Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
1626 results(49 / 66)
Growing an Urban Oasis: A Qualitative Study of the Perceived Benefits of Community Gardening inBaltimore,Maryland
2014Melissa N. Poulsen, Kristyna R. S. Hulland, Carolyn A. Gulas, Hieu M. Pham, Sarah L Dalglish, Rebecca K. Wilkinson, Peter J. Winch · Culture Agriculture Food and Environment · United States (Baltimore)
This qualitative study explored the perceived benefits of community gardening in Baltimore, Maryland, through in-depth and focus group interviews with community gardeners. Gardeners reported benefits at multiple levels, including psychological benefits and a connection with nature individually, trusting relationships and shared learning at the neighborhood level, and reclaiming city space and improving the food environment at the community level.
CommunityHealthFood educationBiodiversityCritical Food Forest Scan & Ideas for a Food Forest in Peterborough: Includes Final Report
2014Melissa Johnston, Andre Knight-Lira, Zoë Mager, Nadine Mulrooney, Matthew Poppleton, Samantha Shaw, Matthew Wilkinson · · Canada (Peterborough)
This document compiles research reports written by students in the Environmental Resource Studies/Science (ERTS) 3160H class at Trent University in the winter of 2014. The students critically examined urban food forests around the world and made suggestions for designing a food forest in Peterborough. Urban food forests have the potential to provide the same services as current urban forests, but also produce food and perhaps increase biodiversity in the process.
CommunityFood educationBiodiversityUrban–rural linkageSustaining Sustainability: a Management Plan for ACRES Student Farm
2014Sarah Legg · Figshare · United States (Wyoming)
ACRES Student Farm, a University of Wyoming organization, has grown significantly over six years, providing local produce, CSA shares, composting, and educational opportunities. However, the farm suffers from continuous losses in efficiency and acquired knowledge due to the transient nature of its student management and workforce, leading to unsustainable internal functioning. This project aims to develop a management plan and handbook to address these issues and improve the farm's operational efficiency.
Governance failureCSA & TeikeiCompostFood educationCommunityIntegrating Public Health And Community Development To Tackle Neighborhood Distress And Promote Well-Being
2014Manuel Pastor, Rachel Morello‐Frosch · Health Affairs · United States (California)
This article reviews shifts in community development, highlighting programs that integrate community development, public health, and civic engagement to address neighborhood distress and promote well-being. Examples include Sacramento, California's Building Healthy Communities program, which promoted community gardens and bike paths, and San Francisco, California's Sunnydale-Velasco housing revitalization initiative, which is transforming a public housing site into a mixed-income community. These cases illustrate the importance of interdisciplinary approaches for economic mobility, democratic participation, and community health.
CommunityHealthPolicyExamining the Underlying Values of Food Security Programming: Implications for the Social Work Profession
2014Sarah Himmelheber · Journal of Progressive Human Services · United States
This study discusses incongruities between social work's professional values and dominant public and private responses to food insecurity. Empowerment theory is positioned as an evaluative lens to examine food assistance, and dominant forms of food assistance are scrutinized using its basic tenets. Innovative programs, including community gardens, community kitchens, and D.C. Central Kitchen, are highlighted for their potential to yield empowering outcomes.
CommunityWelfareFood sovereignty & justiceParadise, Future
2014Pierrette Hondagneu‐Sotelo · · United States (California)
This chapter discusses possibilities for rethinking and reinventing new models of garden making in Southern California and metropolitan regions more generally. In Southern California, diverse gardens promoting environmental and cultural sustainability, shared backyard gardening, organic vegetable gardening, wall gardens, and lawn removal efforts are observed. The chapter reviews these projects, looking at new efforts in private residential gardens, urban community gardens, and public spaces, with a focus on immigration and the Southern California region.
CommunityPolicyBiodiversityHealthUrban Agriculture Policy Making in New York’s “New Political Spaces”
2014Nevin Cohen, Kristin Reynolds · Journal of Planning Education and Research · United States (New York City)
This article examines urban agriculture (UA) policy-making processes in New York City, focusing on aspects of UA not fully addressed by existing policies, plans, and research strategies. Interviews with UA stakeholders and an analysis of the city’s UA policy-making processes show that resource needs and race- and class-based disparities within the UA system persist.
Equity & displacementPolicyCommunityEconomicsLet it grow: urban gardens and food access in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania
2014Katherine Luke · D-Scholarship@Pitt (University of Pittsburgh) · United States (Pittsburgh)
This study used a door-to-door survey in six Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania neighborhoods to measure the impact of community gardens on residents' perceptions of food access. It found that many gardeners do not consider gardening to improve their personal food security, and despite geographic proximity and expressed interest, community garden participation rates were low. Social and emotional barriers, including lack of gardening knowledge and racial prejudice, appeared to prevent residents from becoming active participants.
Limited or null effectCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceHealthWelfareEizenberg, Efrat. 2013. From the ground up: community gardens in New York City and the politics of spatial transformation. Farnham: Ashgate. Reviewed by Matt W. Murray
2014Matt Murray · Journal of Political Ecology · United States (New York City)
Efrat Eizenberg's book "From the Ground Up" explores New York City's community gardens as spaces that resist the commodification of land. The book details the history of these gardens, including their emergence during the 1970s economic crisis when primarily Black and Hispanic residents transformed vacant land into communal green spaces. As the real estate market recovered in the 1980s, land values increased, and many gardens were threatened by gentrification pressures. Eizenberg analyzes these transformations at individual, collective, and institutional levels, highlighting how gardeners create common spaces, solidify interpersonal ties, and organize to defend their gardens.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyEconomicsAbordagem Complexa e Desenvolvimento Local por meio do Turismo Solidário: o caso da rede “Brasilidade Solidária”
2014Rafael Ângelo Fortunato, Elza Neffa · Revista Turismo em Análise · Brazil
This article reflects on the potential of solidarity tourism for local development, analyzing the "Horta Comunitária do Morro da Coroa" community garden in Brazil. Based on a literature review, phenomenology, and one year of participant observation, the study identified the potential of the "6Vs" of solidarity tourism as pillars for a new concept. It also found that network formation, as proposed, is an important instrument for political action aimed at strengthening local development initiatives.
CommunityEconomicsBuilding a Better Office of Sustainability: Promoting Sustainable Change and Educational Outreach at WKU
2014Andrew Salman · TopSCHOLAR (Western Kentucky University) · United States (Bowling Green)
This research documented the transformation of a house in Bowling Green, KY, into a model sustainability home by the WKU Office of Sustainability as a case study. Using LEED Core Concepts, the study assessed the benefits of weatherization, solar energy array installation, and the conversion of the backyard into an edible landscape and community garden to mitigate stormwater flooding. Procedural and institutional barriers to sustainability initiatives were analyzed, and exceptional results, such as the collaborative community gardening organization Project Grow, were described as a model for other institutions.
CommunityClimate changeFood educationAssociation between community garden participation and fruit and vegetable consumption in rural Missouri
2013Barnidge E. K., Hipp P. R., Estlund A., Duggan K., Barnhart K. J., Brownson R. C. · International Journal of Behavioral Nutrition and Physical Activity 10:128 · United States
Survey study in rural Missouri. Community garden participants were significantly more likely than non-participants to eat fruit 2+ times and vegetables 3+ times daily after adjustment (OR=2.76).
HealthCommunity‘We don’t have no neighbourhood’: Advanced marginality and urban agriculture in Detroit
2013Paul Joseph Draus, Juliette Roddy, Anthony McDuffie · Urban Studies · United States (Detroit)
Based on 20 qualitative interviews with people working or living in a heavily depopulated section of Detroit slated for an urban agriculture project, this paper examines residents' views of the project, which proposes using vacant land and marginalized residents to produce marketable products. Most respondents had little hope for neighborhood improvement and few expectations that urban agriculture would change daily life, viewing some efforts with suspicion. Drawing on concepts of advanced marginality and neighborhood effects, the authors argue idealistic urban agriculture efforts must do more to engage residents and address legacies of displacement.
CommunityEconomicsSpatial Variation of Soil Lead in an Urban Community Garden: Implications for Risk‐Based Sampling
2013Lauren Bugdalski, Lawrence D. Lemke, Shawn P. McElmurry · Risk Analysis · United States (Detroit, MI)
This study examined small-scale spatial variability of soil lead within a 15 × 30 m urban community garden plot on two adjacent residential lots in Detroit, Michigan, analyzing 80 samples for total, fine-fraction, and bioaccessible lead. Concentrations varied at 1–10 m scales with a hot spot exceeding 400 ppm, and Monte Carlo simulations showed that increasing sample numbers reduces the chance of missing hot spots while compositing reduces overestimation of the mean. The authors suggest US EPA sampling objectives and guidelines should be reconsidered for reclaimed city lots where soil lead is nonuniform.
HealthCommunityPolicyWhite Spaces in Black and Latino Places: Urban Agriculture and Food Sovereignty
2013Hoover B. · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development · USA
Argues that urban agriculture, largely championed by a middle-class white populace, creates 'white spaces' within Black and Latino places, overlooking the practice's historical roots in those communities and producing exclusion.
CommunityPolicyDeterminants of vacant lot conversion into community gardens: evidence from Philadelphia
2013In Kwon Park, Patricia Ciorici · International Journal of Urban Sciences · United States (Philadelphia)
This study in Philadelphia, United States, identified determinants of vacant lot conversion into community gardens using a logit model. Data on lot attributes were collected from the Philadelphia Neighbourhood Information System and a city-wide survey. The results indicate that neighborhood characteristics like poverty level, educational attainment, zoning, and owner occupancy, along with parcel characteristics such as ownership and topography, significantly impact the conversion.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsEnvironmental Challenges Threatening the Growth of Urban Agriculture in the United States
2013Sam E. Wortman, Sarah Taylor Lovell · Journal of Environmental Quality · United States
This review paper characterized the limited state of scientific knowledge regarding abiotic environmental factors threatening the growth of urban agriculture in the United States. It identified challenges influencing urban cropping systems, including soil contamination and remediation, atmospheric pollutants and altered climatic conditions, and water management, sources, and safety. The development of a science-based approach in these areas is noted as essential for the economic and environmental sustainability of urban agriculture.
Contamination & food safetyClimate changeEconomicsCommunityFood educationElementary School Gardens and the Community
2013Christine Moon, Rachel Spinelli · DigitalCommons - CalPoly (California State Polytechnic University) · United States (California)
This project proposes to examine the relationship between school garden initiatives and the socioeconomic status of the community in California, United States. It plans to compare five elementary schools, using Pacheco Elementary School as a model, to explore how socioeconomic factors affect the success of garden projects and their community contributions. The study aims to address these research questions through comparative analysis.
Food educationCommunityHealthUrban Farming Program Demonstrates Sustainable Practices for Increasing Local Food Production
2013Richard V. Tyson · Proceedings of the Florida State Horticultural Society · United States
Orange County, FL, with a population of 1.2 million, is rapidly urbanizing. In 1998, 20,000 acres of local vegetable production ceased due to concerns about phosphorus-laden water discharges into Lake Apopka, shifting the county from a net exporter to an importer of vegetables. The Urban Farming Extension Education Program aims to identify, demonstrate, and encourage the adoption of sustainable agricultural production methods usable in and around urban centers to leverage local markets.
Food educationCommunityUrban–rural linkageCommunity Supported Agriculture and Community Labor: Constructing a New Model to Unite Volunteers and Employers
2013A. Bryan Endres, Rachel Armstrong · · United States
This article discusses Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) and 'community labor,' where customers participate in food production on farms. It highlights a paradox: traditional employment law, envisioning autonomous competition, makes little room for these novel relationships, potentially undermining CSA values and limiting its viability and growth. The authors suggest that employment law should develop a more nuanced view of relationships in the CSA context, supporting mutual gain and shared values over competition-based rules.
Governance failureCSA & TeikeiEconomicsPolicyCommunityUsing Garden-Based Service-Learning to Work Toward Food Justice, Better Educate Students, and Strengthen Campus-Community Ties
2013David Aftandilian, Lyn Dart · Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship · United States
This article presents approaches for using garden-based service-learning to promote food justice, educate undergraduate students, and strengthen campus-community ties. It discusses three interdisciplinary service-learning projects: the Fairmount Community Garden, the North Side Garden Survey, and the Como Community Garden. The authors evaluate the success of their approaches using multiple measures and identify benefits for undergraduates, community partners, communities served by the gardens, educators, and their university.
CommunityFood educationFood sovereignty & justiceIntroducing urban food forestry: a multifunctional approach to increase food security and provide ecosystem services
2013Kyle Clark, Kimberly A. Nicholas · Landscape Ecology · United States (Burlington, Vermont)
This study proposes "urban food forestry" (UFF), combining urban agriculture, urban forestry, and agroforestry, to enhance urban sustainability and food security. It analyzed 37 urban food tree initiatives, finding 73% performed only one activity (planting, mapping, or harvesting) and 8% performed all three. An analysis of 30 urban forestry master plans showed only 13% included human food security objectives. A case study in Burlington, Vermont, estimated that planting Malus domestica in public spaces could meet 108% of the city's daily fruit intake under the most ambitious scenario. The study identified 70 potential food tree species for temperate urban environments, with 30 deemed highly suitable.
CommunityPolicyClimate changeFood sovereignty & justiceThe Symbolic Garden: An Intersection of the Food Movement and the First Amendment
2013Jamie M. Bouvier · Maine law review · United States
This essay argues that urban agricultural practices, such as growing food or raising animals, are symbolic acts that communicate viewpoints and support for the "Food Movement." It asserts that these acts, as symbolic expressions, deserve protection under the First Amendment. The article examines the Food Movement as a social and political movement, how urban homesteading practices symbolize it, and the application of First Amendment principles to these practices.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justicePolicyNot Just the Price of Food: Challenges of an Urban Agriculture Organization in Engaging Local Residents
2013Yuki Kato · Sociological Inquiry · United States (New Orleans)
This case study of a community-supported agriculture (CSA) organization in New Orleans focused on the lack of participation by local residents in the CSA market despite its intentions. Interview and ethnographic observation data indicated a general consensus on economic constraints, while some non-resident supporters attributed the issue to a lack of knowledge about the food system. Residents, however, pointed to spatial and sociocultural barriers, including produce selection, purchase options, market access convenience, and the race-related historical and spatial context of the market's location, making the market less accessible to them.
Equity & displacementCommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justicePolicyGrow Some!: Building Strong Communities through Community Gardens
2013Naomi Hill · Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) · United States (Chicago)
This study investigated the effects of community gardens in impoverished inner-city African-American neighborhoods in Chicago. The research focused on five themes: how community gardens are created, their mission, motivations for involvement, contributions to individuals and the overall community, and envisioned futures. Results indicated that community gardens are established through collective efforts by community members and maintained through active participation and ongoing recruitment.
CommunityWelfareHealthFood education