Research & reports

Antoinette WinklerPrins · CABI Reviews · Global

This mini-review argues that urban agriculture is an essential component of sustainable cities. It states that urban cultivation addresses the core elements of sustainability: economics, environmental issues, and social justice. Therefore, urban agriculture should be considered fundamental infrastructure in the design of future sustainable cities.

Sugandhi del Canto, Rachel Engler‐Stringer · Policy Press eBooks · Global

Restrictive covenants, a corporate real estate practice, are identified as a significant barrier to establishing new food stores in older neighborhoods globally. These covenants place conditions on land use, such as prohibiting food sales or grocery store development, making it harder to address existing nutrition deserts. Government support is needed to limit these covenants and develop alternative food channels, including urban agriculture.

Isis Brook · · Global

This chapter examines the interface between landscape and food in agriculture, which is undergoing massive change from both technological innovation and socio-political critique. It discusses how responses such as agroecology, biodynamics, organics, permaculture, and urban agriculture contribute to the creation of meaningful landscapes that respect cultural diversity and biodiversity. The chapter also looks at traditional ethical approaches and four new developments in ethical thinking—animal ethics, permaculture ethics, ecofeminism, and the theory of responsive cohesion—as ethical articulations of the caring and embodied flourishing that land and animal husbandry at its best represents.

Ana Cristina Manjabosco · · Global

This work explores urban agriculture, its concepts, and importance in achieving urban sustainability and responding to environmental imbalances. It provides examples of current urban agriculture uses, including the Dragonfly project in New York, Paris's incentives, and a vertical farm design contest in Sao Paulo. The study also offers guidelines for successful urban agriculture project implementation, covering location choice, cultivation systems, consumption incentives, and secondary benefits, framed as political and social guidelines.

Luísa Melgaço, Marina R. Ribeiro, Heloísa Soares de Moura Costa · Cadernos de Agroecologia · Global

This essay reflects on the complex reality of urban agriculture, discussing the different paradigms of the Green Revolution and Agroecology within the urbanization process. It aims to evidence the permanent and conflicting dispute between the industrial capitalist model and the non-hegemonic rationality of Agroecology. The essay is intended to advance the construction of bridges between the agroecological field and urbanization processes.

Miguel A. Altieri, Clara I. Nicholls · Agro Sur · Global

Although urban agriculture (UA) is estimated to provide 15-20% of global food, its significant contribution to city food self-sufficiency is questionable due to low yields in most existing urban farms. Agroecology can enhance UA's productive potential by offering key principles for designing diversified, productive, and resilient urban farms. This paper describes principles and practices for increasing soil quality and enhancing plant health.

Irene Antoni-Komar · HiBiFo – Haushalt in Bildung & Forschung · Global

Civil society food initiatives and transformative enterprises like urban gardening projects, CSA, and food co-ops are considered pioneers for a sustainable food supply. These initiatives test community-oriented economics in the form of empowerment, solidarity, and prosumerism for a socio-ecological food transition.

Ayasha Siddiqua · Nakhara Journal of Environmental Design and Planning · Bangladesh (Dhaka)

This paper explores the concept of eco-urban-agriculture for sustainable cities, focusing on its integration into urban Dhaka, Bangladesh. It discusses the theoretical background of urban agriculture and practiced models globally, aiming to demonstrate how a city can generate food, improve health, and utilize waste. The study seeks to develop an understanding of this concept within Dhaka's dense urban fabric.

Camila Hellebuyck · DigitalCommons - Kennesaw State University (Kennesaw State University) · Colombia (Bogotá)

This project addresses urban farming in Ciudad Bolivar, an informal settlement in Bogotá, Colombia, where it emerged due to food scarcity and poverty. It proposes design placemaking strategies to improve the built environment and social cohesion by integrating agriculture from the initial design stages. The concept includes farming gardens, food markets, and a community hub to create a "performative edge" that mediates between rural and urban contexts.

Pierre Paul Audate, Melissa Anne Fernandez, Geneviève Cloutier, Alexandre Lebel · JMIR Research Protocols · Global

This protocol outlines a research strategy for a scoping review to characterize the beneficial and adverse impacts of urban agriculture (UA) on health and its determinants across various disciplines. The method involves a systematic search of seven electronic databases, followed by a three-step screening by two independent reviewers, and data extraction on bibliography, participants, study type, results, and countries. The findings are expected to identify research and knowledge gaps for future UA research.

Rachel Reckinger · SOCIOLOGIA DEL LAVORO · Luxembourg

This study examines four community-driven alternative food network initiatives in Luxembourg, where low organic agricultural rates contrast with high consumer demands. Using qualitative interviews and participant observation, the research describes these initiatives, which combine agroecology and circular economy practices. These initiatives, ranging from an established one with 200 employees to more recent, smaller cooperatives, focus on regenerative land use and foster consumer integration, representing a cultural shift towards a more resilient food system.

Katinka Mihova · · Global

This paper discusses urban agriculture as a sustainable future, particularly for the urban poor in developing countries. Defined as an industry within or on the fringe of urban areas that produces and distributes diverse food and non-food products, urban agriculture functions as an informal food supply system. The paper notes increasing global attention to urban agriculture and the emergence of analyses attempting to systematize its benefits and drawbacks.

Milah Zainal, Siti Raba’ah Hamzah · International Journal of Academic Research in Business and Social Sciences · Malaysia

This study aimed to identify important knowledge regarding urban agriculture activities among farmers in Malaysia. Urban agriculture is introduced as a strategy to increase food productivity in response to rising living costs in cities, but farmers' acceptance is influenced by their cognitive, affective, and behavioral levels.

Nizzatul Amaliyah · Studi Pustaka · Global

This study investigated the level of community participation and factors influencing the success of urban farming programs. Urban farming is presented as a community empowerment program to address urban food issues, stating that its success requires the community to be able to provide food independently and to be involved in the planning, implementation, supervision, and evaluation processes. Factors influencing success include community perception and socio-economic factors.

Alec Thornton, Kristen Lyons, Scott Sharpe · · Australia

This chapter examines how urban spaces in Australia are being transformed for community gardens through social movements and community interventions for the expansion of urban agriculture. It focuses on community gardeners as part of active social movements, exploring the urban context driven by the challenges of urbanization. The study applies Lefebvre's framework on the social production of space and discusses findings from qualitative interview data collected from two city case studies.

Natália Peres Almeida · · Global

This research aimed to identify the contribution of community gardens to healthy food for farmers and their families, with objectives of Food and Nutrition Security, Human Right to Adequate Food, and Food Sovereignty. Interviews were conducted with the president and farmers in the community garden, randomly addressed during their activities. It was concluded that the community garden significantly contributed to the healthy eating of farmers and their families through the production of in natura food of vegetal origin, of sufficient quality and quantity.

David Hallberg · Journal of Sociology and Social Anthropology · Global

This paper introduces community gardens as multipurpose, technological systems with dynamic boundaries. It also aims to revise the notions of food security and health in relation to these systems.

Erin Whittingham, Nhu Tuyên Lê, Claudio Vitari, Roxana Bobulescu · International Journal of Agricultural Resources Governance and Ecology · Global

This paper focuses on the transitional features of community supported agriculture (CSA) and its transformational potential for agricultural system change. The research developed a framework that highlights the 'transitional' CSA model and compares it with conventional and 'ideal' CSA models. This framework helps understand how CSAs adapt to their context and demonstrates their transformational potential for agricultural system change, drawing on numerous narratives from the broad literature on CSAs.

Jiménez Forero, John Alejandro · · Colombia

In the Loma Linda neighborhood of comuna 4, Altos de Cazucá, in the municipality of Soacha, Cundinamarca, Colombia, this project ran from February 2016 to March 2017, involving a vulnerable local community in seedling production to establish urban agriculture. Using organic inputs, knowledge exchange among participants, and native plants valued for their nutritional content, the project produced vegetable crops according to available costs, physical and human resources, and available space. Participants are reported to have reduced their spending on purchased vegetables by producing and consuming fresh produce themselves, while also generating additional income for the community. About 50 families took part, organized into 26 productive units, contributing to the community's food security.

Francisco Javier Vélez Zabala, Viviana Yulieth Hidalgo Zapata, Mónica Andrea Martínez Martina, Ana María Soto González, Maria Velez, Juan Diego López Vargas · WSEAS TRANSACTIONS ON ENVIRONMENT AND DEVELOPMENT · Global

This conceptual paper presents urban agriculture as a strategy to improve quality of life in vulnerable urban communities formed by rural-to-urban migration, particularly in developing countries. It covers urban agriculture's concepts, origins and evolution, draws on experiences from countries that have implemented it, and discusses the social, economic and environmental factors that influence its development, without reporting original empirical data.

Jamie Matthews, Akhtar-Khavari Afshin · Journal of Vasyl Stefanyk Precarpathian National University · Global

This paper argues that as land values rise with increasing population density, legally established practice has pushed agriculture out of the urban environment, leaving cities dependent on regional and industrial agriculture, with urban agriculture practiced mainly in developing countries as a defense against hunger and malnutrition or as poverty alleviation. It contends that urban agriculture can contribute to environmental recovery in the Anthropocene, on the premise that existing conservation and protection strategies should not be assumed to be sufficient on their own, without presenting empirical measurements.

Licia María Lilli · Revista de la Escuela de Antropología · Argentina

A paper examines the participation of a group of urban gardeners (huerteros/huerteras) in the process of building the civil association "Red de Huerteros y Huerteras de Rosario" in Rosario, Argentina, an associative form linked to social policies formulated under the Municipality of Rosario's Urban Agriculture Program. Using a relational anthropological approach, it focuses on the demands and resignifications of the social actors involved in the web of political relations, asking how these experiences enable a place for collective practices within a field of forces.

Obadia Kyetuza Bishoge, Shaldon Leparan Suntu · Journal of Food Nutrition and Agriculture · Tanzania

A study in Ubungo Municipality, Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, used non-random and purposive sampling to survey 240 smallholder farmers and 16 local government officers via observation, questionnaires, interviews, and document review, analyzed with SPSS, to examine how urban horticulture of vegetables and ornamental flowers could reduce poverty. Production of these crops made a significant positive contribution to food availability and accessibility, nutrition, and income used to improve access to services such as water, electricity, health, and education.

Illana C. Livstrom, Amy Smith, Mary Rogers, Karl Hackansan · Interdisciplinary Journal of Partnership Studies · Global

A qualitative case study of "Grounding Roots," a community-based collaborative educational program that aims to build food, environmental, and cognitive justice through sustainable urban agriculture and horticulture via intergenerational communities of practice. Drawing on Linda Tuhiwai Smith's framework of decolonizing methodologies, the study examined both the ways a Community-University partnership engaged in decolonizing work through research and practice, and the ways the same partnership served to preserve colonizing practices, using deductive coding grounded in decolonizing-practice theory. Identified decolonizing practices included implementing a program of worth to the community and youth, building from community-led agendas, and prioritizing community healing and transformation over academic research agendas. Identified colonizing practices included inequitable power hierarchies within the leadership team and in garden groups, deficit-oriented talk about minoritized youth, and the devalorization of youth voice. The study concludes that researchers doing community-based work need to examine the white supremacist roots embedded in their own practices, embrace decolonizing and humanizing approaches, engage in community-driven agendas that prioritize process over product, facilitate distributed leadership in collaboration with community members, and produce work of genuine value together with the community.

Carolyn Steel · · Global

This essay introduces the concept of "sitopia" — a society consciously shaped by food as a tool — and argues that in cities with large amounts of vacant land and low-income residents, such as Baltimore, Detroit and New Orleans in the United States, urban farming could help green the city and revitalize neighborhoods. It states urban food production is likely to meet only a small proportion of a community's total food needs, while noting that local food production can still improve environmental quality and social ties and encourage sustainable local economic development.