Research & reports

Setyardi Pratika Mulya, Delik Hudalah · Regional Sustainability · Indonesia

This study assessed sustainability based on agricultural intensity in peri-urban villages of Karawang Regency, Indonesia, using a village agriculture index (VAI), a village sustainability index (VSI) adapted from a local sustainability index via factor analysis, and a logical matrix analysis for level of agricultural sustainability (LoAS). Peri-urban villages with high agricultural intensity tended to show lower social welfare and economic development and higher disaster risk; high agricultural intensity did not necessarily ensure prosperity, and economic disparity existed among villages, leading the study to conclude that encouraging diversity in agricultural intensity is more important than promoting agricultural intensity itself.

Elżbieta Skorbiłowicz, Piotr Ofman, Mirosław Skorbiłowicz, Marcin Sidoruk, Urszula Tarasiuk · Water · Poland

This study assessed heavy metal contamination in 96 surface sediment samples collected from urban, agricultural, and forested areas of the Bug River catchment in Poland between July 2018 and 2020, measuring metals (Zn, Pb, Cr, Ni, Cu, Fe, Mn, Cd) by atomic absorption spectroscopy and applying the geoaccumulation index (Igeo), contamination factor (CF), and pollution load index (PLI). Urban sediments showed significantly higher heavy metal concentrations than agricultural or forested areas, with cadmium reaching up to 2.5 mg/kg; the average Igeo for cadmium was 0.24 in agricultural areas and 0.15 in urban areas, while the highest PLI values, reaching a maximum of 0.33, occurred in urban areas, and statistical analysis showed both urban emissions and agricultural activities significantly influenced heavy metal presence in the sediments.

Edson Fonseca de Oliveira, René Eugênio Seifert, Thiago Cavalcante Nascimento, Luan Matheus Pedrozo Kolachnek · Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural · Brazil

A qualitative, descriptive-exploratory multicase comparative study of Curitiba, Brazil, characterized three modes of urban agriculture organization based on Feniman's (2014) typology: Assisted, Vernacular, and Politicized. The Assisted mode was technically driven and dependent on government assistance, favoring production of market-value species, with formalized social structures that limited internal and external social integration and less use of unconventional production technologies. The Vernacular mode had an informal, affective structure valuing ancestral knowledge and traditional practices anchored in strong family ties. The Politicized mode expressed participants' desire to make urban agriculture integrative, alternative, sovereign, autonomous, and innovative, but showed limitations in building a stable communal life.

· 農林水産省 農村振興局 · Japan

Certifications under the Urban Farmland Leasing Facilitation Act as of end-March 2024, with prefecture and municipality breakdowns. Read alongside the end-March 2025 tally, it gives the year-on-year trajectory of the scheme.

Composting Consortium (Closed Loop Partners) · Closed Loop Partners · United States

The largest field test of its kind in North America — 18 months, 10 facilities, over 23,000 units — found that certified compostable packaging breaks down in properly managed compost facilities. Compostable plastics averaged 98% degradation by surface area and fiber packaging averaged 83%, both exceeding industry thresholds (90% and 80% respectively). The market is projected to grow 16% annually.

Cascadia Consulting Group · Washington State Department of Ecology · United States

A report to the Washington State legislature summarizing an advisory committee's research on standards for managing compostable products at composting facilities. Compostable products make up only 0.4% by weight of material sent to commercial compost facilities in the state, yet the associated contamination disproportionately raises processing costs, and consumer confusion is identified as a major driver of misdisposal.

農林水産省 · 農林水産省 · Japan

Guidance published by Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries (MAFF) in July 2024, anticipating increased use of biodegradable plastic bags for household food-waste collection. It requires that such bags be removed, or sufficiently decomposed so their breakdown products do not inhibit crop growth, at composting and biogas facilities.

· BioCycle · United States

A report on EREF's 2023 survey of U.S. landfill tipping fees. The national unweighted average fell to $56.80/ton, a 3% decrease from the prior year and the first decline since 2020, with fees dropping in most regions except the Northeast.

California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) · California Code of Regulations, Title 14 (via Cornell Law) · United States

A California regulation setting the physical contamination limit for compost: material larger than 4 mm must not exceed 0.5% by dry weight, of which film plastic must be no more than 20%. Operators must sample every 5,000 cubic yards.

Closed Loop Partners, Composting Consortium · Closed Loop Partners / Composting Consortium · United States

Closed Loop Partners' Composting Consortium conducted the largest known North American field test of certified, food-contact compostable packaging, analyzing over 23,000 units across nine commercial composting facilities. While roughly 70% of food waste composters already accept such packaging, the report says public data on actual disintegration performance and optimal composting conditions had been limited. Data will feed a public database and the first ASTM field test standard for compostable packaging.

Gemma Nohales, Mike Stinavage · Zero Waste Europe · Europe

The EU mandated separate collection of bio-waste across all Member States from 31 December 2023, but a LIFE BIOBEST survey of 14 Member States found economic, legal/administrative, organisational and technical barriers present in 86-100% of sampled countries. Only 7 of 27 Member States fully met the 2020 recycling targets, and only 9 are on track for the 2025 targets.

Advocates for Privately Owned Public Space (APOPS) · Advocates for Privately Owned Public Space (APOPS) / Municipal Art Society of New York · United States

New York City's 1961 zoning resolution created incentive zoning, letting private developers earn floor-area bonuses in exchange for providing public plazas and similar spaces. From 1961 to 2000, developers built more than 500 POPS, gaining about 16 million square feet of bonus floor area while providing roughly 80 acres of public space. However, a 1998–99 field survey found about half of POPS out of legal compliance, and a 2000 study rated 41% as of limited quality.

Claire Hamilton · BBC News · United Kingdom

In 2021 Liverpool City Council pledged to protect all 100 of the city's parks and green spaces — over 1,000 hectares of land — in partnership with charity Fields in Trust. By March 2024, only one, the park at Faulkner Square in the Georgian Quarter, had been formally placed in trust. The council said work was under way on 20 of the biggest and most strategically important sites, while local Friends groups expressed concern about the slow pace and development pressure.

農林水産省 · 農林水産省 · Japan

According to Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, farmland is classified into general farmland and urbanization-area farmland for fixed-asset tax purposes. General farmland is valued by comparable sale prices and taxed as farmland; urbanization-area farmland is generally valued at a rate comparable to residential land (minus development-cost equivalents), with 'general urbanization-area farmland' taxed similarly to farmland and 'designated urbanization-area farmland' taxed like residential land. Urbanization-area farmland (excluding productive green space) gets a one-third taxable-value reduction, and a burden-adjustment mechanism applies adjustment rates of 1.025, 1.05, 1.075, or 1.1 depending on whether the prior year's burden ratio was 0.9+, 0.8–0.9, 0.7–0.8, or below 0.7.

Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Department of the Treasury · Federal Register · United States

On 8 October 2024 the IRS and Treasury issued final regulations (TD 10007, RIN 1545-BQ39) identifying certain syndicated conservation easement transactions and substantially similar transactions as listed transactions, a type of reportable transaction. Material advisors and certain participants must file disclosures with the IRS and face penalties for failing to do so. Public comments on the proposed rule extensively discussed the so-called '2.5 times rule' — a multiple-of-investment threshold used to flag transactions.

Willowsford Conservancy · Willowsford Conservancy · United States

This 2024 FAQ from Willowsford Conservancy, the nonprofit tied to the Willowsford residential development in Virginia, explains that it operates independently from the developer and manages about 2,300 acres of open space (including 200+ acres of farmland and 2,000+ acres of grassland, wetland, and forest) plus 40+ miles of trails, funded in part by a 0.25% transfer fee paid by homebuyers. Its seven-seat board currently has six resident members, and the resident-led board structure began in 2021.

千島土地株式会社 · 千島土地株式会社 · Japan

Chishima Land Co. launched the 'Kitakagaya Creative Farm Project' in 2011 in Suminoe Ward, Osaka, and opened 'Minna no Uen Kitakagaya' (Farm No. 2, at Kitakagaya 5-2-29) the following year, 2012. Conceived as a way to activate vacant land for community revitalization, the urban farm combines art and agriculture and emphasizes communication among participants; it is currently operated by the general incorporated association Goodluck.

農林水産省 · 農林水産省 · Japan

This MAFF document chronicles the institutional history of urban farmland policy in Japan. The 1968 City Planning Act (Showa 43) defined 'urbanization promotion areas' (shigaika kuiki) as areas that should be urbanized preferentially and systematically within roughly 10 years. In 1970 an Agricultural Land Act revision changed farmland conversion in these areas from a permit system to a notification system, and in 1972 fixed asset tax began being assessed at residential-land rates on farmland there. The 1974 Productive Green Space Act (Seisan Ryokuchi Ho) exempted farmland designated as productive green space from that residential-rate taxation, and a 1975 inheritance-tax deferral system (with a 20-year deferral period) was created. In 1991, the tax deferral for the three major metropolitan areas' designated cities was narrowed to apply only to productive green space.

USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) · USDA Economic Research Service · United States

A USDA Economic Research Service 'Chart of Note' based on the 2022 Census of Agriculture. 39% of the 880 million acres of U.S. farmland was rented or leased in 2022, a rate similar to 2017. Rental activity is concentrated in grain-producing regions such as the Mississippi River corridor, Corn Belt, and Northern Plains, with roughly two-thirds (68%) of rented farmland on operations of 2,000 acres or more.

東京都 · 東京都例規集 · Japan

Article 6 of the enforcement rules for the Tokyo nature protection ordinance sets the detailed greening standards: ground-level greening must cover 0.2-0.35 times (site area minus building footprint), depending on site size (Appended Table 2); building-top (rooftop) greening must cover 0.2-0.35 times the rooftop area (Appended Table 4); street-facing greening ratios range from 3/10 to 8/10 (Appended Table 3); and planting density is set at 1 tall tree, 2 medium trees, and 3 shrubs per 10 sqm. Enacted in 2001, most recently amended in March 2024.

国土交通省 · 国土交通省 · Japan

MLIT's national survey of rooftop and wall greening construction results for FY2023 found about 15.7 hectares of new rooftop greening (roughly three Tokyo Domes) and 5.0 hectares of new wall greening that year, bringing the cumulative totals since FY2000 to about 615 hectares of rooftop greening and 125 hectares of wall greening. The survey was mailed to 560 companies nationwide with 284 responses (a 50.7% response rate).

東京都環境局 · 東京都環境局 · Japan

In 2024, the Tokyo Metropolitan Government's Bureau of Environment named the Ginza Honeybee Project (an NPO started in spring 2006) as an Excellence Award winner in the first Tokyo-NbS Action Award. The organization supplies honey gathered within a 2 km radius to department stores and restaurants as a local product, and also grows sweet potatoes on rooftops (processed into shochu), cultivates plants used for washi paper, and runs environmental education programs; in 2024 honey production reached about 2.7 tonnes and roughly 18,000 people took part in hands-on programs.

環境省 · 環境省 (Ministry of the Environment, Japan) · Japan

On 21 June 2024, Japan's Ministry of the Environment published its estimate of national food loss for FY2022 (Reiwa 4), totaling approximately 4.72 million tonnes (2.36 million tonnes from businesses, 2.36 million tonnes from households), down about 510,000 tonnes from FY2021's 5.23 million tonnes (2.79 million business, 2.44 million household). The government's goal is to halve food loss by FY2030 relative to FY2000 levels.

農林水産省 · 農林水産省 (Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries, Japan) · Japan

On 21 June 2024, Japan's Ministry of Agriculture, Forestry and Fisheries announced that business-sector food loss for FY2022 fell to 2.36 million tonnes, meeting the national target of halving business food loss from the FY2000 baseline of 5.47 million tonnes to 2.73 million tonnes by FY2030. This is a decrease of 430,000 tonnes (15.4%) from the prior year's 2.79 million tonnes.

Stephanie Hinnershitz · The National WWII Museum · United States

Published 26 November 2024, this article from The National WWII Museum describes the U.S. Victory Garden movement of 1942-1945, during which Americans tended more than 20 million gardens, producing 42 percent of the nation's fresh produce (10 billion pounds) in 1943 alone. It also notes that 120,000 incarcerated Japanese Americans were made to garden in internment camps.