Research & reports

Antonia Bousbaine, Christopher Bryant · Challenges in Sustainability · Global

This article proposes Action Research as a key approach for research to contribute to sustainable solutions in urban agriculture. It describes the researcher's roles, such as providing information, counseling, and organizing meetings, which are adopted based on requests from actors like citizens and farmers. The article synthesizes relevant research on sustainable agricultural systems in periurban areas and the co-authors' own research over eight years, identifying patience, process emphasis, and multi-actor participation as necessary characteristics of Action Research.

Alex Franklin, Imre Kovách, Bernadett Csurgó · Sociologia Ruralis · Global

This article qualitatively examined a public sector-led initiative to instigate co-production of community food growing, focusing on the discretionary practice of front-line public sector workers. The study found that public sector-led initiatives lack sufficient intention or scope to transform existing social orders. However, they do contribute to propagating individual and smaller-scale occurrences of social innovation in community food security.

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

This study evaluated how new food-related economic forms, such as urban gardening, food coops, and community-supported agriculture, contribute to reshaping consumption practices and market relationships to foster a sustainable food economy. Based on empirical data, the research elucidated the specific characteristics and transformative potentials of these initiatives. The question is whether these initiatives can transform the prevailing food system from the bottom up.

Irama Flores · Razón y Palabra · Venezuela

This work reflects on the relationship between media communication and the promotion of urban agriculture, and the creation of a new agricultural culture in Venezuelan cities. The essay focuses on the rescue of values rooted in planting, against a backdrop where reduced production of staple items and black market premium sales, coupled with high inflation, violate food access. It also considers how urban dwellers with an oil culture are now motivated to use their yards or residential areas as nurseries to grow their own food to ensure food security during scarcity.

Sri Tuntung Pandangwati, Ole Fryd · · Australia (Melbourne)

A study in Maribyrnong, Australia, used secondary data and GIS to assess the potential of urban vacant land for vegetable production in three suburbs: Maribyrnong, Footscray, and Seddon. Maribyrnong and Footscray could meet annual local vegetable demand using less than half their vacant spaces. Seddon could potentially produce 93% of local demand by utilizing all existing vacant spaces.

NUR HUZEIMA MOHD HUSSAIN, HUGH BYRD · Jurnal Antarabangsa Alam dan Tamadun Melayu · Malaysia

This paper questions whether Malaysia is experiencing de-urbanization, or a return to a new form of rural life, following rapid urbanization and a shift from an agricultural to a manufacturing-dependent society. It notes that urban growth has increased demand for resources, while recent debates on oil depletion and economic decline have prompted discussions about urban and peri-urban food production. The study explores the emerging decentralization of cities and population in Malaysia.

Ranjan Datta, Rebecca English · · Global

This auto-ethnographic study explores the role of community garden activities in bridging formal and informal learning for urban children's science and environmental education. Based on five years of community garden activities, the author found that these practices promote relational learning methods and adhere to forms of agency such as embracing diversity, sharing power, and trust building. The study offers insights for environmental educators aiming to incorporate ethnic diversity and engage children in research leading to community action.

P. Kanmani, Karthikeyan Parthasarathy · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Global

This paper reviews contemporary thinking on urbanization, food insecurity, and agriculture, identifying urbanization and population increase as key drivers of growing food insecurity. It presents ideas and practices for agricultural sustainability, addressing agro-environmental sources, input systems, socio-economic systems, and farming systems. The paper also explores urban sustainability, including urban social sustainability and urban ecology, highlighting urban farming's role in enhancing urban food security.

Kajsa Ignell, Åsa Bugge Marin · · Argentina (Buenos Aires)

A field study was conducted in November and December 2015 at six urban agricultural sites in Buenos Aires, Argentina. The study aimed to map ecosystem services at these sites and assess urban agriculture's potential to strengthen adaptive capacity and resilience in Buenos Aires. The mapping and research showed that urban agriculture provides many ecosystem services, creating a sense of community and other social values, and contributing to urban temperature regulation, added biodiversity, and water infiltration.

Jennifer L. Barron · Local Environment · Global

This paper explored how neoliberal processes of privatization, state entrepreneurialism, and devolution intersect with community gardens. It argued that certain characteristics and orientations of gardens are more conducive to resisting neoliberalism. These include cultivating producer, citizen, and activist subjectivities, elevating the use value of shared lived space, advancing spatial justice through community access to non-privatized space, and promoting food justice through non-commodified means of obtaining food.

Emma Björkqvist · · Sweden

This study investigated the prevalence of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA, "andelsjordbruk" in Swedish) in Sweden and the motivations, drivers, and goals behind decisions to start them. Based on interviews with four CSA farmers in Sweden, it showed that they share several common motives, goals, and values in their respective operations. The study concluded that CSA appears to be part of a new social movement contributing to self-sufficiency and locally produced food.

Piers H.G. Stephens · Oxford University Press eBooks · Global

This chapter applies the author's work on property rights justification to community gardens, criticizing the Lockean private property justification. It argues that legitimate property ownership derives from "belonging," a felt bond of lived experience, which can conflict with Lockean "possession." The chapter concludes that the Lockean orientation combined with technocratic politics reduces contemporary life, making connection to nature uncommon, and that community garden practices offer practical alternatives.

Claudia Patricia Osorio Doncel · INGENIO · Colombia (Palmira)

At the "Fundacion Hogar Divino Nino" in Palmira, Colombia, educational and practical workshops are provided for underprivileged youth. A boy named 'El Doc de la granja', who attended the foundation, enjoyed planting and cultivating various green species, including beans, tomatoes, cucumbers, chard, cilantro, bell peppers, and some medicinal and aromatic plants. These crops were used to feed all the children at the foundation.

Madeleine Bonow, Maria Normark · · Sweden (Stockholm)

This paper discusses the renewed interest in urban agriculture (UA) in the global North as a method to re-localize food systems by shortening food supply chains. The abstract is truncated and provides no further details on the study's findings or methods.

Khalilnezhad Seyyed Mohammad Reza, Tobias Kai · · Iran

This study explored the dimensions and attributes of productive and agricultural landscapes in six Persian Gardens (Akbariyeh, Rahim Abad, Amir Abad, Bahlgerd, Pahlavanpur, and Shahzadeh) in Iran. Using descriptive-analytical methodology, library research, interviews, and field studies, it showed that fruitful greenery is significantly present, even in governmental gardens, due to the need to provide recreational services for owners and guests. The combination of ornamental and fruit species enhances garden beauty, aims for efficiency, profitability, and self-sufficiency, and medicinal properties are also noted.

Nayla Naoufal · VertigO · Global

This article examines global citizen movements related to socio-ecological issues, including urban agriculture development, by analyzing the evolution of their demands. It explores environmental justice, popular ecology, and their theoretical foundations, identifying a relevant framework for contemporary mobilizations. The study also analyzes the concept of ecocitizenship, finding that a participatory and critical form of ecocitizenship particularly contributes to environmental justice.

Sook Mee Lee, In Ho Kim · Journal of people, plants, and environment · Global

This study aimed to establish principles for community garden space planning to improve the self-support capability of vulnerable groups. Considering the circumstances of homeless individuals, 13 universal design principles were applied, integrating concepts of healing gardens and urban agriculture. The principles include maximally efficient space division for various programs, privacy-protected spaces, rest areas for strengthening resilience and health, pleasant spaces with plants, easily accessible and safe spaces, and easy maintenance and sustainability. For the ultimate goal of financial self-support, spaces for developing acquired skills and engaging in productive activities were also included in the principles.

C. Paizinho, M. de F. Ferreiro · Repositório do ISCTE-IUL · Portugal (Lisbon)

This study identified solidarity economy practices in three urban gardens in Lisbon, Portugal: Vale de Chelas, Alta de Lisboa, and Horta do Baldio. Using quantitative and qualitative methods, including surveys of 42 users and interviews with 3 stakeholders, 31 out of 35 evaluated practices were identified, with 7 being "very relevant" and 4 "relevant." Key practices included organic production, contributions to social cohesion and health, knowledge sharing, reciprocity, and democratic decision-making, while 20 practices were considered "less relevant."

Tom Beer, Brenda B. Lin, A.E.J. McGill · Water science and technology library · Global

This chapter considers the effects of climate change on food production, with particular reference to urban agriculture and its associated impacts on food security. The value of urban agriculture to the health and nutrition of developing and developed countries is described. The current status of related research by international agencies is outlined, and their omissions are highlighted. Proposals are made as to how these overlooked areas of research might be addressed.

J. Dominique Gumirakiza, Laura J. Hopper, Gumirakiza, J. Dominique, Hopper, Laura · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · Global

An exploratory study of existing literature on locally grown food systems identified common findings, recommendations, and proposed priorities, key variables, and relationships for future research. Findings indicate that local food marketing through farmers' markets and Community Supported Agriculture, along with the benefits of local food systems to local economies (an ongoing debate), heavily dominate the literature. Prior studies commonly reported enthusiasm for locally grown fresh produce but presented diverging results regarding significant consumer characteristics.

François Mancebo · Challenges in Sustainability · Global

This article explores whether urban agriculture can be a cornerstone for reconfiguring more sustainable cities, and under what conditions and types. It proposes counteracting urban sprawl by fostering "rural sprawl" through introducing nature and rural characteristics like farming into interstitial urban areas and wastelands. From this perspective, urban agriculture becomes a common good that brings people together and reshapes the urban fabric, making it particularly suitable for long-lasting urban policies that transform environmental "bads" into "goods" and urban amenities.

Salamanca Córdoba, Néstor Leonardo · · Colombia (Bogotá)

This internship report evaluates the urban agriculture program led by the Bogotá Botanical Garden (JBB) in Colombia. It describes 25 urban gardens that received technical advice, social support, adaptation, and equipment from the JBB. Using a case study methodology, technical diagnostic and harvest forms, along with perceptions from project leaders and participants, were used to describe the gardens. The JBB continuously monitors these gardens to improve urban agriculture practices and gather data for evaluating the effectiveness, impact, strengths, and weaknesses of urban agriculture among the study population.

Pierre Donadieu · Challenges in Sustainability · Global

This paper distinguishes categories of urban agriculture to efficiently feed urban inhabitants and leverage ecological and social functions. It explores methods to regulate unbuilt urban land and discusses possibilities for creating urban agricultural commons, defined as tangible and intangible resources produced by farmers and gardeners for local consumption and environmental quality. The concept of commons is applied to urban agriculture and landscape, drawing on works by E. Ostrom, P. Dardot, and C. Laval.

Emily Brownell · Global Environment · Tanzania (Dar es Salaam)

This case study in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania, examines the politics of food distribution and shifting urban-rural boundaries during the socialist era. The Tanzanian government pursued an anti-urban policy, viewing urbanites as slothful and discouraging migration to cities. However, by the early 1980s, as state food distribution channels failed, the government shifted to transforming as much of Dar es Salaam into agricultural space as possible, with urban agriculture and family networks becoming key bulwarks against hunger in the city.

Deirdre Shaw, John Crossan, Andrew Cumbers, Robert McMaster, Katherine Trebeck, Iain Black · Families Relationships and Societies · Global

This article explores the possibilities of prosumption, encompassing production and consumption, for creating new "we" identities based on nature and community. It focuses on community gardens as places that generate progressive social relations. These relations critique mainstream mass production and environmentally destructive food systems.