Research & reports

· Corporate Philanthropy Report · United States

The Sprouts Healthy Communities Foundation, the philanthropic arm of Sprouts Farmers Market in the United States, awarded $4 million to neighborhood elementary schools and local nonprofits through its annual grants program, funded partly by customer checkout round-up donations. Individual grants ranged from $5,000 to $10,000 across three categories: Sprouting School Gardens for school-based gardening programs, Growing Healthy Kids for community-based children's nutrition programs, and Wellness Across the Lifespan for adult health and wellness programs. The foundation has awarded more than $25 million in such grants since 2015.

Cody Gusto, Catherine Campbell, Annie Wallau, Wendy Wood · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States

With Family and Consumer Sciences (FCS) Extension educators in the United States seeking new audiences amid reduced enrollment and a lack of unified vision, workplace wellness and education programs are identified as an emerging opportunity, particularly to complement workplace Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) programs that connect local farmers and employees via employer-sponsored cost-offsets. A study assessed potential workplace wellness program participants' perceived knowledge, attitudes, and barriers to purchasing and cooking local food, and their preferred information types and program format, to guide development of a local food health and wellness education program. Respondents had positive attitudes about local food but limited knowledge of how to purchase and prepare it. They indicated that information on those topics, plus information on unusual locally grown fruits and vegetables and reducing food waste, would be most useful, and preferred online program offerings during weekday lunchtimes.

Miguel Angelo Rodrigues, Silvia Adriana da Silva Soares, A. F. V. BISCARO, R. V. MARTINS, Rafael C. Dutra · Editora Científica Digital eBooks · Brazil

This report documents an interdisciplinary school activity in Mato Grosso do Sul, Brazil, built around the Agrinho program and centered on urban, social and sustainable agriculture. Activities included classroom discussion, a video, a body-mass-index exercise linking math and science, visits to organic and hydroponic garden beds from bed preparation to fertilizing, and a closing essay; the report states that cross-disciplinary integration and partnerships with the municipal agriculture department were key to the activities' success.

Sonnur Öztürk, Michelle Forsythe · Journal of Agricultural Education · United States

A pilot instructional intervention on permaculture was implemented within an elementary science methods course for preservice teachers (PSTs) in the United States. The intervention had four components — background readings and videos, guided discussion, a food forest design activity, and a lesson plan analysis activity — with data drawn from pre/post-tests, the lesson analysis activity, and daily reflections. After the intervention, PSTs self-reported higher knowledge of permaculture topics and ways to use permaculture in their classrooms, and effectively linked permaculture-based lesson plans to elementary learning standards. PSTs viewed permaculture-based lessons positively as active, real-life learning experiences supporting environmental consciousness, but identified cost and time as barriers to classroom implementation, and viewed the developmental appropriateness and spatial resources required as both advantages and disadvantages.

Emily Harris, Ilana Lowe, Lindsey Mohan, Whitney Cohen, Sara E. Severance, Terra Giotta, Carlo Albano, Jeffrey Snowden · Science and Children · United States

This is a practice report describing "Designing Trellises," a guided grade 3-5 engineering unit set in a U.S. school garden. Students work collaboratively toward a shared classroom goal of designing, researching, prototyping, building, and testing 2-3 pea plant trellises for the school garden. Through this process — asking questions, planning and carrying out investigations, and designing solutions, among other science and engineering practices — students work out the disciplinary core ideas of balanced and unbalanced forces. At the end of the unit, teachers and students reported that students felt a strong sense of agency and pride from asking and answering questions and creating designs that mattered to them and their school community.

Colleen Saxen, Yoko Miura, Alan R. Wight, Michelle A. Fleming · Educational Action Research · United States

Using Participatory Action Research (PAR) with community partners and school staff who led a school garden project in a low-income neighborhood of a small mid-western U.S. city, this study explored the meaning of the garden through photovoice, mapping, and interviews. Three overarching themes emerged from participants' perspectives: community, empowerment, and justice. The garden project was experienced as holding depth of possibility for participants that went beyond the typical outcome measures — content knowledge, physical health, and ecological stewardship — used to assess school gardens.

Edson Fonseca de Oliveira, René Eugênio Seifert, Thiago Cavalcante Nascimento, Luan Matheus Pedrozo Kolachnek · Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural · Brazil

A qualitative, descriptive-exploratory multicase comparative study of Curitiba, Brazil, characterized three modes of urban agriculture organization based on Feniman's (2014) typology: Assisted, Vernacular, and Politicized. The Assisted mode was technically driven and dependent on government assistance, favoring production of market-value species, with formalized social structures that limited internal and external social integration and less use of unconventional production technologies. The Vernacular mode had an informal, affective structure valuing ancestral knowledge and traditional practices anchored in strong family ties. The Politicized mode expressed participants' desire to make urban agriculture integrative, alternative, sovereign, autonomous, and innovative, but showed limitations in building a stable communal life.

Pamela Eduarda Lopes dos Santos Rezena, Luciana Boemer Cesar Pereira, Mariana Ranchuka dos Santos, Anelize Queiroz Amaral, Geisiane dos Santos de Souza · Revista de Gestão Social e Ambiental · Brazil

At a public elementary school (Foz do Chopim Municipal School) in the riverside community of Foz do Chopim, in the municipality of Cruzeiro do Iguaçu, Paraná, Brazil, a university extension workshop run jointly by the Sala +Verde and Hortas projects built a school garden to teach environmental education themes including care for the environment, the society-nature relationship, sustainable societies and food sovereignty. The workshop produced a sense of belonging and care for the garden space among participating students and gave them practical information to take home.

· Civil War Book Review · United States

A Fall 2024 magazine issue profiling research activity at the LSU AgCenter covers researcher Erin Oberhaus's work collecting data to inform Louisiana horse owners about medication use, a water quality specialist's study of whether noneconomic water bodies including agricultural ponds could help generate electricity, results from soybean studies, and success stories from the AgCenter's farm-to-school program involving school gardens across the state.

Stephanie Hinnershitz · The National WWII Museum · United States

Published 26 November 2024, this article from The National WWII Museum describes the U.S. Victory Garden movement of 1942-1945, during which Americans tended more than 20 million gardens, producing 42 percent of the nation's fresh produce (10 billion pounds) in 1943 alone. It also notes that 120,000 incarcerated Japanese Americans were made to garden in internment camps.

Landry M., Asigbee F., Vandyousefi S., Ghaddar R., Davis J. · Journal of the Academy of Nutrition and Dietetics, 123(3):637-643 · United States

A cluster randomized controlled trial in mostly low-income, Hispanic Texas elementary schools testing whether the TX Sprouts garden, nutrition and cooking intervention affected academic performance. It found the program did not harm academic outcomes, showing that garden-based food education can be integrated into instructional time without lowering achievement.

Alex Salviano da Silva, Célia Regina Batista dos Santos · Revista Macambira · Brazil (Irecê)

This study investigated the contributions of interdisciplinary interventional actions, mediated by organic garden construction, to public school students' teaching and learning processes and their interest in environmental education within the context of remote education in Irecê, Brazil. Using a qualitative, interventionist action research methodology, activities integrating subjects like Biology, Mathematics, Geography, History, and Arts were conducted remotely and in person. Findings identified significant changes in school management, suggesting new perspectives for environmental education, and students showed increased awareness of their actions concerning school and home environments.

Erin A. Hudson, Marissa Burgermaster, Sophia M. Isis, Matthew Jeans, Sarvenaz Vandyousefi, Matthew J. Landry, Rebecca A. Seguin‐Fowler, Joya Chandra, Jaimie N. Davis · Frontiers in Nutrition · United States

A secondary analysis evaluated the TX Sprouts school-based gardening, cooking, and nutrition education intervention on the home availability of vegetables, fruit juice, and sugar-sweetened beverages (SSBs). The cluster-randomized trial involved 16 schools (8 intervention, 8 control) over one academic year, serving predominantly Hispanic families with low incomes, with an analytic sample of 895 participants. The intervention positively changed the home availability of targeted foods and beverages, primarily by improving the availability of vegetables and vegetable juice, suggesting a positive influence on the home food environment.

Geisa Zanini Rorato, Eugenia Aumond Kuhn, Bruno Luan Soares Paula de Mello, Rodrigo Vitória Alves, Giulia Togni Geremia · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Brazil (Porto Alegre)

This study mapped and characterized 82 urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA) initiatives in Porto Alegre, Brazil. It found that educational and health-related initiatives with social and ecological objectives predominated. A significant finding was that only half of these initiatives were active at the time of the survey, with the rest being inactive or closed, indicating structural fragilities, especially in peripheral and less dense areas impacted by the COVID-19 pandemic.

Rachel Surls, Rob Bennaton, Gail Feenstra, Ramiro E. Lobo, Alda F. A. Pires, Jennifer Sowerwine, Julia Van Soelen Kim, Cheryl A. Wilen · California Agriculture · United States (California)

From 2017 to 2018, University of California Agriculture and Natural Resources (UC ANR) researchers conducted a series of 16 workshops for urban farmers in California. The evaluation found that economic issues such as profitability and land access are among the greatest barriers for urban farming in California. While networking among participants was an unexpected positive outcome, urban farmers expressed a need for more opportunities for mentoring and building partnerships.

Angela Oulton, Susan Jagger · · North America

A discourse analysis of historical school garden texts in North America reveals that school gardens have not been welcoming or accessible to all children, despite persuasive research on the positive effects of nature-based learning. Historically, school gardens were used to serve adult agendas, including containing urban children, assimilating marginalized groups, and creating laborers, thereby reinforcing patriarchal, colonial, white supremacist, and eugenic aspirations. This study explores how these discourses culturally constructed childhoods and influenced children.

Alvorí Ahlert, Tatiane Fátima Nandi · REVISTA DE EDUCACIÓN AMBIENTAL Y SOSTENIBILIDAD · Brazil (Paraná)

A qualitative and quantitative study in schools bordering Lake Itaipu in western Paraná, Brazil, verified the use of school gardens as an environmental education tool. The research applied questionnaires to public elementary, primary, and special education teachers in the region. Findings showed that most teachers favored using school gardens but found it difficult to teach students about their importance due to a lack of technical knowledge on the subject.

Sarah E. Orr · American Entomologist · United States

Community gardens are presented as a solution to food insecurity and a means to promote native bee conservation. They provide local fresh produce, affordable nutritious options, and foster education in gardening and nutrition. Additionally, community gardens support biodiversity, as roughly 35% of human food crops depend on animal pollination, with bees being primary pollinators for many crops.

Giuliano Reis, Harveen Sandhu · Em Aberto · Canada (Ottawa)

This experience report describes the adoption of place-based pedagogy in a community garden in Ottawa, Canada, to create a science learning space within a teacher education program. Based on field trips with student teachers over the last five years, it argues that non-institutionalized outdoor urban spaces can offer valuable opportunities to enrich science student teachers' experiences in their training programs.

Keile Aparecida Beraldo, Rayele Moraes Silva, Rose Mary Gondim Mendonça, Maria Emília Mendonça Pedroza Jaber · Seven Editora eBooks · Brazil

This paper publicizes public policies and urban agriculture initiatives in the municipality of Palmas, Brazil. It identifies twelve public areas with families engaged in urban agriculture and proposes inclusive actions to strengthen the agroecological transition in family urban agriculture. The proposed actions aim to foster new sustainable practices based on environmental education and food and nutritional security.

Ideni Terezinha Antonello, Léia Aparecida Veiga, Alan Alves Alievi · Revista de Geografia · Brazil

This qualitative study in Londrina, Brazil, investigated the initial actions of an extension project by the State University of Londrina with residents of the Abussafe irregular settlement. Using secondary and primary data, it found that families in the irregular settlement face social vulnerability and food insecurity. Both these families and residents of the nearby formal neighborhood desire to create a community garden and neighborhood association, suggesting that dialogue between the university and residents is a fruitful path for collective actions to improve quality of life.

Marina Carboni, Vitoria Maria Domingues Moço · Revista Fatecnológica da Fatec-Jahu · Brazil

This paper presents a project proposal for an urban agroforestry system combined with a community garden in Brazil. The project aims to revitalize a 2,500m² urban green area currently lacking leisure attractions and adequate tree cover. The plan includes planting 35 trees of 8 fruit species and 9 vegetable species, and fencing the area to prevent theft and vandalism. The project is expected to offer vegetables and fruits to the local population, promote environmental education, and enhance ecosystem services such as temperature reduction and increased rainwater infiltration.

Callan Hand, D. Barry Croom, James C. Anderson, Ashley M. Yopp, Aaron Golson · Career and Technical Education Research · United States

This phenomenological study investigated the motivations of non-traditional urban agriculture students of color to remain in agriculture. Findings suggest that while systematic instruction in agricultural sciences and positive local youth organization experiences contribute to a favorable perception of agriculture, they do not necessarily lead to a career preference for agriculture among these students. Furthermore, urban students of color perceived that the FFA Organization above the school level is not inclusive of them.

Olasumbo Olagoke-Komolafe, Joshua Oyeboade · International Journal of Multidisciplinary Futuristic Development · United States

This study comprehensively reviewed the viability, benefits, and challenges of urban aquaponics systems in the United States. Through a systematic literature review and content analysis, significant environmental benefits were identified, while economically, long-term benefits potentially outweigh initial setup costs. Challenges such as technical complexities, financial barriers, and the need for specialized knowledge are also notable.

Gustavo Córdova Bojórquez · Estudios Sociales Revista de Alimentación Contemporánea y Desarrollo Regional · Mexico (Ciudad Juárez)

This study evaluated community action in an urban agriculture intervention project in the Campestre-Virreyes neighborhood of Ciudad Juárez, Mexico. A qualitative evaluation using participant observation and semi-structured interviews was employed. While concrete community action was identified, participants' specific capacities in urban agriculture were found to be insufficient to meet their food needs or improve their economy.