Research & reports

Leonardo Lopes Rufino, Guillermo Gamarra-Rojas, Mary Anne Medeiros Bandeira, José Ribamar Furtado de Souza, José Newton Pires Reis · Extensão Rural · Brazil

A multi-case study based on content analysis examined the "Living Pharmacy" (Farmácia Viva, FV) initiative in Fortaleza, Ceará, Brazil, characterizing its operating dynamics, social actors, and alignment with the state's medicinal plant policy. The FVs operate in areas marked by poverty and social marginality, handling production, consumption, and distribution of medicinal plants, with 30% also supplying phytotherapeutic demand for Brazil's public health system (SUS); the social actors envisioned by the policy were largely absent except at the FVs run by the Federal University of Ceará (UFC) and the Phytotherapeutics Center, where community members, academics, and patients partially substituted for them, acting simultaneously as producers, processing technicians, and beneficiaries.

Becky Griffin · Journal of Extension · United States

A report on the University of Georgia Extension's multitiered approach to supporting school gardens, developed to assist educators with no horticultural experience while making efficient use of Extension agents' time and resources. The approach combines a beginning-steps publication, hands-on garden training, and school garden associations, and is reported to have produced more sustainable school gardens with reduced frustration for both school gardeners and Extension agents.

Jennifer M. Kreslake · Health Equity · United States

An online survey of 605 residents in California (Los Angeles/Orange), Florida (Miami-Dade/Broward), and Arizona (Maricopa) counties, conducted in July 2018, used multivariable ordered logistic regression to test whether perceived importance of local climate change adaptation and mitigation measures differed by social and medical factors, controlling for age, political party, and county. Lower income was associated with higher perceived importance of improved emergency alerts, government-subsidized air conditioners and energy-efficient appliances, strengthening buildings against extreme weather, greenhouse gas regulation, "cooling" urban planning technologies, and expanding community gardens and local agriculture. Black respondents rated evacuation services for those with financial barriers, subsidized appliance costs, and government communication about climate impacts as significantly more important than non-Black, non-Hispanic respondents, while Hispanic respondents rated several measures, including improved emergency alerts, as significantly more important than non-Hispanic respondents.

Jamille Cavalcante Santos, Valdinéia Gusmão Silva · · Brazil

A study analyzed the feasibility of establishing an organic community garden at Erivaldo Cerqueira Lagoon Park in Feira de Santana, Bahia, Brazil, using interviews with park visitors. It concluded that implementing the garden is viable and desired by the majority of the visitors interviewed.

Ruth W. Moyer, John M. MacDonald, Greg Ridgeway, Charles C. Branas · American Journal of Public Health 109(1): 140-144 · United States (Philadelphia)

A citywide cluster-randomized trial assigning 541 Philadelphia vacant lots across 110 geographic clusters to a greening intervention, a minimal mow-and-clean intervention, or control. Shooting incidents fell significantly in the greening arm (-6.8%, 95% CI -10.6 to -2.7) and the clean-and-green arm (-9.2%, 95% CI -13.2 to -4.8), with no evidence of displacement to adjacent areas. Concludes that inexpensive, scalable vacant-land remediation significantly reduces shootings resulting in serious injury or death, and recommends cities pilot place-based interventions to reduce firearm violence.

Vergara, S.E., Silver, W.L. · Environmental Research Letters · United States

A study measuring greenhouse gas emission patterns and emission factors from windrow composting of organic waste. The methane emission factor was 1.7 ± 0.32 g CH4/kg wet feedstock, CO2 was 19 ± 3.7 g CO2/kg, and nitrous oxide was below instrument detection limits. Life-cycle emissions, accounting for avoided emissions and carbon sequestration, were negative at −690 g CO2-e/kg, indicating a net mitigation benefit.

Duren, R.M., et al. · Nature · United States

Using an airborne imaging spectrometer to survey more than 272,000 infrastructure elements, this study measured methane point-source emissions across California. Net methane point-source emissions were estimated at 0.618 teragrams per year (95% CI 0.523-0.725), equivalent to 34-46% of the state's total methane inventory. Ten percent of point sources contributed roughly 60% of point-source emissions, with landfills accounting for 41% of point-source emissions, dairies 26%, and oil and gas 26%.

NYC Department of Buildings · NYC Department of Buildings · United States

Per an NYC Department of Buildings service notice, beginning November 15, 2019, new buildings and buildings undergoing a complete roof deck or assembly replacement must provide a sustainable roofing zone covering 100% of the roof. That zone must include a solar photovoltaic system generating at least 4kW, a green roof system, or a combination of both.

Rachel Wimpee · Rockefeller Archive Center (RE:source) · United States

Published 1 November 2019, tracing the Ford Foundation's 1968 experiment in Program-Related Investments — $10 million authorised by its board — in the context of civil-rights-era support for Black entrepreneurship. It lent $500,000 to Leon Sullivan's Progress Plaza shopping centre in Philadelphia and generated a multiplier of roughly five dollars of outside investment for each Ford dollar. Yet some businesses failed and doubts surfaced early about whether foundations had the financial expertise required, raising the question of whether philanthropy should work inside the existing economic system or challenge it more directly.

Siegner A., Sowerwine J., Acey C. · Sustainability 10(9):2988 · United States

Systematic review of US urban agriculture and food systems literature. Finds strong emphasis on multiple benefits but few studies robustly measuring urban farms' impact on food security in low-income communities.

Nadal A., Cerón-Palma I., García-Gómez C., Pérez-Sánchez M., Rodríguez-Labajos B., Cuerva E., Josa A., Rieradevall J. · Land Use Policy 76:719-734 · Mexico

Through interviews with 65 stakeholders in Mérida's social housing, this study analyzes social perceptions of urban agriculture in low-income Latin American settings, exploring its potential for safe, nutritious food supply and social benefits.

Bail J. R., Frugé A. D., Cases M. G., De Los Santos J. F., Locher J. L., Smith K. P., Cantor A. B., Cohen H. J., Demark-Wahnefried W. · Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics 118(4):689-704 · United States

Pilot RCT of a home vegetable gardening intervention among older cancer survivors. The program was feasible and well-accepted, suggesting improved fruit and vegetable consumption, reassurance of worth, and attenuated waist-circumference increase.

Korn A., Bolton S.M., Spencer B., Alarcon J.A., Andrews L., Voss J.G. · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, Vol. 15, No. 8 · Peru (Lima)

A longitudinal pilot study examining the feasibility and health outcomes of household garden implementation in a Lima urban slum, collecting anthropometric and mental health data at baseline, 6 months, and 12 months, finding positive associations with nutritional status and wellbeing.

Nathan McClintock · Geography Compass · United States

This review proposes that the lens of "racial capitalism" can illuminate the contradictory motivations and outcomes of urban agriculture (UA). It examines how UA can contribute to racial Othering, the racialization of space, and dispossession on the one hand, while enabling struggles of resistance and self-determination on the other. The author uses this framework to address how settler-colonial logics persist in the contemporary North American city.

Lucy O. Diekmann, Leslie C. Gray, Gregory A. Baker · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · United States (Santa Clara County)

This research evaluates how three types of urban gardens in Santa Clara County, California—home gardens, community gardens, and community food security (CFS) program gardens for low-income families—contribute to food security using a multidimensional framework. In summer 2015, median production ranged from 26 kg (CFS participants) to 56 kg (home gardeners), enough for at least one adult to meet federal vegetable guidelines; interviews further showed gardeners valued knowledge, control, freshness, flavor, organic methods, and cultural acceptability, not just quantity.

Elizabeth A. Miernicki, Sarah Taylor Lovell, Sam E. Wortman · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · United States (Illinois)

A 2-year field experiment in Illinois compared urban production systems (direct soil, compost-only raised beds, and mixed compost-and-soil raised beds) and fertilizer sources for their effects on growing media, weeds, and vegetable yields. Compost raised beds had higher pH, organic matter, and nutrients and sharply reduced weeds, and the authors recommend raised beds with a mix of compost and soil for urban vegetable production.

Linda J. Young, Michael Hyman, Barbara R. Rater · Journal of Official Statistics · United States (Baltimore)

This pilot study explored a big-data approach to building a list frame for enumerating urban agriculture, which is challenging because urban agricultural holdings tend to be small, diverse, dispersed and transient. Conducted by USDA's National Agricultural Statistics Service in the City of Baltimore, it identified areas of potential agricultural activity by gathering web-based information (permits, Facebook and Twitter feeds, interest groups) and then verified a sample via in-person survey. The paper presents the pilot results and discusses lessons learned and next steps.

Gail Ann Langellotto, Andony Melathopoulos, Isabella Messer, Aaron Anderson, Nathan McClintock, Lucas Costner · Sustainability · United States (Portland, Oregon)

This study sampled bees from gardens in the Portland, Oregon metropolitan area and estimated typical foraging distances to assess whether urban gardens might supply pollination services to surrounding agricultural land. It estimates that when pollination-dependent crops are nearby, 30–50% of the garden bee community could potentially provide pollination services to adjacent crops, suggesting urban gardens could provision neighboring farms or serve as a refuge for pollinators.

Dietlinde Heilmayr, Howard S Friedman · Journal of Health Psychology · United States

Framing community gardening as a promising but under-evidenced multifaceted health intervention, this paper presents one of the first experimental studies on the topic. The results showed promise for aspects of community gardening while underscoring the need for more rigorous methodologies, and the article offers a framework for studying the health effects of community gardening and similar multifaceted health-promotion efforts.

· Chemosphere · USA (Minnesota)

Perfluoroalkyl substances (PFASs) were found in garden produce grown at homes with a history of PFAS-contaminated drinking water, showing home gardens can be a PFAS exposure pathway.

McClintock N. · Annals of the American Association of Geographers · USA

Demonstrates how urban agriculture becomes entangled in eco-gentrification, arguing that eco-gentrification is not merely a side effect of an urban sustainability fix but is central to how racial capitalism operates through green urbanization.

Egerer M., Fairbairn M. · Geoforum · California, USA

Under rapid urbanization on California's central coast, social tensions permeate garden boundaries and shape internal relations. Conflicts over membership rules, resource management, and theft of produce erode community cohesion within the gardens.

Calancie Larissa, Allen Nicole E., Ng Shu Wen, Weiner Bryan J., Ward Dianne S., Ware William B., Ammerman Alice S. · American Journal of Community Psychology · USA

Quantitatively evaluates US food policy councils, modelling links between council characteristics and policy activity. Reveals many councils have limited capacity and achieve modest policy engagement, identifying structural weaknesses that constrain their effectiveness as governance bodies.

Jeremy Németh, Alessandro Rigolon · Cities · USA (Chicago, The 606)

Case study of Chicago's publicly-backed 606 greenway showing how reliance on park nonprofits to deliver large green-infrastructure projects accelerates environmental gentrification: the governance model disclaims responsibility for the displacement it causes.

Daniele Eckert Matzembacher, Fábio Bittencourt Meira · British Food Journal · Brazil

This exploratory case study investigated two Brazilian Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) initiatives over two years and six months using participant observation, ethnography, interviews, and secondary data. It found that the analyzed CSA activities integrate social, environmental, and economic sustainability dimensions, providing guaranteed sales and higher incomes for producers, and emphasizing sustainability education for consumers. The findings cannot be extrapolated to broader populations due to the exploratory nature of the study.