Research & reports

Jan Hassink, Angela Moriggi, Saverio Senni, Elisabeth Hense, Dries de Moor · · Europe

A 2020 paper uses care ethics as an analytical tool to examine caring, regenerative agricultural and food practices, including community supported agriculture, urban agriculture, care and social farming, and organic and biodynamic farming. Drawing on empirical cases in the Netherlands and Italy guided by social justice, cooperation, respectful relationships, inclusion, and education, it describes how care for the community, vulnerable citizens, the environment, farm animals, and food is practiced. It identifies challenges farmers face around access to land, budgets, and dealing with the conventional system, and poses as an open question the extent to which such caring practices can influence dominant agricultural and food systems.

Cordula Kropp, Clara Da Ros · · Europe

Ethnographic case studies examined urban farming movements in Leipzig, Germany and Nantes, France. The Leipzig movement is strongly oriented toward building an environmentally friendly, sustainable post-growth economy, while the Nantes movement is aimed above all at overcoming social inequality and exclusion; in both cities, participants respond to forces in urban development they perceive as opposed to their own needs and interests, encouraging fellow citizens to reclaim local spaces and cultivate them for community subsistence.

Angela Bernadete Lima · História e Cultura · Germany

A historical study examines the food situation in Berlin, Germany, during and after World War I, looking at how residents sought alternatives to the food scarcity of the time and how urban spaces were used for food production, building on a practice of urban cultivation already present in the city's daily life since the 19th century.

Fatih Özden · Turkish Journal of Bioethics · Turkey

This paper discusses the community supported agriculture (CSA) model in Turkey from the perspective of food ethics. It identifies the adverse effects of synthetic agrochemicals on human and ecosystem health, corporate dominance of the food supply chain, and intellectual property rights as issues on the food ethics agenda.

Graciela Arosemena Díaz · · Spain

Focused on Spain, this text situates the current urban food supply system — reliant on agrochemicals, crop and animal production, processing, storage, and complex global transport networks with serious environmental impacts from fossil fuel use — as context for arguing that urban and peri-urban agriculture can reduce the food system's environmental impact and fossil fuel dependence while improving food security against economic and climatic vulnerability (2020). It notes that environmental justice is socially and politically complex, with groups of lower socio-economic status typically bearing a greater burden of environmental impacts, and cites as an example a city Council for the Protection of Nature that preserves the agricultural area along the Llobregat River and its agro-economic activity through an agricultural park.

Valentina Cattivelli · Sustainability · Italy

Urban gardens have attracted considerable academic attention in recent years, with studies emphasizing their positive contribution to social integration, community health, urban regeneration, and food security, as well as exploring individual gardeners' motivations. While these topics are well documented for metropolitan urban areas, few studies have examined mountain areas, an interest gap likely due to lower urbanization in such areas, a preference for other forms of horticulture (essentially home gardens), or the use of different approaches to mitigate negative social effects. The recent proliferation of urban gardens in South Tyrol, Italy, makes this mountain province an interesting setting for studying the practices and narratives associated with socially innovative urban gardening. The paper characterizes all urban gardening initiatives in South Tyrol through cartographic representation and explains gardeners' and public institutions' motivations as well as non-gardeners' perceptions, based on semi-structured interviews conducted in the South Tyrolean municipalities where urban gardening projects have been undertaken. The results suggest that the social and environmental aspects of urban gardens are of great importance, and that there is interest in reconnecting with food practices even when food access is not a priority.

Ana Poças Ribeiro, Robert Harmsen, Giuseppe Feola, Jesús Rosales Carreón, Ernst Worrell · Sociologia Ruralis · Europe

A study of 17 alternative food networks (AFNs) across Poland, Portugal, and the Netherlands, drawn from interviews with AFN organizers, examined the factors that constrain and facilitate the emergence and consolidation of different AFN types. Using a multi-actor perspective framework, the researchers categorized six AFN types: consumer-led, producer-led, third-sector led, community supported agriculture, public-led, and business platforms. Key challenges and facilitating conditions varied by AFN type and country; unlike in the Netherlands, low social capital was commonly cited as a challenge in Portugal and Poland. AFN organizers exercised innovative power in creating new forms of food provision, but the study concludes that a wide scope of actions by both governmental and non-governmental actors is needed to support the emergence of more AFNs.

N. R. Baker, Simon Popay, James Bennett, Moya Kneafsey · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United Kingdom

This paper introduced "net yield efficiency" (NYE) to compare food system performance by accounting for yields, loss, and waste. A UK case study compared fresh vegetable and salad waste between a community supported agriculture (CSA) scheme and the supermarket system. The study found that the CSA system wasted only 6.71% by weight across all stages, dramatically outperforming the supermarket system which wasted 40.7–47.7%. These findings highlight significant differences between the systems and suggest NYE offers a more accurate measure of food system performance.

Chiara Certomà, Martin Sondermann, Susan Noori · Manchester University Press eBooks · Europe

This chapter critically analyzes the relationship between urban gardening and socio-spatial justice, exploring whether and how urban gardening practices can tackle social and spatial injustices. Urban gardening points out less visible sides of urban governance and planning, unveiling different forms of power, dominance, and resistance to the unequal distribution of benefits and burdens in space. The analysis questions the contradictions in the constitution of urban spaces and their capability to mitigate material, political, and social exclusions, unfairness, and inequalities.

Chiara Certomà, Lorenzo Chelleri, Bruno Notteboom · Urban Studies · Italy (Rome)

This paper investigates informal planning practices and "fluid governance" in urban public spaces, using the case of Parco delle Energie in Rome, Italy, and a comparative analysis of international cases. It found that politically progressive urban gardening challenges traditional governance networks and redefines public space functioning by transforming green spaces into food production and collaboratively managed areas through informal planning. This demonstrates that urban gardening worldwide challenges traditional planning perspectives and governance, turning citizens' dissensus into a productive force.

Giuseppe Pulighe, Flavio Lupia · Sustainability · Italy (Milan)

A spatiotemporal quantification of urban agriculture in Milan, Italy, assessed its food self-provisioning potential using Google Earth images from 2007 and 2014. The study found that even in the best-case scenario, the current urban agriculture production (98 ha of vegetable gardens, 2539 ha of arable land) is insufficient to meet the vegetable and cereal consumption needs of over 1.3 million city residents. It could only satisfy approximately 63,700 vegetable consumers and 321,000 cereal consumers.

Alma Clavin · Manchester University Press eBooks · United Kingdom

A study using qualitative, visual methods and Amartya Sen’s Capability Approach in five community garden sites in the UK and Ireland examined their potential for human agency and ecological sustainability. While positive agency and wellbeing benefits were observed, the gardens were found to be limited in their ability to truly enhance political freedoms and overcome asymmetric power relations. The research indicates that these initiatives may perpetuate neoliberal forms of unsustainable and uneven development, alongside ongoing issues of tenure insecurity.

Michael Hardman, Mags Adams, Melissa Barker, Luke Beesley · Manchester University Press eBooks · United Kingdom (Todmorden)

The Incredible Edible Todmorden (IET) movement in Todmorden, UK, was investigated using a qualitative approach. The scheme was found to have an overwhelmingly positive impact on the town, providing social, environmental, and economic benefits and contributing to a more just food movement through its "free for all" philosophy. However, negative aspects were also highlighted, including maintenance issues and a lack of perceived inclusivity in some parts.

Guido Sali, Federica Monaco, Stefano Corsi, Chiara Mazzocchi · Archivio Istituzionale della Ricerca (Universita Degli Studi Di Milano) · Europe

This paper adopts a territorial approach to analyze agro-food systems in five European metropolitan regions. The methodology aims to assess the capacities of urban and peri-urban agriculture to meet urban food demand and its economic role. Preliminary results are provided to inform regulations in the agro-food sector.

Teresa Marat-Mendes, João Cunha Borges · Repositório do ISCTE-IUL · Europe

This 2019 presentation introduces the ongoing SPLACH (Spatial Planning for Change) research project focused on the Lisbon Metropolitan Area (LMA), Portugal, home to about 3 million people, most of whom live in peripheral residential areas developed over the 20th century. These areas face problems including social isolation and car dependency, while municipal and private initiatives, including the promotion of urban agriculture, have sought to counteract such issues. SPLACH has surveyed a number of case studies to theorize the planning and housing dynamics in the LMA and their impact on territorializing ethical principles grounded in urban agriculture initiatives. The presentation raises the question of what specific issues identified in the SPLACH case studies offer opportunities to rethink urban planning and urban form toward a more sustainable environment and to promote the social role of urban planning.

Jill L. Edmondson, Dylan Z. Childs, Miriam C. Dobson, Kevin J. Gaston, Philip H. Warren, Jonathan R. Leake · The Science of The Total Environment · United Kingdom

Combining citizen science data on self-provisioning crop yields with field-mapping and GIS analysis of allotments, this study estimated city-scale fruit and vegetable production from urban allotments in Leicester, UK. The average area of individual allotment plots under cultivation was 52%, and citywide allotment production was estimated at more than 1,200 t of fruit and vegetables plus 200 t of potatoes per year, equivalent to feeding over 8,500 people; using the 13% of plots that are completely uncultivated could raise this to over 1,400 t, feeding around 10,000 people, though this production may not be located where the need for fresh produce access is greatest. Allotment land peaked at 475 ha in the 1950s compared with 97 ha currently, a decline estimated to correspond to a fall from more than 45,000 to under 10,000 people fed per year.

Inmaculada Marques-Pérez, Baldomero Segura García del Río · Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems · Spain (Valencia)

This study focuses on "Huerta de Valencia," a peri-urban agricultural system around Valencia, Spain, analyzing the debate between urban growth strategies and farmland preservation. It uses multifunctionality approaches and multi-criteria analysis techniques to examine territorial planning processes by stakeholders. Differences in perceptions among stakeholder groups result in varying future visions for this agricultural system, impacting the design of rural development and agro-environmental measures.

Károly Kacz, Ádám Varga · Annals of the Polish Association of Agricultural and Agribusiness Economists · Europe

A survey in the Western Transdanubia region investigated major problems in Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) within short food supply chains, involving farmer organizations and consumers. The analysis identified the insufficient market power of CSA organizations as the most influential factor. This finding suggests a significant constraint on the effectiveness of CSA models in the region.

Calvin Siméon · · France

This report describes the creation of a didactic booklet for beginners and curious individuals interested in urban agriculture around Toulouse, France. The booklet provides tools to diagnose a plot of land using pedology and bio-indicator plants. Based on observed data, agronomic advice is offered to select the most suitable plant production for the soil.

Jonathan Beacham · Organization · United Kingdom

This ethnographic study explored three community supported agriculture schemes in the north-west of England to understand how Alternative Food Networks (AFNs) can foster a more-than-human ethic of care for the Anthropocene. Drawing on the diverse economies framework and feminist ethics of care literature, the study argues that AFNs offer open-ended organizational forms that can play a central role in this endeavor.

Laura Carlsona, Vera Bitsch, Carlsona, Laura, Bitsch, Vera · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · Germany

This study used a grounded theory approach to examine the importance of solidarity in four alternative food network (AFN) projects in former East Germany, including two community supported agriculture projects, one cooperative grocery, and one urban agriculture project. Data were collected through document analysis and participant observation. Results indicate that although solidarity is explicitly mentioned by actors and in official documents, its conception and implementation vary across initiatives, influenced by individuals, local conditions, and external institutions.

St Clair, Rebecca, Hardman, Michael, Adams, David, Armitage, Richard, Barry, Veronica, Larkham, Peter, Sherriff, Graeme · Research Explorer (The University of Manchester) · United Kingdom

This paper reviews the diversity of urban agriculture (UA) activities in England, from small-scale guerrilla gardening to large community projects. It suggests that UA is under-theorized, with previous research focusing on practicalities and activism. The paper highlights UA's problematic contribution to food production and warns of the 'local trap'.

Lena Partzsch · · Germany (Freiburg)

This chapter examines agency and accountability in food localization projects in Freiburg, Germany, using two case studies: Regionalwert AG and Luzernenhof. Regionalwert AG defines agency through the market, while Luzernenhof, a CSA, relies on trust and charity. It was shown that while food localization is often portrayed as "best practice," it also implies decisions about alternatives, raising questions of agency and accountability.

Aneta Popova, Dasha Mihaylova · Bulgarian Portal for Open Science · Europe

This article discusses the role of grains in a balanced diet, noting that non-traditional grains are increasingly available commercially and reflect a broad interest in diverse food genres. These grains are frequently cultivated in home, allotment, and community gardens, often connected to the ethnic ancestry of the growers.

Elisabeth Kosnik · Economic Anthropology · Europe

This article investigates self-provisioning practices and diverse economies, drawing on ethnographic research of lifestyle subsistence farmers in central Europe and New Zealand. It uses Alvin Toffler's "prosumer" concept to explore the meaning of production for consumption in relation to discourses on ethical consumption, social distinction, and the "citizen-consumer" within a postgrowth society.