Policy Pact
2023Polman Daniel, Bazzan Giulia · European Urban and Regional Studies · Europe (26 cities)
Uses fuzzy-set QCA across 26 European Milan Pact cities. Finds that the absence of governance practices—initiative mapping, integrated food strategies, and monitoring/evaluation—prevents most cities from becoming policy-innovative, so many signatories deliver only limited food-policy innovation.
PolicyGreen gentrification and changing planning policies in Vienna?
2023· City · Austria (Vienna)
Examines how greening-oriented planning policy shifts in Vienna interact with gentrification pressures, analyzing whether municipal planning instruments mitigate or inadvertently enable green gentrification in a social-democratic housing context.
PolicyWelfare