Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
1961 results(6 / 79)
HORTAS DOMÉSTICAS: BENEFÍCIOS, DESAFIOS E MOTIVAÇÃO NO CULTIVO URBANO EM DOM PEDRITO/RS
2025Lucas Velasques, Janaína Wohlenberg, Osmar Manoel Nunes, D. Friedrich, Norton Víctor Sampaio · Revista Científica Agropampa · Brazil (Dom Pedrito/RS)
This field study, involving 20 residents of Dom Pedrito/RS, Brazil, who practice home gardening, aimed to identify motivational factors, difficulties, and benefits. The main difficulties reported were the time required for cultivation and the presence of pests and insects. While benefits included consuming healthy food, health improvements, and supermarket savings, the significant challenges of time commitment and pest management indicate limitations to the widespread positive impact of home gardening.
Limited or null effectDIYCommunityHealthOrganic cycleThe New Urbanism in New York City: A Case Study Comparing Battery Park City and Alphabet City
2025Lena Farley · Scholarship @ Claremont (The Claremont Colleges) · United States (New York City)
This thesis compares Battery Park City and Alphabet City in Manhattan, examining how they embody New Urbanist principles despite different planning approaches. While both neighborhoods show core New Urbanist characteristics, the research raises critical questions regarding community engagement in master-planned developments and the mitigation of gentrification in evolving urban landscapes.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyPromoção de saúde mental por meio da participação em uma horta comunitária no DF: um estudo sobre o projeto “Terraterapia”
2025Daniel de Araujo Barbosa, Renata Rodrigues Gomes, Jesuana Oliveira Lemos, Joyce de Oliveira Vieira · Contribuciones a las Ciencias Sociales · Brazil (Federal District)
An exploratory study in Águas Claras, Federal District, Brazil, investigated the mental health impacts of participating in the "Terraterapia" community garden group. Using mixed methods with semi-structured questionnaires for 10 participants, the study found a significant improvement in self-assessed mental health, with an initial average of 6.2 rising to 9.4. Participants reported reduced anxiety and loneliness, emphasizing community bonds, socialization, and garden management as central to the intervention's success.
CommunityHealthQuantifying US metropolitan level environmental burdens & benefits from greater localization of vegetable farming
2025Peter Nixon, Anu Ramaswami · Environmental Research Letters · United States
This paper quantifies environmental benefits and disbenefits from various vegetable farming localization scenarios across 378 US metropolitan areas. While scenarios found few significant land constraints and revealed net environmental benefits to groundwater overdraft and fertilizer-related PM2.5 emissions in 11%–55% of metros, the model also revealed where relocalization would exacerbate existing environmental vulnerabilities. This indicates potential environmental tradeoffs depending on the location.
Environmental trade-offsEconomicsClimate changeUrban–rural linkagePeri-urban agricultureEducação ambiental e Extensão popular como movimentos para a construção da primeira horta comunitária de Araranguá-SC
2025Eduardo Fernandes Martinello, Wanderley de Jesus Souza, José Virtuoso · REMEA - Revista Eletrônica do Mestrado em Educação Ambiental · Brazil
This article presents a successful experience in Araranguá, Santa Catarina, Brazil, where environmental education and popular extension movements facilitated the conversion of an underutilized urban space into a community garden. The garden produces food for people experiencing food vulnerability, and the experience demonstrated community engagement and knowledge construction by learners.
CommunityFood educationWelfareFood sovereignty & justiceEntre saberes e práticas: reflexões sobre vivências na EJA
2025Andrade, Roseleide Dantas · A Revista Agroambiente On-line (Universidade Federal de Roraima, UFRR) · Brazil (Fortaleza)
This experience report reflects on visits to the EMEIEF Paulo Sarasate School in Fortaleza, Brazil, as part of the Youth and Adult Education (EJA) discipline at the State University of Ceará. Observations included a community garden and projects like an antiracist initiative and the Florescer Project for women. Discussions with pedagogical coordination highlighted challenges such as dropout and resource scarcity, but also recognized EJA's role in inclusion, self-esteem, and social transformation.
CommunityFood educationWelfareLeveraging community agroecological values across scales for food system transformation in Ka’a’gee Tu First Nation, Northwest Territories
2025Jennifer Temmer, Alison Blay‐Palmer, Andrew Spring · Canadian Food Studies / La Revue canadienne des études sur l alimentation · Canada (Northwest Territories)
A Participatory Action Research study in Kakisa, Northwest Territories, applied the Community Agroecological Values Framework to food system planning. While the community successfully leveraged extra-regional resources by building relationships with organizations outside the territory, findings indicated that unstable relationships and conflicting perspectives regarding land use and agriculture constrained access to critical regional supports, including gardening knowledge networks, funding, and training opportunities. This study highlights the necessity of both short-term regional support and long-term local capacity building for sustainable food production.
Governance failureCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceClimate changePolicyHortas urbanas e restaurantes: análise do projeto Horta do Chef em Curitiba e suas conexões com a gastronomia
2025Ricardo de Amorim Cini, Juliana Hrycyna · Ágora · Brazil (Curitiba)
This study analyzed the challenges, expectations, and potential of the relationship between urban gardens and chefs, focusing on the "Horta do Chef" project developed by the City of Curitiba. A cross-sectional study was conducted between December 2022 and February 2023, involving a literature review and semi-structured qualitative interviews with two chefs and one public official. The results indicated that the "Horta do Chef" project was discontinued due to its decline caused by the COVID-19 pandemic.
Economic viabilityCommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceThe Effect of a Hospital Community Garden on Healthcare Workers’ Professional Quality of Life
2025Cline, Madelyn Renee · UKnowledge (University of Kentucky) · United States
A study evaluated the effect of a dedicated outdoor green space (hospital community garden) for nurses during shift breaks on their Professional Quality of Life (ProQOL). Using a one-group pretest-posttest design, all aspects of participants’ ProQOL improved from baseline to the final survey, though not statistically significant. Baseline scores for Burnout, Secondary Traumatic Stress, and Compassion Satisfaction were moderate, and while an overall positive change was observed, statistical significance was not achieved.
HealthCommunityTrabajar la tierra, el ‘cultivo’ de sí y del ambiente
2025Iriana Sartor, Giovanna Paccillo · Ciencias Sociales y Religión · Brazil, Argentina
This paper analyzes the everyday practices and attributed meanings of participants in community gardens in Brazil and Argentina. Based on 34 semi-structured interviews conducted in 2021 and 2022, it explores human-nature and human-society relationships, and the role of food sovereignty and agroecology. The study argues that these practices contribute to a shared ethic, reconfiguring relational modes grounded in respect, care, and self-recognition as part of nature.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceBiodiversityTransformation of Agrarian Land in the Urban Periphery: Dispossession, Legalization and Dispute in Cuautlancingo, Puebla
2025José Arturo Méndez Espinoza, Martín Neri-Suárez, Karen Italia Ruiz-López · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Mexico (Puebla)
A case study in Cuautlancingo, Puebla, Mexico, revealed an adverse context for the reproduction of peri-urban family farming. Urban expansion, neoliberal policies, and real-estate speculation have displaced traditional agricultural practices and fostered land-tenure changes. Between 2005 and 2021, over 40% of agricultural areas were lost due to industrial and housing growth. The study concludes that without effective protection and territorial planning, peri-urban agriculture in Cuautlancingo is at risk of disappearing under urban and industrial pressures, with implications for local food security.
Governance failurePeri-urban agriculturePolicyEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceCompreendendo a atuação da sociedade civil e seus efeitos na governança pública municipal
2025Fabiana Witt, Carolina Andion, André Augusto Manoel · Revista Brasileira de Políticas Públicas e Internacionais - RPPI · Brazil (Florianópolis)
This study investigated the impact of civil society on municipal public governance in Florianópolis, Brazil, focusing on the fields of children's and adolescents' rights and urban agriculture promotion. From 2020 to 2022, cartography and ethnographic methods were used for these two public arenas. The results revealed that civil society in Florianópolis is diverse, dynamic, and characterized by multiple interactions that change over time, revealing new governance dynamics. Public governance was shown to have a processual dimension, forged in socio-state relations that change over time, potentially driving or hindering the promotion of social innovation.
PolicyCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceDesign and methods of a community supported agriculture program with native Americans: the go healthy study
2025Valarie Blue Bird Jernigan, Tori Taniguchi, Kaylee R Clyma, Kristina Gabriel, Jessica Reese, Ying Zhang, Susan B. Sisson, Tara L. Maudrie, Jann Hayman · AJE Advances Research in Epidemiology · United States
The Go Healthy Study is a community-based participatory research study designing a 16-week randomized, wait-list controlled trial for approximately 400 Native American adults in the Osage Nation with a BMI ≥ 25 kg/m2. The intervention includes weekly produce boxes, a healthy eating and traditional foods curriculum, cooking demonstration videos, and a kitchen starter kit. Primary outcomes are to improve systolic blood pressure and low-density lipoprotein cholesterol, and to increase fruit and vegetable intake.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityHealthFood educationARRANJOS SOCIOPRODUTIVOS E CAMPESINIDADE: UMA ANÁLISE DA SUSTENTABILIDADE ECONÔMICA NA HORTA COMUNITÁRIA POVO UNIDO EM JUAZEIRO/BA
2025Rita Regina Marques Costa, Denes Dantas Vieira, Vivianni Marques Leite dos Santos, Deise Cristiane do Nascimento · Derecho y cambio social. · Brazil (Juazeiro/BA)
This article analyzed the experience of the Povo Unido Community Garden in Juazeiro/BA, Brazil, as a community-based socio-productive arrangement, to understand its implications for the economic sustainability of family farmers. Using an exploratory and quantitative approach with the Lume Method, the study analyzed four representative family units. Results showed significant differences in management styles, with some families more dependent on external inputs and others demonstrating greater autonomy, especially when linking productive and reproductive work.
CommunityEconomicsPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceGeotecnologias e Diagnóstico do Potencial da Agricultura Urbana e Periurbana no Âmbito Municipal de Jaboticabal, São Paulo, Brasil
2025Letícia Rodrigues Faria, David Luciano Rosalen, Ana Cardoso, Laura de Oliveira · Confins · Brazil (São Paulo)
This study investigated urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) practices in Jaboticabal, São Paulo, Brazil, a city with a predominantly agricultural economy. Using geotechnologies and QGIS software, the research mapped existing and potential UPA areas. Results indicated that vacant lots and public areas are promising spaces for urban agricultural development, which could improve quality of life and waste management.
CommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justicePolicyExperiência com a alteridade como educação étnico-racial e ambiental: multiplicar naturezas na escola
2025Natália Abdul Khalek Mendonça · Revista Brasileira de Educação Ambiental (RevBEA) · South America
This article explores the potential of a school garden where students engaged with the indigenous concept of Tekoha, focusing on ethnic-racial and environmental education. It analyzes how experiences with alterity, activated by an encounter with Guarani-Kaiowa culture, contribute to initiating "ecological paths" and fostering an understanding of Earth as a participant, not merely a scenario for human actions. Pedagogical practices aimed to challenge stereotypes about indigenous people and cultivate skills in care and diversity.
Food educationCommunityDesigning and Building a Tomato Storage Shed for SLO City Farm
2025Thielmann, Mark D, Walther, Ryan T · DigitalCommons - CalPoly (California State Polytechnic University) · United States (California)
This paper details the design, budgeting, and construction of a practical, affordable, and long-lasting tomato storage shed built by a student team for City Farm SLO during Spring 2025. The project involved multiple design iterations, material sourcing, and modifications to balance functionality and simplicity within a tight budget. The completed shed provided hands-on experience in project-based construction and community engagement.
DIYCommunityEconomics"¿Puedo dibujarme en el mapa?" : Los niños, el huerto y las geografías con la vida
2025Paim, Vitória Angela, Theves, Denise Wildner · Lume (Universidade Federal do Rio Grande do Sul) · Brazil
This study presents a proposal where elementary school children in Canoas, Brazil, were invited to create a collective experiential map of a community garden space after visiting it. Through an ethnographic study, the activity mobilized children's experiences and authorship, confirming that children's spatiality transcends the classroom and gives multiple meanings to geographical knowledge. The collective map construction demonstrates that children translate their spatial experiences into the constitution of their geographical plenitude.
CommunityFood educationPromoting Urban Community Gardens as “Third Places”: Lessons from Toronto and São Paulo
2025Ashley Brito Valentim, Guiomar Freitas Guimarães, Carla Soraya Costa Maia, Fatih Şekercioğlu · Regional science and environmental economics · Canada (Toronto); Brazil (São Paulo)
This study analyzed and compared the impact of Urban Community Gardens (UCGs) as "third places" in Toronto and São Paulo. It is a review-based study utilizing publicly available data from policy documents, academic literature, and official websites. UCGs were shown to contribute not only to food production but also to social cohesion, financial resilience, environmental sustainability, cultural transmission, and mental well-being.
CommunityHealthEconomicsPolicyWelfareSpatiotemporal variability and functional redundancy obscure effects of urbanization on strawberry pollinators
2025Kyla D. Schulte, Caleb J. Wilson, Anna Tawril, Mary A. Jamieson · Ecosphere · United States (Michigan)
A three-year study across 10 strawberry farms along a rural-urban gradient in Michigan, USA, characterized bee abundance, diversity, and community composition. The study found that urbanization, measured as impervious surface cover, had no consistent effect on overall bee abundance and diversity. While urbanization differentially influenced specific taxa (Halictini positively in year one, Ceratinini negatively in year three), the overall impact was limited, with wild bees, especially native species, being important pollinators in urban agriculture.
Limited or null effectPollinatorsBiodiversityUrban–rural linkageRELACIONES DE PODER Y GÉNERO EN PROYECTOS DE AGRICULTURA URBANA EN LIMA SUR: UN ANÁLISIS CRÍTICO DE LA PARTICIPACIÓN COMUNITARIA
2025Luis Enrique Serrano Ayasta, Josiane Stoessel-Ritz · Anales Científicos · Peru (Lima)
A doctoral research study in three low-income neighborhoods in South Lima, Peru, analyzed power relations within urban agriculture projects. The findings indicate that these projects, despite aiming for empowerment, often mask asymmetric power relations and reinforce preexisting inequalities, particularly for women gardeners. This perpetuates gender hierarchies and limits their participation and agency, reflecting paternalism from promoting organizations and community leaders.
Equity & displacementCommunityWelfareFood sovereignty & justicePolicy“The farm in the city”: A community garden and engagement in a vulnerable neighborhood
2025Ana Luiza Snoeck Neiva do Amaral, Regina Yoshie Matsue, Luciana Yuki Tomita · Ambiente & sociedade · Brazil (São Paulo)
This 2025 case study analyzed a community garden in Heliópolis, São Paulo, Brazil, established via crowdfunding. The garden improved nutrition, contributed to household budgets, and expanded vegetable variety for participants. It also served as a space for socialization, memory reclamation, activities for older adults, and connecting children with food cultivation.
CommunityHealthWelfareFood educationUrban Agriculture Technical Advisory
2025Ivanjack, Katherine Rose, Preciado, Kylie J · DigitalCommons - CalPoly (California State Polytechnic University) · United States (California)
This senior capstone project aims to explore the potential of urban agriculture to address critical challenges in sustainability, food security, and community development within California cities. The project highlights practical and innovative approaches to urban farming that can be adopted or adapted to suit the unique needs of urban areas across the state.
Food sovereignty & justiceCommunityClimate changePenerapan Prinsip Permakultur Desain Melalui Elemen Arsitektural pada Bangunan Vertical Harvest Farms, USA
2025Aprilia Shyntia Dewi, Muchlisiniyati Safeyah · Sinektika Jurnal Arsitektur · United States
This qualitative descriptive study analyzed the application of permaculture design principles through architectural elements at Vertical Harvest Farms, USA, using secondary data. The research found that Vertical Harvest Farms largely incorporates permaculture design principles through architectural elements, such as greenhouse-based materials adapted to local climate and optimal spatial arrangement. However, regarding mass typology, the farm was found to be less compliant with the permaculture design principle of "Design from Pattern to Detail."
Environmental trade-offsClimate changeDIYDigital agricultureUrban–rural linkageThe islands and the city: peri-urban agriculture, food production, and sustainability in the chinampas of Xochimilco (Mexico City)
2025F. Xavier Medina, José Antonio Vázquez–Medina, Marco Covarrubias · Edward Elgar Publishing eBooks · Mexico (Mexico City)
This chapter discusses the factors linking food production, social and environmental problems, and future challenges in the chinampas of Xochimilco, a UNESCO World Heritage wetland area in Mexico City's peri-urban zone. It examines strategies implemented by stakeholders and their effects to envision future scenarios for sustainable food systems. The insularity of the chinampas imposes a particular character on agri-food production and the life of inhabitants, highlighting existing social and environmental problems.
Environmental trade-offsPeri-urban agricultureClimate changeFood sovereignty & justiceCommunity