Research & reports

Rosalie M. Sharp · Wellesley College Digital RepositoryWellesley (Wellesley College) · United States

Through an interdisciplinary literature review and interviews with stakeholders in the Boston, Massachusetts urban agriculture network — including The Food Project — this study examines the social and historical context of lead exposure in urban gardens in the Dudley neighborhood. It shows that products of structural racism, particularly redlining and disinvestment, created the social and physical environments that allow lead contamination to persist in low-income communities of color like Dudley. An alternate growing material or soil amendment was found to dilute lead concentrations, reduce lead bioaccessibility, and limit fine particle resuspension, and working with The Food Project, these findings shaped gardeners' behavior to reduce lead exposure. The findings on urban soil lead bioaccessibility are presented as contributing to a broader body of research that informs policy decisions such as benchmarks for safe soil or compost lead levels.

Tiffany B. Hunter · CORE Scholar (Wright State University) · United States

A pilot study (Wright State University, CORE Scholar, 2016) adapted a community garden and environmental education model, first observed during an internship with Israel's Ministry of Health in an Arab village, to an urban, minority-concentrated school population in Dayton, Ohio. Administered in July 2016 at a local foodbank with a pre-existing urban garden, using an eight-week curriculum, the pilot found that participants—who lived in urban, low-income areas—had poor eating habits and low literacy scores at baseline, though the program was reported to enhance participants' learning and understanding of the world around them.

James E. Allen, Jairus Rossi, Timothy A. Woods, Alison F. Davis · International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability · United States

A survey of 151 shareholders across three midsized Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operations near Lexington, Kentucky (International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 2016), addressed a gap in prior research that had relied mostly on small samples (n < 25). Using 20 paired before/after questions, paired two-sided t-tests, and regression of paired differences on socioeconomic factors, self-reported health, and years of CSA enrollment, the study found that food lifestyle behaviors and health outcomes changed after CSA participation, with respondents who reported "poor health" before enrollment showing the most change overall. The authors describe these results as an initial analysis of CSA's impact on shareholder food lifestyle behaviors and health outcomes.

CHELSEY CLAMMER · Tikkun · United States

This is a first-person memoir essay set in a Chicago neighborhood, describing safe, well-lit sidewalks, flourishing community gardens, and apartment courtyards flying rainbow flags as the backdrop to the author's account of surviving a sexual assault, subsequent self-harm, and support from her community. It is not a research study of urban agriculture itself; the community gardens appear only as part of the neighborhood setting.

Vikram Bhatt, Leila Marie Farah · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Canada

This paper examines the development of urban agriculture in Montreal, Canada, through the lens of citizen action, community group involvement, and formal institutions. Urban agriculture activity in Montreal began in the early 1970s and gained momentum after the 1973 oil crisis. The paper is organized in three parts: the first traces the history of community gardens; the second presents Montreal-based pilot projects that the authors developed and implemented; the third discusses a 2012 citizens' action that used a municipal bylaw to hold a public consultation, leading to the formation of the city's Permanent Committee on Urban Agriculture (Comité de travail de la collectivité montréalaise en agriculture urbaine).

Jennifer E Gutierrez · USF Scholarship Repository (University of San Francisco) · United States

A planning proposal examines how agriculture could be integrated into Chula Vista, California, a city with both distinctly urban and suburban character. The project reviews the city's history, demographics, and existing urban agriculture policies compared with other California cities, then develops evaluation criteria applied to two contrasting sites at opposite ends of the city. Its stated purpose is to demonstrate how agriculture could be integrated into both urban and suburban settings and to serve as a policy guide, rather than to report implementation outcomes or measured effects.

Efrat Eizenberg · · United States

A book chapter on community gardens in New York City, United States, analyzes the formation, boundaries, and shared social visions of the groups that produce them, examining three structural units — garden groups, neighborhood coalitions, and citywide New York City gardeners. It finds that neighborhood coalitions provide the organizing platform for struggles to save gardens, and that group size matters because it translates into funding and political leverage within the community-garden world.

Adriella Camila Gabriela F. da S. Furtado da Silva, Danielle Regina Bento Lessa da Silva, Ana Carolina Damm dos Santos Gomes de Farias, Joyce Alves Carvalho Martins, Caroline Giot Bronner, Mônica de Caldas Rosa dos Anjos · Cadernos de Agroecologia · Brazil

A report on the "Cultivando Saúde" (Cultivating Health) program in Brazil examines an effort linking urban agriculture practice to promoting healthy eating habits and productive use of urban space for food production. Using participatory methods, dialogue-promoting activities emphasizing knowledge exchange were carried out over three months, yielding a positive response in the acceptance and adoption of suggested recipes; the practice of growing one's own food was observed both in participants' statements during group sessions and during household visits.

Innovation Network · Innovation Network, Inc. · United States

The 2016 edition of Innovation Network's nationwide survey of nonprofit evaluation, running since 2010, with responses from 1,125 US-based 501(c)(3) organisations. The share engaging in any evaluation in the past year reached an all-time high of 92 per cent, and the share receiving evaluation funding from at least one source rose from 66 per cent in 2012 to 92 per cent. Yet the share showing a promising mix of evaluation characteristics and practices held flat at 28 per cent, only 12 per cent of organisations spent 5 per cent or more of their budget on evaluation, and only 8 per cent had evaluation staff, internal or external — both sizeable decreases.

Fakharzadeh S. · Children, Youth and Environments, 25(3) (Project MUSE) · United States

A qualitative study of Edible Schoolyard New Orleans drawing on interviews and observations to examine how the school-garden program affects children. It illustrates gains in students' food security, environmental knowledge and emotional and social well-being, mapping the intersection of gardens, education and community.

Sharma S.V., Hedberg A.M., Skala K.A., Chuang R.-J., Lewis T. · Journal of Early Childhood Research, 13(1):93–110 · United States (Texas)

An 8-week teacher-led PLANT Gardens (Preschoolers Learn About Nutrition Through Gardens) program with 103 Head Start preschoolers in two Harris County, Texas centers. Confirmed feasibility and acceptability and a significant increase in parent-reported willingness to try new fruits and vegetables.

Eizenberg E., Fenster T. · ACME: An International Journal for Critical Geographies · Israel (Jerusalem, Tel Aviv-Jaffa)

This critical geography study examines how community gardens in Jerusalem and Tel Aviv-Jaffa are framed by urban decision-makers and NGOs within neoliberal governance, documenting 50 gardens in Jerusalem and 26 in Tel Aviv-Jaffa established since 2000.

Lowenstein D.M., Matteson K.C., Minor E.S. · Oecologia, 179(3):811-821 · United States

A study measuring wild bee diversity and cucumber pollination (a pollination service) across urban Chicago. Sites with more bee species had better pollination, and even densely populated residential areas supported high bee richness. It demonstrates that growing diverse flowers in urban gardens sustains pollinators and directly benefits urban agricultural yields.

Guillaume Marche · European journal of American studies · United States (San Francisco)

This contribution examines three significantly different community garden projects in San Francisco to ask whether urban gardening leans toward empowering a neighborhood's current residents or toward their displacement amid the city's gentrification, housing shortage, and rising real-estate prices. It questions whether garden projects can have any impact on large-scale socioeconomic phenomena such as the city's changing demographics, and whether they are even intended to address gentrification.

Luke Drake, Laura Lawson · Journal of Extension · United States (New Jersey)

This article uses ethnographic methods to examine how community gardens actually work, focusing on management in New Jersey. It finds that spatial and social contexts shape key issues such as water access, participation, and horticultural techniques, and argues that Extension professionals can support community gardens more effectively—in planning and organization as well as horticultural education—by tailoring advice to these contexts.

· Journal of Environmental Studies and Sciences · United States

Documents seed exchange networks in the United States (including the Seed Savers Exchange) and their role in food system resilience and heritage crop diversity.

Daftary-Steel S., Herrera H., Porter C. M. · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development · USA

A reflective essay arguing that the expectation that urban agriculture can simultaneously provide affordable food, job training, and generate profit without sustained outside funding is a myth, criticizing the assumption of financial self-sufficiency.

Reynolds K. · Antipode · New York City, USA

A two-year study of New York City urban agriculture found race- and class-based disparities among practitioners: health-focused efforts were largely white-led while justice-focused efforts were BIPOC-led. Using critical race theory, it argues urban agriculture can perpetuate an inequitable system unless it explicitly confronts these structures.

Ramirez M. M. · Antipode · Seattle, USA

Drawing on two Seattle community food organizations, the article argues that well-meaning 'inclusive' food efforts fail to address underlying power asymmetries and can erase Black food geographies rooted in histories of slavery and dispossession.

Roman-Alcala A. · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development · USA

A commentary on the whiteness and privilege pervading urban farming and food justice activism, warning that well-intentioned white activists can re-inscribe white supremacy, and offering practical ways to avoid doing so.

Coplen Amy K., Cuneo Megan · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development · USA (Portland, Oregon)

Reflective case study of the Portland Multnomah Food Policy Council, established in 2002 and dissolved in 2012 after city agencies deemed it had lost relevance. Documents how weak institutional embedding, unclear mandate, and volunteer-reliance led a nationally celebrated council to fail.

Christopher Bryant, Ghalia Chahine · Geographical Research · Canada (Montreal)

This 2015 case study from the Montreal Region, Canada, analyzed an action research project initiated in 2008 to reduce the vulnerability of peri-urban agriculture. Despite initiatives since the mid-1960s, significant pressures continue to increase the vulnerability of peri-urban farming, with farmland often removed from agricultural reserves. The project in Senneville involved farmers, non-farm actors, and municipal presentations over three years, aiming to integrate conservation and leisure activities.

Sofya Aptekar · Sociological Forum · United States (New York City)

This 2015 ethnographic study, conducted between 2011 and 2013 in a diverse and gentrifying New York City neighborhood, analyzed conflicts within a community garden. It found that disputes among gardeners over aesthetics and conduct reproduced broader gentrification struggles, with privileged gardeners leveraging resources to impose their vision. However, less privileged gardeners, through cross-class and cross-racial relationships, were able to destabilize hierarchies and defend their alternative visions for the public space.

Rose Tardiff · Syracuse University Libraries (Syracuse University) · United States

The Salt City Harvest Farm (SCHF) in Kirkville, NY, is an all-volunteer project with limited capacity and concerns about long-term sustainability, despite providing benefits to New American participants. Research identified challenges and suggested organizational improvements, including clearly defining roles and integrating New Americans into decision-making. The study found that the SCHF would best suit participants' interests by remaining a place for growing their own food rather than transitioning to an incubator model.

Sarah A. Moore, Jeffrey R. Wilson, Sarah Kelly, Sallie A. Marston · Annals of the Association of American Geographers · United States (Tucson)

This article examines school gardens in two underresourced schools in poor neighborhoods of Tucson, Arizona, as sites for socioecological change. It argues that for some children, these gardens help overcome the alienating aspects of neoliberal school reform in the United States. The gardens foster connections with classmates, university students, plants, and animals, promoting sustainable and socially just practices.