Research & reports

Victoria Schoen, Chris Blythe, Silvio Caputo, Runrid Fox-Kämper, Kathrin Specht, Agnès Fargue‐Lelièvre, Nevin Cohen, Lidia Poniży, Konstancja Fedeńczak · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Global North

This 2021 paper, based on data collected in summer 2020 from five Global North countries (France, Germany, Poland, UK, USA), examined the effects of COVID-19 on urban farms and gardens. The pandemic presented multiple challenges, including loss of support services, lost income, and reduced output due to labor supply issues. It also created opportunities like new local markets and increased community cohesion, demonstrating how gardens adapted to become more resilient.

Christina Ergas · · Cuba

This chapter examines Cuba's urban agricultural food production, which developed through top-down government initiatives that later decentralized and subsidized local efforts in response to resource scarcity. While Cuban urban farmworkers' cooperatives enable local residents to sell produce at low costs, the program still faces social environmental stumbling blocks despite its successes in achieving high human development with a small ecological footprint.

Baerbel Turner-Hill, Christian Ludwig, Lena Böttger · Ecozon European Journal of Literature Culture and Environment · Global

This paper examines school gardens as spaces for enhancing students' English language competencies and fostering critical environmental literacy. It discusses garden-based education as a form of outdoor learning and argues for its use in teaching English as a foreign language, drawing on Gardner's multiple intelligences model. The paper also reports on a school garden-based seminar for EFL teacher training at the University of Education Karlsruhe, Germany.

Jamie Wang · Humanities · Singapore

This article explores the rise of urban farming in Singapore, following small- to medium-scale urban farms, including rooftop gardens, community farms, and organic farms, through the politics of localism and the notion of care. It investigates how localism, in some contexts, has been reduced to a narrow sense of geographic location. The study also examines what is being cared for in urban farming and how it might transform bio-cultural and social-technological relations.

Gianluca Di Fiore, Kathrin Specht, Cesare Zanasi · International Journal of Urban Sustainable Development · Global

This study conducted a literature review on different approaches to analyzing stakeholders' and farmers' perceptions of urban agriculture (UA). The review identified main approaches for assessing these aspects and designed an integrated framework to support the development of context-tailored analytical approaches for UA drivers and stakeholder perceptions. The research aims to address potential conflicts between UA practitioners and urban stakeholders and adapt UA implementation to contextual factors.

María Moreno Jaimes · Revista EDUCARE - UPEL-IPB - Segunda Nueva Etapa 2 0 · Venezuela

This qualitative action research study in Capachalito, Tovar Municipality, Aragua State, Venezuela, developed an action plan to improve residents' quality of life by encouraging parents, students, and teachers to resume school garden practices within the School Feeding Program. The study, based on a Socio-Critical Paradigm and Participatory Action Research, aimed to support food sovereignty and security. It highlighted the importance of endogenous development and sustainable community agriculture for reviving traditional knowledge related to family and school gardens.

Anne Kersten · transcript Verlag eBooks · Global

This paper describes the works "Neighbourhood Fruit Forages," "Fruitmaps" (both since 2004), and "Double Standard" (2008) by Fallen Fruit, which relate to urban agriculture, activism, and community. These works were published in "Kunst und Landwirtschaft" on page 143.

Mitchell Klein, Bethany Cox, Kelsie Tuck, Tom Baker, Ryan Jones, Salene Schloffel‐Armstrong · New Zealand Geographer · New Zealand (Auckland)

This study examines how temporary urbanism contributes to the production of publicness, focusing on the Auckland Night Markets in New Zealand. It discusses how these events generate publicness through the attendees' experiences, control practices, and spatial configuration. The findings support the view of public space and publicness as pluralistic and dynamic.

Jennifer Marcela López Ríos Admon, Cristina María Mejía Merino, Carmen Estefanía Frías Epinayú · Revista Espanola De Nutricion Comunitaria-spanish Journal of Community Nutrition · Colombia

This Community Based Participatory Research (CBPR) aimed to publicize and evaluate food security microprojects created with three Wayuu indigenous communities in La Guajira, Colombia, involving 46 families (204 people). Strategies included creating community gardens as a sustainable alternative for autonomy and ancestral practice rescue, intercultural nutritional education, and community strengthening based on life plans.

Milah Zainal, Rosmiza M.Z. · International Journal of Asian Social Science · Malaysia

This study explored the condition of social assets among eight urban farmers in community gardens in Klang Valley, Malaysia, through in-depth interviews and thematic analysis. The interviews revealed that urban farmers possessed strong social assets, including family support, relationships with extension agents, group member participation, and broad networking. These social assets motivated agricultural activities, facilitating knowledge sharing, access to inputs and materials, community garden development, technology transfer, and cooperation.

Aleksandra Nowysz · Buildings · Global

This paper addresses the issue of food systems in urban development, describing residential area ideas that integrate cities with food production, particularly agrarian cooperatives. Historical projects aimed for self-sufficiency and sustainability, while contemporary projects demonstrate that urban agriculture performs key functions in residential architecture. Production in urban agriculture extends beyond private goods for market or own use.

Susana Toboso‐Chavero, Gara Villalba, Xavier Gabarrell, Cristina Madrid‐López · Journal of Industrial Ecology · Global

This study developed an integrated framework for designing sustainable roof mosaic scenarios, combining urban farming, solar energy, and rainwater harvesting on unused rooftops of housing estates. Applied to a 66,433 m² rooftop area, the framework involved multi-scale and multi-dimensional analysis. Five participatory-designed rooftop scenarios were found to improve residents' resource self-sufficiency, providing 42–53% of vegetable consumption, 9–35% of electricity, and 38–200% of water needs, depending on the scenario.

Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern, Anne C. Bellows, Rick Welsh, Mary Kiernan · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Global

This article is a remembrance of Evan Weissman, a food studies scholar and urban geographer who passed away in spring 2020. His academic contributions focused on local food policy, community food systems, food system inequality, and urban agriculture. This special issue reflects his work and enduring impact on food justice and sustainable agricultural and regional planning.

Marco Boffi, Linda Pola, Natalia Fumagalli, Elisabetta Fermani, Giulio Senes, Paolo Inghilleri · Frontiers in Psychology · Global

This study presents an interdisciplinary co-design method for community gardens, applying attention restoration theory (ART) to understand older people's experiences in natural environments. Six focus group meetings with older people in Milan, Italy, informed the co-design of a restorative area in an Ortica district community garden. Results classified participants' main needs into ART factors: "compatibility" (multifunctional garden), "fascination" (contact with nature), and "being away" (escape from nursing homes), with the designed garden incorporating biophilic principles to address these needs.

Sofia Nikolaidou · Cahiers de la Méditerranée · Greece (Athens)

This article analyzed the role of peri-urban agriculture and alternative food networks (AFN) in the Athens metropolitan area, Greece, using a mixed method approach including qualitative, quantitative research, and spatial data collection. Bottom-up claims for food security positively impacted sustainable food systems and public policies, while informal retail channels and self-production schemes strengthened agricultural resilience. However, poor land management and zoning control are major constraints to sustainable agricultural production and farmers' resilience in the Athens metropolitan area.

Margaret Robertson · · Global

Chapter 13 examines how food is grown, from smallholders and pastoralists to small farmers and industrialized agriculture, addressing issues of ecosystem health, human health, food waste, and the impact of meat diets. It also discusses the importance of pollinators. The chapter then explores finding space for food in cities, including in schools, yards, urban farms, community gardens, and on public lands.

Anne Forbes, Vinesh Chandra, Linda Pfeiffer, Rachel Sheffield · Cambridge University Press eBooks · Australia

This textbook, "STEM Education in the Primary School," introduces pre-service teachers to the theory, skills, and practice of teaching STEM through a project-based learning approach. It integrates STEM with the Australian Curriculum using a school garden project case study and explores popular STEM topics with age-appropriate project examples. The text connects current research in STEM education to teaching practice, offering guidance for implementing projects and practices in the classroom.

Femke Beute, Maria Beatrice Andreucci, Annamária Lammel, Zoe G. Davies, Julie Glanville, Hans Keune, Melissa Marselle, Liz O’Brien, Agnieszka Olszewska-Guizzo, Roy Remmen, Alessio Russo, S. de Vries · Research Repository (University of Gloucestershire) · Global

This paper discusses the role of diverse urban green spaces, such as urban forests, parks, and urban farming locations, in the mental and physical health of urban residents. It notes that green spaces vary in characteristics like scenic beauty and vegetative composition. The paper highlights that urbanization and climate change are pressuring urban green spaces, necessitating in-depth knowledge on how different green space types and characteristics influence mental health for informed design and planning.

T’uy’t’tanat-Cease Wyss · Public · Global

T’uy’t’tanat-Cease Wyss has dedicated her life to Indigenous plant remediation and restoration projects supporting wetland ecosystems, food forests, and their wild inhabitants. This work aims to restore what was taken from the natural world over the past 150 years, ensuring the survival of future ancestors. Interdisciplinary documentation, including true plant names in Indigenous languages, ensures future generations remain connected to the natural world.

Esther Sigauke · The Journal of Environmental Education · Zimbabwe

This study focused on an instrumental case study of urban agriculture on a wetland in Zimbabwe, exploring how design thinking can augment focus group discussions to enhance public engagement. Design thinking, oriented towards solving complex problems, was implemented prior to focus group discussions to generate potential solutions connecting farmers to the wetland. The study showed that, if properly planned and executed, design thinking can be instrumental in enhancing the effectiveness of focus group discussions.

Rosa Maria Pereira da Silva · · Global

This qualitative research explored the use of an Inclusive School Garden as a pedagogical intervention for 15 students, including two with multiple disabilities, focusing on science education through tactile perception. The research involved preparing the garden with recyclable materials and creating inclusive pedagogical tools like Braille cells and a tactile map. In the garden environment, students with visual impairments were able to recognize, touch, identify, and compare vegetables and medicinal plants, and write their names in Braille.

Kate Lohrey, Patricia Talarczyk · Journal of Student Research · Global

An experiment over six weeks investigated the impact of traffic noise pollution on plant growth in urban community gardens. Plants exposed to traffic noise showed significantly reduced average height (65.6 mm vs 104.2 mm) and weight (0.85 g vs 1.31 g) compared to those in natural noise conditions. The study found a statistically significant deteriorating effect of traffic noise on plant growth.

Anne Forbes, Vinesh Chandra, Linda Pfeiffer, Rachel Sheffield · Cambridge University Press eBooks · Australia

The textbook "STEM Education in the Primary School" introduces pre-service teachers to the theory, skills, and practice of teaching STEM through a project-based learning approach. Science, technology, engineering, and mathematics are presented as professions, mindsets, and practices, with each STEM element integrated into the Australian Curriculum via a school garden project case study. This textbook connects current research in STEM education to teaching practice, discussing topics such as assessment, learning spaces, community, and STEM futures in detail.

Francesc Fusté‐Forné, María Fusté Forné · Resources · Global

This research, based on ten semi-structured interviews, analyzes the relationship between urban gardens and family tourism. It finds that urban gardens are relevant for creating sustainable experiences that connect families with local food, enhance local supply chains, and inform the future of urban environments. Urban gardens serve as visitor attractions that integrate horticulture into tourism through participatory experiences and direct contact with nature.

Rosângela Oliveira Soares, Paulino Varela Tavares, Fátima Regina Zan, Artur Cristóvão, Manuel Luís Tibério · Desenvolvimento em Questão · Global

This study proposed a bibliometric analysis using pattern recognition based on peer-reviewed journal publications focusing on Community-Supported Agriculture (CSA). Using a Web of Science dataset, publications from 1997 to 2019 were analyzed with semantic citation/co-citation metrics. The analysis identified three major themes—motivations, process, and context—in CSA research, indicating a growing trend in studies related to proximity networks, cooperation, alternative systems, and sustainable development.