Research & reports

Sanchez A. · Frontiers in Chemical Engineering · Global (review)

A perspective article synthesising scientific knowledge on decentralized (home and community) composting of food waste, discussing its role relative to centralized systems in urban organic waste management.

Jessica Quinton, Lorien Nesbitt, Daniel Sax · Progress in Human Geography · Global

A systematic review of the methods used in green gentrification research — the claim that adding vegetation such as parks, street trees and gardens raises property values and displaces existing residents. It finds that studies are heavily concentrated on U.S. cases, that early qualitative work has been giving way to quantitative analysis, that almost no attention has been paid to which characteristics of greening (scale, type, location) matter, that demand-side mechanisms remain poorly understood, and that displacement itself — the central concern of the literature — has not been well documented.

Aleksandra Nowysz, Łukasz Mazur, Magdalena Daria Vaverková, Eugeniusz Koda, Jan Winkler · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · Global

This study explored urban agriculture (UA) as an alternative source of food and water security, employing a mixed-method approach including literature survey, case studies, and comparative analysis. It compared 25 existing projects in the global north, including allotment gardens, community gardens, and urban farms, categorizing UA into architectural-urban, ecological, social, and economic aspects. The analysis concluded that UA fulfills economic, social, and environmental functions, aligning with the concept of sustainable development.

Rachael Walshe, Lisa Law · Landscape Research · Australia

This study explored how university masterplans in Australian universities express the benefits of campus community gardens as green community spaces and how they might better aid universities in achieving strategic missions, using a multiple case-study methodology. By comparing dominant themes in community garden literature with the visions of campus masterplans, the research aimed to understand how community gardens might be better positioned as tools for place and community building. The results provided a finer-grained understanding of green infrastructure in campus master planning for a post-COVID-19 moment.

Pierrette Hondagneu‐Sotelo · Journal of Latin American geography · Global

This edited book explores how various displacements lead people to re-engage with plant life, creating meaning and sustaining biodiversity. It examines how gardening, seed saving, and cooking restore social and cultural continuity, connecting past and present. The volume, rooted in anthropology, discusses plant-human engagements in movement ("itineraries") and emplaced efforts of belonging ("sanctuaries").

Marianella Herrera‐Cuenca · Anales Venezolanos de Nutrición · Venezuela (Caracas)

This study investigated preferred foods and dishes, willingness to grow ingredients, and ideal cooking choices among 18 pregnant and lactating women and community workers in low-income settings in Eastern Caracas, Venezuela, in June 2022. Focus group interviews revealed that traditional Venezuelan complex dishes were absent, replaced by basic or internationally referenced foods accessible to the community. The findings suggest a potential compromise to the culinary memories of future generations.

Donald Gray · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Global

A 2022 paper examined the role of school gardens in addressing children and young people's decreasing experiences with natural environments, increasing mental health concerns, and growing worries about global environmental problems. Drawing on three initiatives from an original pilot school garden program, the paper presents evidence that garden-based learning can positively contribute to improved health and wellbeing, learning, and environmental awareness.

Elisa Appolloni, Giorgio Gianquinto · Frontiers for Young Minds · Global

Rooftop agriculture, a form of urban agriculture where food is grown on buildings, is presented as a solution to urban food insecurity and environmental protection. This practice offers benefits such as reducing urban heat, decreasing urban poverty, fostering socialization, and benefiting buildings. Rooftop agriculture is gaining global popularity due to these advantages.

Graham Slater, Robert G. Unzueta, Clayton Pierce · · Global

This chapter argues that much scholarly literature on school gardens is based on problematic assumptions or ignores histories of violence and dispossession. Without an ecocritical approach, school gardens risk replicating systems of domination, extraction, exploitation, and human supremacy. The authors propose integrating theoretical reflection into emancipatory action within a historical materialist framework to address colonization, land dispossession, labor exploitation, and anthropocentrism.

Elisabeth Meyer-Renschhausen · Journal of Contemporary Central and Eastern Europe · Global

This article provides a historical overview of small-scale, subsistence farming, primarily by women, spanning two centuries from the early 19th century to the 21st century. It traces the evolution from the loss of commons in Prussia to urban farming in contemporary cities across Europe, America, and Africa. The discussion includes subsistence farming in towns, garden cities, post-war initiatives, and the significant role of unacknowledged family production in Eastern Europe.

Melissa Anna Murphy, Peter E. Parker, Margot Hermus · Local Environment · Global

This article aims to unpack how urban settings, organizational forms, and municipal enabling affect urban gardening (UG) practices towards inclusion in public space. It draws on urban commons theory and research on inclusion in public space to understand multi-faceted UG governance and its exclusionary aspects. A comparative analysis of UG initiatives in three Northern European municipalities explores both municipal enabling and the co-production of inclusive public space.

Alejandro Castillo Nolte, Sascha Buchholz, Nadja Pernat, Monika Egerer · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Global

This study investigated diurnal and nocturnal temperature ranges, and daily maximum and minimum temperatures in 18 urban gardens during the peak summer agricultural growing season. It analyzed how temperatures correlated to local land cover factors within the garden, surrounding landscape imperviousness at various spatial scales, and environmental justice indicators of garden neighborhoods. Nocturnal temperature range was negatively correlated to landscape imperviousness, with the relationship decreasing in strength with increasing spatial scale.

Hadi Ebadi, Zahra Mohebi · Journal of Sustainability Perspectives · Iran (Kermanshah)

This study investigated the implementation of an urban agriculture plan (green garden) at Razi University of Kermanshah, Iran, and its effects on sustainable development. The plan is expected to strengthen social interaction, economic and environmental aspects, and foster a culture aligned with urban agriculture development. The findings are intended for use in planning and agricultural policies.

Mosammat Rowshan Ara · Khulna University Studies · Bangladesh (Khulna City)

This study surveyed 361 household heads in Khulna City, Bangladesh, to assess the contribution of urban agriculture to the sustainable livelihoods of low-income people. Agricultural activities observed included vegetable cultivation, livestock rearing, aquaculture, crop cultivation, and innovative gardening. The Index of Agriculture for Sustainable Livelihood (IASL) showed that landowners engaged in more sustainable activities, with sustainability increasing by 0.218 units per decimal of land, and male respondents contributed more to agricultural activities than females. The findings suggest agriculture can help fulfill basic needs for low-income urban residents.

Jonathan Hobson, Brian K. Payne, Kabba Haroun Bangura, Richard Hester · Contemporary Justice Review · Sierra Leone

This paper examines the concept of "spaces" where restorative services develop, conceptualized as social, political, physical, and economic. In Kenema City, Sierra Leone, an urban agriculture scheme fills a post-conflict and post-Ebola "space" by diverting young people from harmful activities and reintegrating them into society. This is presented as one of three international case studies illustrating how these types of "spaces" influence the development, provision, and expansion capacities of restorative services.

Joan Casanelles‐Abella, Simone Fontana, Bertrand Fournier, David Frey, Marco Moretti · Ecological Applications · Switzerland (Zurich)

This study in 23 urban gardens in Zurich, Switzerland, examined feeding niche partitioning between wild bees and honeybees. Researchers found that feeding niche partitioning increased with wild bee species richness and in sites with lower landscape-scale resource availability, which also had lower honeybee abundances. However, beekeeping intensity at local and landscape scales did not directly influence community feeding niche partitioning or wild bee species richness, suggesting direct competition for resources was not a main driver for the wild bee community.

Bernd Bonfert · Sustainability · Wales

This paper investigated local Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) networks in Wales and Germany using semi-structured interviews and observations. It found that local collaboration enables CSAs to integrate supply chains, engage communities, and participate in food councils. However, the study also revealed competitive tensions between neighboring CSAs, which presents a previously unknown challenge to CSA's potential scalability.

Carmen Cantuarias-Villessuzanne, Mathilde Vignau · Nouvelles perspectives en sciences sociales · Global

This paper aims to analyze urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) projects in France through the notion of environmental capital. Interest in UPA has grown in Western countries since the late 19th century, and this study seeks to clarify its economic models and ultimately formalize a new mapping of contemporary UPA projects in France.

Ingrid Jahrl, Olivier Ejderyan, Joëlle Salomon Cavin · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Switzerland

An analysis of policy documents in the Swiss cities of Lausanne and Zurich confirmed that community gardens better accommodate the tensions created by compact and green city discourses compared to other types of food gardening. Policies are oriented towards favoring community gardening through four frames, citing their modest, flexible, and multifunctional design, their role as a new benchmark, fostering diversity, and their cost-efficient management with active citizen participation.

Claudia Ortega Realpe, Edna Katalina Medina, Óscar Fernández · Boletín Epidemiológico Distrital - Bed · Colombia

Bogotá's District Health Secretariat implemented agroecological urban gardens from January to September 2021 to address COVID-19's social impacts. The community environment showed the highest healthy and sustainable food production, with Sumapaz, Usme, and Ciudad Bolívar having the largest planted areas. Vegetables and greens were the most relevant crops, while medicinal and aromatic plants were common in home gardens. The community showed good reception and acceptance, contributing to food security and environmental health.

Vesna Popović, Branko Mihailović · IGI Global eBooks · Serbia (Belgrade)

This study analyzed the business model of EkoPark Belgrade, an organic farm within Serbia's Avala Protected Area, which combines certified organic production and direct sales with on-farm services. Using the Canvas Business Model, the authors identified key success factors to help farmers in and around urban protected areas choose viable development strategies.

Ionat; id_orcid 0000-0001-9080-2282 Zurr, Oron; id_orcid 0000-0002-2893-5364 Catts · UWA Profiles and Research Repository (University of Western Australia) · Australia

The "Sunlight, Soil & Shit (De)Cycle" project, presented by SymbioticA in February 2022, is a performative experiment exploring agricultural technology (AgTech) and its aim to remove natural elements like sunlight, soil, and organic waste from food production. This project considers whether the precursor to sustainable food systems will be the creation of a metabolic rift, where the means of production grow ever distant from nature. It highlights a critical environmental tradeoff by questioning the separation of humans from nature in technological farming.

Alan Dorin, Tim Taylor, Adrian G. Dyer · PLOS Sustainability and Transformation · Global

This study used an agent-based model to explore the impact of insect flower constancy, heterospecific pollen transfer, and crop patch size on pollination in urban farms. It found that highly constant pollinators were most effective in the smallest patches, while less constant insects performed better in intermediate-sized areas. The model identified an optimal "Goldilocks zone" for pollination around 11m x 11m, suggesting that collaborative management to increase single-crop patch size could improve pollination in community farms.

Iffat Jahan Nur, Motaleb Hossain Sarker, Tanıa Hossain, Tasnia Ferdous, Sazedatur Rahman, Benazir Iqbal, Md. Golam Jilani Helal, Md. Forhad Hossain · Current Research in Environmental Sustainability · Bangladesh (Dhaka)

An experimental survey of twenty rooftop gardens in Mohammadpur and Dhanmondi, Dhaka, Bangladesh, examined four categories of ecosystem services using a Rapid Assessment Checklist with 47 indicators. The average score for total ecosystem services was 50 ± 12 out of 100, indicating an intermediate performance. Cultural services scored highest at 60 ± 14, while provisioning services scored lowest at 41 ± 13.

Claudia Marcela Puerto Layton · Interdisciplinary Journal of Environmental and Science Education · Colombia

This article reports the systematization of an experience with home/school gardens in an educational institution in Bogotá, involving high school students (seventh and eighth grades) in face-to-face and remote modalities. Results include the reconstruction of the strategy and didactic process, highlighting aspects that affect or support the educational process in each modality. Reflections with students indicated that while home gardens can contribute to food security, pesticides can pose a risk to food security in Colombia.