Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
3402 results(57 / 137)
Scoping Out Elements of Sociocultural Adaptation in European Urban Agriculture
2021Bianca Cavicchi, Atle Wehn Hegnes · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Europe
This paper explored elements of sociocultural adaptation (SCA) to innovation and climate change in European urban agriculture through a scoping-exploratory review of existing literature. The elements were categorized into three main categories. Key results indicate that socio-technical and socio-ecological innovations are critical to SCA, and some identified SCA elements are more central to the adaptation process than others.
CommunityClimate changePolicyTo What Extent Do Local Farmers' Markets, Community Supported Agriculture Programs, and Community Gardens Help Low-Income Families Improve Access to Fresh, Local Produce?
2021Christy Gene Somsen · Digital Commons - USU (Utah State University) · United States (Utah)
Farmers’ markets, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs, and community gardens, while aiming to help low-income families access fresh produce, often assist more middle-class families. In Utah, these programs could be improved, as the state does not utilize the WIC Farmers’ Market Nutrition Program or accept WIC Cash Value Vouchers, and has few Farm to School Programs.
Equity & displacementCommunityCSA & TeikeiWelfareHealthPolicyFood educationUrban Agriculture in Arusha City, Tanzania: Misconceptions and Realities
2021Pastory Salvatory Thomas, Wilbard Kombe, Aldo Lupala · Urban and Regional Planning · Tanzania
This qualitative study examined perceptions of urban agriculture among 60 urban farmers and officials in Arusha City, Tanzania, through interviews, observation, and literature review. Findings revealed that negative effects of urban agricultural activities influenced negative perceptions, which city officials seldom managed. While urban agriculture is acknowledged in policy, the critical effects of negative perceptions among stakeholders are considered less crucial in policy implications and formal governmental proclamations, despite their real-world impact.
Governance failurePolicyCommunityEconomicsClimate changePrácticas agroecológicas en la implementación de huertos urbanos y periurbanos
2021Sandra Patricia Montenegro Gómez, Yetfersson Arley Serrato Velosa, Yolvi Prada Millán · Universidad Nacional Abierta y a Distancia eBooks · Colombia
This paper contextualizes relevant experiences and technical tools for implementing urban and peri-urban agroecological orchards in Colombia. While urban and peri-urban agriculture yields positive results in food security, sustainability, and resilience, Colombia currently lacks government policies to support these processes. The paper aims to transfer knowledge on crops to various communities to strengthen their food security through vegetable production.
Food sovereignty & justiceCommunityPolicyEconomicsTurkey's Urban Agriculture Opportunities and Peri Urban Agriculture's Relationship with Law No. 6360
2021İrem YURDAY, Ceren Yağcı, Fatih İŞCAN · Türkiye Arazi Yönetimi Dergisi · Turkey
This study explains the definitions, contributions, and benefits of urban agriculture and peri-urban agriculture. It notes that there is no clear policy framework for urban and peri-urban agriculture in Turkey, although urban interfaces are subject to planners and policymakers. The transformation of villages in big cities into communities under Law No. 6360 is presented from a utilitarian perspective. Urban agriculture has been adopted as a profitable production method in urban and peri-urban areas, and suggestions for its development in Turkey are provided.
PolicyUrban–rural linkagePeri-urban agricultureEconomicsOperational Pattern of Urban-Rural Integration Regulated by Land Use in Metropolitan Fringe of China
2021Wei Cao, Shenglü Zhou, Minyu Zhou · Land · China
This study analyzed urban-rural reality in Pukou District, Nanjing City, China, and investigated farmers' willingness to achieve urban-rural integration through land use. Pukou District was divided into four land use areas based on resource environment, development intensity, and potential, and most farmers showed a strong willingness for urban-rural integration via land use. The study proposes an operational pattern for regional land use, based on "reality + willingness + policy," utilizing farmland reconsolidation, village reconstruction, and factor reallocation to achieve urban-rural integration.
Urban–rural linkagePolicyPeri-urban agriculturePráticas de economia solidária em iniciativas de agricultura urbana do concelho de Lisboa. Os casos do Vale de Chelas, da Alta de Lisboa e da Horta do Baldio
2021Paizinho, C., Maria de Fátima Ferreiro · Repositório do ISCTE-IUL · Portugal (Lisbon)
This study identified solidarity economy practices in three urban gardens in Lisbon: Vale de Chelas, Alta de Lisboa, and Horta do Baldio. Quantitative and qualitative methods, including surveys of 42 users, semi-directive interviews with 3 stakeholders, and participant observation, were employed. Out of 35 evaluated practices, 31 were identified, with seven deemed "very relevant" and four "relevant." Organic production, contributions to social cohesion and health, knowledge sharing among users, promotion of reciprocal relationships, and democratic decision-making were highlighted. The remaining 20 practices were considered "less relevant."
CommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justicePolicyRooftop garden in Amman residential buildings–sustainability and utilization
2021Naser Mughrabi, Mayyadah Fahmi Hussein, Naila Hussien Alhyari · · Jordan (Amman)
This study aims to propose design indicators for rooftop gardens in Amman, Jordan, to illustrate their economic, social, and environmental benefits. It presents a conceptual framework for interior designers to adopt green roofs, developed by studying existing literature and demonstrating its applicability in Amman. The research used descriptive analytical methodology, qualitative surveys, and questionnaires for residential building inhabitants, with expected outcomes including indicators for rooftop garden utilization in Amman.
PolicyEconomicsClimate change12. On Empty Spaces, Silence, and the Pause
2021Rebecca Amato · Amsterdam University Press eBooks · United States (New York City)
This chapter discusses the historical production and perception of "empty space" in New York City, from settler colonialism to gentrification, driven by techniques like filtering and declaring vacancy. It highlights how the acceleration of development to maintain world city status threatens alternative visions like cooperative centers and community gardens. These alternative uses are presented as models for inclusive cities, despite being under threat.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyEconomicsMapping the production-consumption gap of an urban food system: an empirical case study of food security and resilience
2021Paul D. Jensen, Caroline Orfila · Food Security · United Kingdom
This case study used publicly available data to spatially analyze the urban food system of Leeds, UK, assessing its food security and resilience. The study found that while Leeds has a significant food production and provision system, it is not food secure in terms of providing sufficient energy or macronutrients, nor does it function equitably for all residents. Improving the system, including through urban farming, would require high investment, multi-sector cooperation, and strong governance.
Economic viabilityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsClimate changePolicyMeasuring Community Green Inequity: A Fine-Scale Assessment of Beijing Urban Area
2021Yuyang Zhang, Qilin Wu, Lei Wu, Li Yan · Land · China
A study noting that although exposure to green space benefits residents' physical and mental health, its spatial distribution is inequitable, and that existing green equity studies typically rely on administrative units, a macro-scale approach that overlooks the fine-scale green spaces (such as community gardens and lawns) residents encounter most often, risking biased estimates. Using the community as the unit of analysis, the study drew on three types of green-space data - fine-scale green spaces within communities, surrounding large-scale parks, and streetscape imagery - and applied a proposed set of 11 metrics across morphology, visibility, and accessibility to 4,544 communities in urban Beijing. Through spatial visualization, spatial clustering, radar plots, and correlation analysis, the study found large differences and complementary relationships between metric categories, similarities within the same category, and confirmed inequity in green space across regions of the city as urbanization proceeds.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyL’engagement militant dans la recherche en agriculture urbaine. Réflexions sur le contexte français au miroir duscholar activismnord-américain
2021Joëlle Salomon Cavin, Valérie Boisvert, Simone Ranocchiari, Quentin Dusserre-Bresson, Monique Poulot · Natures Sciences Sociétés · Global
A collective reflection on militant/activist engagement in urban agriculture research in France and the United States, based on a qualitative literature review complemented by a series of seminars. It finds that US research on urban agriculture, rooted in critical and militant geography, has concentrated on community gardening and promoted food justice, whereas in the French context the spaces and actors studied are far more diverse but critical and political reflexivity is comparatively less developed. The article concludes with a call for greater critical reflexivity in this field.
CommunityPolicyFields, Meadows, and Gardens – an Integral Part of the City
2021Åsa Ahrland · University of Vienna · Europe
A historical study by the University of Vienna focused on Södermalm, a central part of Stockholm, Sweden, that for a long time combined industrial production, trade, craft and cultivation. It shows that agricultural fields there did not disappear until after World War II, challenging the common assumption that nineteenth-century rectilinear town planning was the main factor that ended urban agriculture. The study argues that the view of agriculture as incompatible with modern city life, together with the "green city" concept built on parks and other green spaces, was tied to interpretations of modernity in the Swedish welfare state's emphasis on rationality and efficiency, which produced a dichotomy between urbanity and rurality.
CommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkageImpacts of Land-use Transformation on Agriculture land in Afghanistan, Kabul city as case study
2021Hamidullah Amin, Mansour Helmi · Environmental Science & Sustainable Development · Asia
A study of agricultural land in the Yakatoot area of Kabul, Afghanistan, examining the economic and environmental impacts of land-use change in the capital. It states plainly that, due to rapid population growth, population densification, and the city's inability to enforce its master plan and regulations, a large portion of agricultural land cover has been transformed into unplanned developments, shifting communities from productive societies into consumer and dependent ones. Using a qualitative approach combining field surveys, aerial photographs from Google Earth, and data from CRIDA, the study describes Afghanistan's land laws and identifies the social, economic and environmental impacts of this land-use change, while also reviewing international experience with land-use change and sustainable responses. The authors recommend incorporating urban agriculture practice into Kabul's master plan and other urban initiatives, though this recommendation is presented as the paper's own policy proposal rather than a measured outcome.
Environmental trade-offsPolicyEconomicsThe Political Ecology of James and Grace Lee Boggs
2021Brian Bartell · Rethinking Marxism · United States
This essay in Rethinking Marxism revisits the writings and Detroit urban agriculture activism of James and Grace Lee Boggs, arguing that their 1960s theorization linked automation, land and racialized dispossession under racial capitalism, and that they called for postgrowth, postscarcity economies built on urban land marked by Fordist-era waste and toxicity.
PolicyCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceHORTAS URBANAS NO BRASIL: EVOLUÇÃO, DESAFIOS E PERSPECTIVAS
2021Athayde Leite de Sá Filho, Mariana Gomes Kottas, José Edilson dos Santos Júnior, Vivianni Marques Leite dos Santos · Journal on Innovation and Sustainability RISUS · Brazil
This literature-based review of urban gardens (hortas urbanas) in Brazil describes the sector's evolution, challenges and outlook, arguing that Brazil has favorable natural conditions and that urban gardens are among the fastest-growing components of the country's agroecological sector, while identifying the need for incentive policies, public awareness, farming-space planning and greater research investment as conditions for further consolidation.
CommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceOrganic cycleEnabling Urban Social Farming: the need for radical green infrastructure in the city
2021Louise Mitchell, Lawrence Houston, Michael Hardman, Michelle Howarth, Penny A. Cook · Cogent Social Sciences · Global
Against the backdrop of health services becoming stretched, particularly in ageing populations in the Global North, this paper discusses Green Infrastructure (GI) interventions including the development of social farms in urban areas and deprived communities. Social farms use farming practices as spaces for therapeutic outcomes such as care, rehabilitation, and education, framed within the concept of social prescribing alongside community gardens and urban farms as non-medical approaches. Noting that social farming and social prescribing research is currently concentrated in Scandinavian countries and the USA, the paper focuses on increased UK attention to the concept, including in DEFRA's 25-year Environment Plan. Findings show an agglomeration of social farming sites in rural rather than urban contexts, and the paper discusses tools and barriers for urban development of the practice.
CommunityHealthFood educationPolicyFlaminia Paddeu, Sous les pavés, la terre. Agricultures urbaines et résistances dans les métropoles
2021Ronan Crézé · Lectures · Europe
This is a review of a book by geographer Flaminia Paddeu that presents an immersion into urban agriculture through observation of multiple field experiences, described as contributing to the institutionalization of urban agricultural commons. The book's central subject is the land, understood both as soil (urban and agricultural) and as the site hosting ecosystems. While this subject has already been explored by sociologists, agronomists, and anthropologists, the author develops her own reflection on it.
CommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceChanging perceptions and conservation policies on agricultural lands remaining in Japanese mid-sized cities
2021Seiji Tange, Keisuke Sakamoto, Takahiro Yamazaki, Akiko Iida, Makoto Yokohari · Toshi keikaku hokokushu/Toshi keikaku houkokushuu · Japan
This 2021 study analyzed 13 municipalities in regional (non-metropolitan) Japan that operate the production green space (seisan ryokuchi) system, examining how changing perceptions of the value of farmland within urbanization-promotion areas led to expanded designation of production green space. It found that rising tax burdens on farmland in urbanization-promotion areas triggered the spread of production green space designation even in regional cities. It also found that, beyond this economic factor, the 2015 enactment of the Basic Act for the Promotion of Urban Agriculture prompted a movement to assign farmland new roles and values—such as land for disaster-prevention cooperation and sites for food and farming experience—which further contributed to the expansion of designation.
PolicyCommunityEconomicsA "plan bee" for cities: Pollinator diversity and plant-pollinator interactions in urban green spaces
2020Daniels B., Jedamski J., Ottermanns R., Ross-Nickoll M. · PLOS ONE, 15(7):e0235492 · Europe
A study of pollinator diversity and plant-pollinator interactions in urban green spaces in Germany. Urban community gardens hosted significantly higher pollinator abundance than other park types, comparable to rural reference sites, showing that near-natural design and management, floral diversity, and even small green patches can make cities pollinator habitat.
BiodiversityCommunityPolicyEffects of Urbanization on Farmland Size and Diversified Farm Activities in Japan: An Analysis Based on the Land Parcel Database
2020Yoshida S. · Land 9(9):315 · Japan
Using a nationwide agricultural land-parcel GIS database for the Tokyo and Osaka metropolitan areas, the study analyzed the synergistic effects of distance from cities and urban sprawl on farmland-parcel size and diversified farm activities such as direct marketing, farming experience, and environmentally friendly practices, via OLS and Poisson regression.
PolicyEconomics野村不動産が都内で農地貸し出しへ 家庭菜園向けに
2020日本経済新聞 · 日本経済新聞（Nikkei） · Japan
A Nikkei report on Nomura Real Estate partnering with JA Setagaya-Meguro to launch, in November 2020, a monthly subscription 'urban experience farm' for home gardening on over 2,000 sqm of productive green land in Setagaya. With about 200 plots of 3.6 sqm where residents and citizens take part from planting to harvest, it highlights how supported rental farming links the preservation of shrinking urban farmland with citizen participation in agriculture.
CommunityFood educationPolicyOrganic cycleThe role of community seed banks in achieving farmers' rights
2020Vernooy R., Sthapit B., Bessette G. · Development in Practice · Global
Drawing on case studies from Bangladesh, Cote d'Ivoire, India, and Zimbabwe, examines how community seed banks operationalize farmers' rights through conservation, access, and seed sovereignty at the local level.
Heirloom & landraceCommunityPolicyBiodiversityAgainst the grain? A historical institutional analysis of access governance of plant genetic resources for food and agriculture in Ethiopia
2020Mulesa T.H. · The Journal of World Intellectual Property · Ethiopia
A historical institutional analysis of the governance of access to plant genetic resources in Ethiopia, examining national policy evolution in relation to the ITPGRFA, benefit-sharing, and farmers' rights.
Heirloom & landracePolicyBiodiversityAdvocates for the Landscape: Alwin Seifert and Nazi Environmentalism
2020Staudenmaier P. · German Studies Review, Vol. 43, No. 2, pp. 271–290 · Germany
Reexamines the ostensibly green facets of Nazism through the 'landscape advocates' led by Alwin Seifert from 1934 to 1945, assessing environmental concerns in regime public works and their ideological limits.
PolicyBiodiversity