Research & reports

Isabelle van der Zanden, Gelieke G.T. Steeghs, Lieke Moereels, G. F. Veen · Agroforestry Systems · Global

This study examined litter decomposition dynamics in food forests, perennial multi-layered food production systems gaining popularity as alternatives to intensive, input-dependent agriculture that rely on nutrient recycling via litter decomposition. Litter from Alnus glutinosa (black alder), Corylus avellana (common hazel), and Castanea sativa (sweet chestnut), ranging from high to low litter quality, was decomposed in food forests planted on former grasslands and compared with neighboring grasslands. Litter bags of varying mesh size were used to assess the relative contribution of microbes and micro-, meso-, and macrofauna to short-term litter mass loss, and abundance and biomass of key decomposer groups were quantified. Decomposer communities differed between land use types: food forests harbored a higher abundance of oribatid mites but a lower abundance and biomass of earthworms and lower arbuscular mycorrhizal fungi biomass than grasslands. Overall litter mass loss differed little between the systems, except that high-quality litter accessible to the full decomposer community lost more mass in grasslands. The lowest-quality litter (sweet chestnut) decomposed slowest, with its rate unaffected by mesh size or land use. High-quality leaf litter generally decomposed faster in grasslands than in food forests, and the distinct decomposer communities in young food forests did not favor breakdown of recalcitrant litter.

Andreas Wesener, Matt Morris · · Global

This chapter examines urban gardening in Christchurch, New Zealand, since the 2010 and 2011 Canterbury earthquakes through the lens of resilience — disaster resilience, community resilience, food resilience, and the broader notion of urban resilience. After discussing post-earthquake urban gardening projects in Christchurch, it shows that notions of food resilience are contextually interwoven with the region's earthquake disaster history. It finds, however, that recent initiatives show discussions of food resilience have broadened to become inclusive of a range of environmental, socio-economic, and cultural challenges, with Christchurch's urban gardens becoming part of a wider resilience narrative responding to more diverse crisis scenarios. The chapter argues that this broadening of discussion and focus creates new opportunities — including new funding avenues, research, and strategic investment — for urban gardening.

Lucía Caisso, Marina Eliana Espoturno, Ana Guadalupe Montenegro · CONICET Digital (CONICET) · Argentina

In rural primary schools of west-central Santa Fe province, Argentina, an anthropological study examined the relationship between education and environment. It reconstructs the social, productive and environmental context shaped by intensive agribusiness (agronegocio) and analyzes how this context affects school gardens, an activity rural teachers frame as part of Environmental Education. The analysis reveals tensions between the pedagogical mandate to develop school gardens, their reframing as Environmental Education, and the socio-environmental problems present in these settings, aiming to identify the limits and potentials of this pedagogical work around environmental issues.

Medardo Wilfredo Blanco Villacorta, Marcelo Tarqui Delgado, Gladys Jhovanna Challco Challco · Sapiens Studies Journal · Bolivia

This study evaluates the sustainability of urban agriculture in the Municipality of El Alto, Bolivia, in the context of urban poverty among migrants marked by limited access to housing, basic services, education, health and employment, and low income, alongside an observed rise in nutritional food insecurity. Using a mixed qualitative and quantitative approach, the research found that the activity is led mainly by women aged 26 to 65 (average age 46) in households averaging five members, who typically have secondary education or less, limiting job opportunities and leading them to combine domestic work with urban production for income. Immigration has driven the expansion of urban agriculture by drawing on prior knowledge; many families have more than 10 years of experience and manage gardens of 3 to 50 m2, using solar tents and agroecological methods, with most having access to drinking water and some collecting rainwater, and sales taking place at local fairs generating additional income. However, sustainability indices show that these production systems have very low or unsustainable levels across their economic, environmental and social dimensions, indicating a need for strategies to strengthen their long-term viability.

Elaine Moore, Faisal Mahmood · Counselling and Psychotherapy Research · Global

This qualitative study explores therapists' experiences of the therapeutic relationship when therapy is conducted in natural public spaces such as parks, footpaths and community gardens. Six therapists took part in one-to-one semi-structured interviews analyzed thematically. Therapists described a more equalized relationship, with both therapist and client exposed to the unpredictability of the environment, creating a dynamic interplay in which collaboration to overcome unexpected situations produced a natural vulnerability; relational depth became more apparent, and therapists were perceived as fallible outdoors as opposed to infallible indoors. Despite potential risks, the unboundaried natural environment offered a relational therapeutic depth and intimacy carrying an embedded equality that participants experienced as enriching and transformative. The findings suggest nature-based therapy enhances and equalizes the therapeutic relationship while supporting the well-being of both therapist and client, and the study recommends embedding outdoor therapy interventions within blended approaches to talking therapies and integrating nature-based practices into core counselling and psychotherapy training programs.

Robert C. Brears · Cambridge University Press eBooks · Global

This book chapter outlines best practices and strategies for cities transitioning toward becoming circular and liveable. It covers applying circular economy principles across urban sectors including waste management, energy efficiency, transportation and urban agriculture, using a 5R approach — reduce, reuse, recycle, restore and recover. It presents strategies such as energy-efficient financing for building retrofits, grant programmes for water reuse, and e-waste collection and disposal systems, and discusses public participation and stakeholder collaboration through a Quadruple Helix model involving academia, industry, government and civil society. Case studies from Amsterdam, Paris and Copenhagen illustrate circular business models and governance frameworks, and the chapter sets out a roadmap centered on education, policy innovation and community engagement.

Bethaney Turner · · Australia

Drawing on ethnographic fieldwork in community gardens in Canberra, Australia, this chapter examines how community gardens support future-focused, more-than-human heritage making, preservation and transmission. It shows that everyday, food-based informal economies of participation are capable of nourishing soil, gardeners' well-being, and broader human and non-human communities, and it proposes a concept termed ecological belonging that attunes gardeners to multispecies relations extending beyond the temporal and spatial boundaries of contemporary gardening sites.

Bharti Gautam, Neha Negi, J. Mohan, Babita Bharti, Amit Kumar, Ridhima Arya · International Journal of Advanced Biochemistry Research · Global

A review paper surveying sustainable urban agriculture and gardening practices against a backdrop of rapid urbanization linked to climate change, biodiversity loss, and environmental degradation. It covers composting, rainwater harvesting, rooftop gardening, hydroponics, aquaponics, and vertical farming, and discusses the role of integrated pest management, smart irrigation systems, and urban agroforestry. The review states that integrating nature-based solutions — urban farms, vertical gardens, and green roofs — into the urban landscape can lessen environmental problems such as poor air quality, flooding, and the urban heat island effect, and that urban horticulture plays an important role in food security, biodiversity, and environmental sustainability.

Bal Krishna Joshi · Genetics Plant Breeding and Seed Science · Global

A paper documenting good practices for food systems transformation using a ROSE (review, observation, survey, and experience) approach, framing the food system as encompassing six key components: crops, livestock, agro-insects, agro-microbes, forages, and aquatic agricultural genetic resources (AGRs). It notes that efforts to increase yield have relied on developing and expanding mono genotypes — single uniform genotypes across large areas — of a few crops such as rice, wheat, and maize with chemical inputs, but that as agriculture has advanced, many localized AGR-based food systems and farmers' rights have been neglected. Promoting and maximizing genetic diversity and localized food systems is described as crucial for food, nutrition, health, business, and environmental security. Effective food systems are characterized by site-specific staple foods, diverse genotypes, product diversification, incentives, circular and inclusive agriculture, waste reuse and recycling, and urban agriculture. The paper suggests that respecting every aspect of farmers' contributions — treating a farmer's household as a "shop" — would be a beneficial strategy.

Christopher Tate, Shariq Mumtaz Hashmi, Niamh O’Kane, Ruth F. Hunter · Cities · Global

This systematic review searched four bibliographic databases and identified eleven studies on horticultural therapy (HT) interventions drawing on urban agriculture practices for people with pre-existing diagnoses of depression, anxiety, or acute stress disorder. Six studies reported improvements in depressive symptoms, three found HT mitigated stress, and two reported a positive influence on anxiety, but more than two-thirds of the included studies carried moderate (n=6) or high (n=2) risk of bias with substantial methodological heterogeneity, and the small number of studies limits the generalisability of the findings; the review concludes that further research is needed to establish a robust causal link between HT interventions and improved mental health outcomes in this population.

Filip Schilla, Gaga Mumladze, Jana Soukupová, Ľuboš Smutka · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Global

This study simulated basement and ground-level room conditions — temperature, humidity, light exposure, and air quality — for cultivating Agaricus bisporus (white button mushrooms) as a form of urban agriculture, and calculated the associated costs and profits to compare feasibility between the two environments. The basement environment proved more favorable, with more stable temperatures and higher humidity reducing energy requirements, and economic analysis showed basement cultivation had lower initial and operational costs than ground-level cultivation.

Mysha Clarke · EDIS · Global

This extension publication outlines the potential benefits of urban gardens for nearby neighborhoods, the broader urban community, peripheral communities, and visitors to a city, aimed at urban planners, residents, and community members planning new gardens or maintaining existing ones. It presents guidance rather than original study data or measured outcomes.

Puteri Sidrotul Nabihah Saarani, Asniza Hamimi Abdul Tharim, Zulkefle Ayob, Asmalia Che Ahmad, Osman Mohd Tahir · Journal of Construction in Developing Countries · Malaysia

Using a triangulation method combining a Delphi survey with a case study, researchers identified life-cycle cost (LCC) components and phases for smart urban farming (SUF) practices in Malaysia. Iterative semi-structured interviews and Delphi rounds built expert consensus on which SUF practices matter for LCC assessment, producing a structured framework for classifying these cost components.

Elizabeth Opiyo Onyango, Destiny Otoadese, Keji Mori, Nkechinyere Chinedu-Asogwa, Joyce Kiplagat, Binita Jirel · Health & Place · Global

A scoping review of existing literature examined how community gardens are used to address cultural food insecurity among immigrant and refugee communities and the neighborhood transformations that accompany them. It identified physical, social, cultural, environmental, and policy-level changes and benefits spanning nutrition, physical activity, psychological healing, and social connection, but found a lack of comprehensive evidence specifically on Canada regarding how neighborhoods are changing to meet these communities' cultural food needs.

Grace O’Connor, Kimberley Reis, Georgette Leah Burns, Cheryl Desha, Ingrid Burkett · Journal of Rural Studies · Australia

Researchers investigated the lived experiences of 24 small-scale farmers across 16 ecologically sustainable farms in South-East Queensland and the Northern Rivers region of New South Wales, Australia, examining how their experiences shaped participation in societal transitions to sustainable food systems and contributions to social-ecological resilience. Participants' narratives largely aligned with the "new peasantry" movement, and the paper uses a lens of collective autonomy to discuss how shared responsibility between individuals, communities, organizations, and governments could be reperceived through collective paradigm shifts, community-supported agriculture, and universal basic income.

Ioana | https://orcid.org/0000-0003-4755-779X Florea · OAPEN (The OAPEN Foundation) · Global

This entry is a chapter, "The Political Ecology of Collective Urban Gardening," within the New Routledge Handbook of Political Ecology, but the abstract provided describes only the handbook's overall structure and editorial approach -- 52 chapters across three parts on decolonizing political ecology, activism and praxis, and the making of twenty-first-century natures -- rather than this chapter's specific subject, methods, or findings on urban gardening.

Wen‐Pei Sung, Ming-Cheng Liao, Hsian-Ling Peng, Chung-Tien Huang, Yun-Jung Chuang, J Wang · Sustainability · Global

Against a backdrop of intensifying urban heat island effects and residents' mental health problems amid urbanization, this study examined the impact of an Urban Food Forest Program on urban environmental comfort, heat island mitigation, and the mental health of middle-aged and elderly residents. Using on-site field measurements and questionnaire surveys, it analyzed the environmental comfort of green spaces in urban heat island hotspots and assessed participants' mental health. The Urban Food Forest Program significantly reduced surrounding environmental temperature, with an average cooling effect of 2.4°C particularly in soil areas, and reduced heat island intensity in the surrounding area by 15%. In the mental health survey, male participants scored significantly higher than female participants (p = 0.017), and middle-aged and elderly participants who took part more than five times per week scored 17% higher, significantly better, than low-frequency participants. The study notes that its relatively small sample size and limited observation period may affect the generalizability of its findings, and that it focused on one specific urban area that may not represent the broader urban context.

Lori G. Beaman, Ryan T. Cragun, Douglas Ezzy · · Global

This concluding book chapter, drawing on interviews with community gardeners, reviews the themes of equality and substantiality in what community gardeners can tell us about nonreligion. It argues that community gardeners have a deep awareness of their entanglement with other terrestrial beings — humans, animals, insects, and plants — leading them into a distinct form of ethical engagement driven primarily by relationships and practices rather than by intellectual commitment to abstract norms (though these can sometimes be significant, citing Ezzy 2004). Nonreligion is characterized as being less about the absence of religion and more about substantive content — commitments, practices, and relationships — and the chapter argues that the concept of "lifestances" is the best way to conceptualize this substantive content, and that the religion/nonreligion binary must be transcended to understand humans as entangled in a network of terrestrial relationships.

Stefan Galley, Rita Saleh, Patrick Bottazzi · Cleaner and Responsible Consumption · Global

This between-subjects online experiment examined how information about the benefits of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shapes non-members' perception of those benefits, their perceived relevance, and willingness to join, alongside trust, subjective knowledge, sustainable food shopping behavior, political orientation, and sociodemographics. 754 respondents were randomly assigned to six groups: five each exposed to information on one benefit (nutritional, sustainability, solidarity, transparency, or community), plus a control group. Regardless of the information given, farmers were perceived to benefit most from CSA, followed by society, then the individual; participants themselves ranked individual benefits and environmental sustainability as most important, followed by solidarity with farmers, transparency, and community. Higher perceived overall CSA benefit was associated with higher willingness to join. Information on solidarity, nutrition, and community was most effective for young, educated, and often female respondents, while nutrition-focused information reached environmentally conscious, conservative consumers; information on nutrition and environmental sustainability produced the highest willingness to join overall.

B Sreejith, B Maneesh · South Asian Journal of Agricultural Sciences · Global

Set against challenges to social equity, ecological balance, and global food availability from population growth and rapid urbanization, this review paper surveys existing literature linking urban agriculture to multiple Sustainable Development Goals — including poverty eradication, ending hunger, health and well-being, gender equality, economic growth and employment, inclusive urban development, sustainable consumption and production, climate action, land ecosystems, and global partnerships — and discusses policy implications for India. It compiles prior findings associating urban agriculture with locally grown food supply, resource optimization and emissions reduction through urban forestry, rooftop gardens and vertical farming, reduced food miles, and education, skill-building and community participation opportunities including for women and youth. The paper presents no original empirical data of its own.

Sarah Steinegger, Nora Katharina Faltmann · Journal of Political Ecology · Global

A qualitative study of a Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiative in Switzerland that links a rural mountain area with urban consumers (Journal of Political Ecology, 2025) examined institutional, organizational, cognitive, social, and experiential proximity between consumers and farmers despite geographical distance. The study found that consumers and farmers faced challenges in establishing proximity, but that shared experiences from farming activities and social events, along with participants' willingness to improve CSA operations and strengthen ties, contributed to an ongoing process of building proximity.

Aparadh Vt, V. Bhagyashree, Ms. Suman P. Meghwal, Ms. Safiya M. Raeen · Zenodo (CERN European Organization for Nuclear Research) · Global

This review outlines hydroponics — soilless cultivation that feeds plant roots directly with nutrient-supplemented water, often using inert media such as perlite or coco coir. It states hydroponic systems use about 90% less water than conventional agriculture and describes applications for home and commercial urban growing in areas with limited arable land, as well as potential future use in inhospitable environments such as Mars or the Moon. It also notes the method is resource-intensive, requiring specific investment and expertise, and is not suitable for all crop types.

Pierre‐Alexandre Deyris, Franck Pélissier, Claire M. Grison, Claude Grison · Journal of Hazardous Materials Advances · Global

Herbicide use worldwide has doubled over the past 30 years, and diuron contamination of tropical aquatic ecosystems — affecting food crops such as pineapple — has been reported across Southeast Asia, the Pacific, and Africa. This perspective article examines taro (Colocasia esculenta), a widely cultivated crop whose tubers are consumed locally, as a nature-based means of mitigating diuron impact on tropical aquatic ecosystems through rhizofiltration, i.e., phytoaccumulation of the herbicide by the roots. Analysis of treated tubers found that diuron levels in the tuber core were below recommended European standards, indicating the tubers could remain edible for the local population and confirming compatibility with existing food uses.

Hyeyung Yoon, N. Lee · · Global

Community activities in which citizens create needed activities in their own region span fields such as welfare, care, urban agriculture, autonomy, and environment, alongside activities organized by groups such as women and youth. This study focuses on the culture, arts, and media field within these community activities, investigating and analyzing cases to build "cultural communities" that activate citizens' cultural engagement and enhance sustainability, categorizing the cases and organizing the characteristics of each type, and proposing specific strategies. It categorizes cultural communities into three types — network-centered, subject-centered, and regional-asset-centered — and proposes measures for revitalization and sustainability: activating networks through weak ties, expanding participants and strengthening solidarity through multi-membership, and diversifying the use of and participation in regional cultural and artistic assets.

Gaynell M. Simpson, Wendy Lustbader · Innovation in Aging · Global

This symposium overview highlights cultural assets long relied upon by African American and Latina communities, focused on the formal and informal mutual aid of grandparent caregivers, which it describes as often overlooked or underutilized despite being a vital source of support. It states that historically, underserved grandparents have drawn on mutual aid practices such as neighbors relying on one another, sharing produce from community gardens, exchanging skills and abilities, and standing together with extended families when other societal resources were inaccessible. Four presenters address these themes: Carole Cox presents a virtual empowerment program on skill building, social connection, and empowerment; Nancy Mendoza offers recommendations on how the cultural assets of Latino grandparent caregivers can support their caregiving; Tina Peterson examines mutual aid among African American grandmothers raising grandchildren and how support networks compensate for gaps in formal and informal services; and Gaynell Simpson addresses the need for intergenerational programs and macro-level advocacy to address structural inequalities affecting grandparent caregivers and their families.