Research & reports

邱祥启, 胡战军 · 新闻前哨 · China

This article recounts a decade-long "reporters sleep overnight at farm households" activity run by the Ezhou Daily newspaper in China. The 2011 edition of the activity was themed "visiting family farms to promote urban agriculture," in which 30 editors and reporters went to rural areas to eat, live, and work alongside farmers.

Kevin Camm · VTechWorks (Virginia Tech) · United States

This report examines the Urban Agriculture Day (UAD) program, run by Virginia Cooperative Extension for fifth-grade students in Lynchburg City Schools, Virginia, which provided hands-on agricultural education meeting several requirements of the Virginia Standards of Learning (SOL). Using Rogers's (2003) diffusion of innovation theory as a framework, the report examines how teachers perceived the relative advantage, compatibility, complexity, trialability, and observability of UAD for teaching SOL content.

Les Levidow, Katerina Psarikidou · · United Kingdom

In Manchester, England, environmental and health issues have been folded into a wider agro-food strategy aimed at making the city "more sustainable." With support from state bodies and charities, several initiatives have expanded access to fresh, healthy food, particularly in "food deserts," mobilizing resources, skills, and voluntary labor through "community engagement" to create "community spaces" for social inclusion. Manchester's agro-food networks shorten supply chains by linking peri-urban agriculture more directly with urban consumers and by promoting urban agriculture grounded in local resource mobilization and personal trust, offering an alternative to conventional agro-food chains; food relocalisation is described as helping overcome socio-economic inequalities and health problems, with Manchester initiatives cooperating to build environmentally sustainable, socially just, healthy communities and reconstructing local identities and social commitments, within a national policy context that advocates food relocalisation but provides little actual support. Despite that activity, the larger food system in Manchester remains dominated by conventional agro-food chains, and community food initiatives play only a marginal role, leading practitioners to discuss how to overcome these limitations; from 2010 onward, the UK government's austerity regime is described as undermining state support further, making community engagement even more important for mobilizing resources.

Kynda R. Curtis, Voravee Chakreeyarat, J. Dominique Gumirakiza · Digital Commons - USU (Utah State University) · United States

Describes the origin of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs in the United States in the 1980s, in which consumers pay farmers in advance for a season's share of farm products and farmers commit to supplying a sufficient quantity, quality and variety of produce. The abstract provided contains only this background description of the CSA concept, with no reported survey data, sample or findings on consumer preferences.

Loran Mary Luehr, Sylvia B. Smith · Journal of Student Research · United States

A study examined the effectiveness of a four-week interactive food sustainability education program covering local foods, gardening, recycling, and world hunger, delivered to 85 elementary-age students at two schools in southern Illinois. Using a within-subjects repeated-measures design with pre- and post-program surveys analyzed in PASW (Version 18.0) and a significance level of p<0.10 given the exploratory design, the program was found most effective with fourth graders, who showed significant change across all four measured areas: understanding world hunger, effects on their surroundings, understanding of community supported agriculture (CSA), and awareness of stores carrying more local foods. Eighth graders showed significant change in two areas (effects on their surroundings and CSA understanding), and sixth graders showed significantly higher scores only in CSA understanding. The paper reports positive results for the youngest age group while flagging the more limited results among sixth and eighth graders as warranting further research.

Euclides Reuter de Oliveira, Luiz Menini Neto · Revista Brasileira de Plantas Medicinais · Brazil

An ethnobotanical survey in the Manejo settlement of Lima Duarte, Minas Gerais, Brazil, interviewed residents about medicinal plants they cultivate or use. Across 41 household visits, residents cited 100 different medicinal plant species, mostly grown in home yards along with some native to the region; specimens were deposited in the CESJ herbarium at the Federal University of Juiz de Fora. The most frequently cited species included Mentha sp., Lippia alba, and Foeniculum vulgare, used mainly for colds, stomach ailments, menstrual cramps, uterine infections, intestinal worms, kidney problems, and anxiety/stress, with leaves the most-used plant part and infusion teas the most common preparation. The study suggests that establishing a community garden in the settlement could help valorize medicinal plant knowledge, particularly its transmission to younger generations.

Melissa Cater, Janet Fox, Bobby Fletcher · Journal of Extension · United States

A process evaluation of Louisiana's 4-H Seeds of Service School Gardens program, a K-12 Learn and Serve grant initiative, described curriculum implementation fidelity, program reach, use of garden produce and materials, and teacher characteristics. Eighty-seven percent of participating classrooms planted vegetable gardens using the Junior Master Gardener curriculum, and the evaluation found that school gardens can be effective in supporting classroom curriculum.

R. Plant, Jeremy Walker, Scott Rayburg, J Gothe, Teresa Leung · Australian Geographer · Australia

A study of the Hawkesbury-Nepean River in Sydney, Australia, examines the effects of pesticide use by the small-scale horticulturalists supplying the city's fresh vegetable markets on aquatic biodiversity. Through interviews with actors across the institutions responsible for agriculture, water quality, and environmental protection, it assesses the effectiveness of pesticide governance in the Greater Sydney Basin. It finds that pesticide pollution is rarely measured or monitored and is not a priority for any particular agency, meaning the pollution remains effectively uncontrolled. The study concludes that although public health, the long-term viability of local farming, and the ecological health of the river are compatible goals, they currently exist under a system of "organised irresponsibility."

Eleni Katrini · KiltHub Repository · Global

A 2012 thesis (KiltHub Repository) reviewed multiple systems -- urban agriculture, decentralized water management and treatment, and energy production from waste -- through literature review and case studies. The goal was to build a toolkit for urban regenerative environments to introduce these systems to designers, with its key component being a quantitative link between each system's spatial demands and its efficiency.

東京都都市整備局 · 東京都都市整備局（民有地の緑の保全・創出 制度） · Japan

A Tokyo system created in 2011 to conserve dwindling farmland as open space and carry the agricultural landscape into the future. Districts where farmland and homestead groves remain clustered are designated so that scattered farmland can be conserved collectively as urban-planning parks/green space. Designations include Setagaya's Kitami (the first) and Nerima's Takamatsu and Minami-Oizumi, providing the policy framework for municipal urban-farmland conservation.

Katakami T. · 観光研究 (Journal of the Japan Institute of Tourism Research) · Japan

Using Yamato traditional vegetables, examines the process by which place-specific food culture becomes a tourism resource, stressing the role of key persons creatively managing how the culture is supplied to others.

Bellon M. R., Hodson D., Hellin J. · PNAS 108(33):13432-13437 · Mexico

Assesses farmer-based traditional maize seed systems in Mexico and their vulnerability to climate change, with implications for maintaining and adapting landrace diversity in situ.

Largo-Wight E., Chen W. W., Dodd V., Weiler R. · Public Health Reports · United States

Survey of 503 university office staff finding that as workday nature contact (gardens, plants, greenery) increases, perceived stress and general health complaints decrease, providing evidence for workplace greening and garden programs.

Corrigan M. P. · Applied Geography 31(4):1232-1241 · United States

Qualitative study of Baltimore community gardens via interviews and observation. Gardens contributed to individual, household and community food security but needed added support through education, policy and funding.

Litt J. S., Soobader M.-J., Turbin M. S., Hale J. W., Buchenau M., Marshall J. A. · American Journal of Public Health 101(8):1466-1473 · United States

Denver survey finding community gardeners ate fruits and vegetables 5.7 times daily versus 4.6 for home gardeners and 3.9 for non-gardeners, with social involvement and neighborhood aesthetics also shaping intake.

Mkwambisi D. D., Fraser E. D. G., Dougill A. J. · Journal of International Development 23(2):181-203 · Malawi

Evaluates how urban food production in Malawi contributes to food security, employment and income, showing its role as a livelihood strategy for the poor while identifying constraints in land, inputs and institutional support.

White M. M. · Environmental Practice 13(4):406-417 · United States

Case study of the Detroit Black Community Food Security Network, framing farming as resistance to structural food insecurity and a site of community building, culturally relevant food education, and political agency.

Zasada, I., Fertner, C., Piorr, A., Nielsen, T.A.S. · Geografisk Tidsskrift–Danish Journal of Geography 111(1), 59–72 · Denmark

A regression analysis of peri-urban agriculture around Copenhagen, showing that different urbanization processes shape the spatial distribution of multifunctional adaptation strategies (leisure- and environment-oriented).

Koont S. · University Press of Florida (Contemporary Cuba series) · Cuba

This book provides a comprehensive account of Cuba's world-leading sustainable urban agriculture program, documenting a thousand-fold increase in urban agricultural output since 1994 and analyzing how government organizational infrastructure and human capital investment enabled this transformation.

Ratcliffe M.M. · Health Promotion Practice · USA

A study of garden-based education for middle school-aged students; 236 completed a Garden Vegetable Frequency Questionnaire and 161 a taste test, showing improved recognition, attitudes, preferences, and willingness to taste vegetables, plus greater variety eaten.

Leigh Whittinghill, D. Bradley Rowe · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · Global

Urban agriculture faces limitations including competition for space, lack of formalized land use rights, and health hazards from food contamination. Green roof technology is proposed as a method to alleviate these issues, potentially reducing the use of contaminated land and water at ground level. However, for large-scale implementation, installation costs must be reduced, roof weight limitations assessed, and appropriate management practices developed.

Chris Firth, Damian Maye, David Pearson · Local Environment · United Kingdom (Nottingham)

This paper presents an exploratory investigation of two community gardens in Nottingham, UK, examining the nature of "community" and its benefits. Case-study results indicate that community gardens foster cohesion and vitality, generating bonding, bridging, and linking social capital. The study identifies two categories: "place-based" gardens, which are territorially embedded, and "interest-based" gardens, which may span diverse communities.

Simon Mariwah, Jan-Olof Drangert · Waste Management & Research The Journal for a Sustainable Circular Economy · Ghana

A study in a peri-urban agricultural community in Ghana explored attitudes towards sanitized human excreta as fertilizer, collecting data from 154 households. It found a general negative attitude towards fresh excreta and its handling. While residents accepted excreta could be used as fertilizer, they were unwilling to use it on their own crops or consume such fertilized crops.

Monica M. White · Race/Ethnicity Multidisciplinary Global Contexts · United States (Detroit)

This article analyzes the experience of black women activists in Detroit who engage in urban agriculture as a form of resistance. They use urban gardening to reassess cultural roots, reclaim personal power, and build a sense of community. The study examines their efforts to transform vacant land into a community-based food system and safe, green spaces, challenging racial and class-based barriers to healthy food access.

Gerald Forkuor, Olufunke Cofie · International Journal of Remote Sensing · Sierra Leone (Freetown)

A land-use and land-cover (LULC) change mapping exercise in Freetown, Sierra Leone, used multi-temporal Landsat data from 1974, 1986, and 2000 to map nine LULC classes. Built-up areas increased by at least 140% between 1974 and 2000, and 882 ha (27%) of agricultural lands in 1986 were converted to residential purposes by 2000. These conversions indicate a strong link between urbanization, agriculture, and deforestation, negatively impacting agricultural land availability.