Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
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Growing roots: the role of collective community gardening in cultural food insecurity and social integration of African immigrants in Alberta, Canada
2025· BMC Public Health · Canada (Alberta)
Examines how collective community gardening addresses cultural food insecurity and supports the social integration of African immigrants in Alberta, Canada.
CommunityWelfareHealthNutrition and Aging Across the Plains: A Qualitative Study
2025Emily Frankel, Lindsay Wilkinson, Christopher Kelly · Innovation in Aging · North America
Qualitative study comparing nutrition and food security experiences of elderly in rural vs. urban Nebraska communities. Rural seniors face greater barriers to healthy food access and transportation.
ElderlyHealthCommunityUrban and Peri-Urban Agriculture for Improving Human Nutrition and Protecting Planetary Processes
2025Acevedo-De-los-Ríos, Dyson, Claeys, Cardenas-Mamani · Environmental Impact Assessment Review · Global South
Comprehensive literature review of urban and peri-urban agriculture impact on nutrition and environmental processes using LCA approach.
HealthOrganic cycleRethinking Urban Spaces to Improve Nutrition Security Through Urban Agriculture
2025Tolazzi et al. · Earth's Future (Wiley), 2025 · Global
Demonstrates that strategic reallocation of urban spaces to agriculture improves nutrition security for residents; evaluates household nutrition gains and community economic development.
HealthCommunityEconomicsFood diversity and environmental aspects of home and community gardens in highly urbanized areas of Sao Paulo megacity
2025· Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · Brazil (Sao Paulo)
Analyzes food diversity and environmental aspects of home and community gardens in highly urbanized areas of the Sao Paulo megacity.
BiodiversityCommunityHealthCultivating Well-Being: An Exploratory Analysis of the Integral Benefits of Urban Gardens in the Promotion of Active Ageing
2025Noelia Fernández-Salido, Alfonso Gallego-Valadés, Carlos Serra-Castells, Jorge Garcés-Ferrer · International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health · Spain
Analyzes comprehensive benefits of urban gardens for senior active aging. Demonstrates impact on addressing multimorbidity, disability, frailty, and improving mental well-being and social participation.
HealthWelfareElderlyCommunityNurturing Socio-ecological Spaces Through Urban Gardening Practices in India: An Exploration of Alternate Imaginations
2025Deborah Dutta, Amrita Hazra · SAGE Journals · India
Explores socio-ecological dimensions of urban gardening practices in India. Examines how citizen-driven agriculture nurtures social spaces, ecological value, and innovative imagination in urban contexts.
Food educationCommunityPolicyHealthHeavy metal contamination in urban agriculture: evidence from Nairobi
2025Mike Murphy, Githenya Wachira, Cecilia Onyango, Vivian Hoffmann · Environmental Science and Pollution Research International · Kenya (Nairobi)
A study that randomly sampled leafy greens from farms across Nairobi, Kenya, and measured lead, cadmium and mercury. Mean concentrations were 0.68 ppm lead, 0.09 ppm cadmium and 0.11 ppm mercury; plots closer to roads had higher lead and plots near industrial sites had higher mercury. Leafy greens alone pushed 71% of adults and 69% of children above safe lead exposure limits, and 52% of adults above the mercury limit. Comparison greens sourced from outside Nairobi were similarly contaminated, so the authors do not treat contamination as unique to urban farming and instead call for systematic food surveillance in low- and middle-income countries.
HealthHeavy metal contamination in wastewater-irrigated vegetables: assessing food safety challenges in developing Asian countries
2025Navneet Kaur, Jagdev Singh, Neeta Raj Sharma, Simranpreet Kaur Natt, Anand Mohan, Tabarak Malik, Madhuri Girdhar · Environmental Science: Processes & Impacts · Asia
A review of heavy metal contamination in vegetables irrigated with wastewater across India, Bangladesh, Pakistan and China. Cadmium, lead, chromium, arsenic, nickel and mercury repeatedly exceeded international standards, and leafy vegetables accumulated more than fruit or root vegetables. Health risk assessments exceeded safe thresholds for both non-carcinogenic and carcinogenic endpoints, with children most exposed. The authors identify weak regulatory oversight and monitoring as the central gap, implying that for urban and peri-urban farming dependent on wastewater in water-scarce regions, contamination control is a precondition rather than an optional extra.
HealthFood-based interventions to mitigate household food insecurity in Canada: a systematic review
2025Leanne Idzerda, Calin Lazarescu, Tricia Corrin, Eric Vallières, Alix Couture, Sara Khan, Lynn McIntyre, Valerie Tarasuk, Alejandra Jaramillo Garcia · Health Promotion and Chronic Disease Prevention in Canada · Canada
A systematic review (PROSPERO CRD42021254450) searching four databases to 19 February 2025, with duplicate independent screening, risk-of-bias assessment and certainty grading, on food-based interventions that could reduce household food insecurity (HFI) in Canada. Exposure to food voucher programmes may reduce HFI, but exposure to food box, community gardening, school food, hunting and fishing, and food charity programmes may have little to no effect on HFI. The authors conclude that because HFI is primarily an economic problem, food-based responses are unlikely to have a major impact on overall HFI and a more comprehensive public policy approach is required. This is direct counter-evidence to framing community gardens as a food-insecurity intervention.
Limited or null effectHealthPolicyCommunityPrevalence and antibiotic resistance of Escherichia coli in urban and peri-urban garden ecosystems in Bangladesh
2025Pritom Kumar Pramanik, M. Nazmul Hoque, Md. Liton Rana, Md. Saiful Islam, Md. Ashek Ullah, Fahim Haque Neloy, Srinivasan Ramasamy, Pepijn Schreinemachers, Ricardo Oliva, Md. Tanvir Rahman · PLOS ONE · Bangladesh (Dhaka)
Researchers sampled 145 items — 88 raw vegetables, 27 water and 30 soil samples — from rooftop and surface gardens in urban Dhaka North and Dhaka South City Corporations and peri-urban Gazipur City Corporation, Bangladesh, testing for Escherichia coli by culture, biochemical tests and malB-gene PCR. Overall prevalence was 58.62% (95% CI 50.48–66.31): 80.0% in Dhaka South, 44.70% in Dhaka North and 76.7% in Gazipur. In Dhaka, surface gardens were more contaminated (70.83%) than rooftop gardens (46.57%), while in Gazipur rooftop gardens were worse (93.33% vs 60.0%). Of 54 randomly selected isolates, 100% were resistant to ampicillin, with resistance to ciprofloxacin (25.92%), tetracycline (14.81%) and imipenem (9.25%); 14.81% were multidrug resistant and 81.48% carried blaTEM. Home-grown urban vegetables are not automatically hygienically safe.
Contamination & food safetyHealthHealth and wellbeing Benefits of Urban Agriculture Practice in Kathmandu Valley
2025Marina Vaidya Shrestha, Sunil Babu Shrestha, Bijaya Shrestha · Journal of Nepal Health Research Council · Nepal (Kathmandu)
A cross-sectional survey conducted from December 2022 to June 2023 at three randomly selected sites in the Kathmandu Valley, Nepal (Kathmandu, Lalitpur and Bhaktapur), comparing 115 residents who practise urban agriculture with 115 who do not (n=230), using the SF-12 health survey, the Perceived Stress Scale and the Satisfaction with Life Scale. Participants engaged in urban agriculture reported significantly lower perceived stress and significantly higher life satisfaction. However, the two groups differed significantly in gender, ethnicity, occupation, marital status, education and home ownership (p<0.05), and the cross-sectional design cannot separate an effect of gardening from selection into gardening by better-off residents.
HealthWelfareCommunityGrowing kalo (taro) to promote culture and health in the Continental US
2025Leialoha Ka'ula, Nicole Lee Kamakahiolani Ellison, Constance James, Ashley Oshiro, Kacyn Ideue, Kahoku Ka'ula, Alexandra Malia Jackson · Frontiers in Public Health · United States
An explanatory mixed-methods study using community-based participatory research and an Indigenous evaluation approach, examining a māla kalo (a community garden growing taro) run by Native Hawaiians living in the continental United States. At the end of the 2023 growing season, 12 volunteers and 5 programme leaders aged 18–75 completed a survey and interview. Satisfaction was high and participants wanted to take part more often; thematic analysis identified connection to self, community and land, learning and sharing knowledge, and connection to culture. With only 17 participants and no health outcome measures, the study cannot establish health effects — it documents how a community garden growing a traditional staple can serve as a site of cultural connection for a displaced Indigenous community.
Heirloom & landraceCommunityFood educationHealthAn Urban Farm-Anchored Produce Prescription Program's Impacts On Weight Reduction
2025Kaitlyn M. Fruin, Elizabeth L. Tung, Jean M. Franczyk, Ketaurah James, Andrew J. Koetz, Angela K. Mason, Wayne M. Detmer · Health Affairs · United States (Chicago)
An evaluation of VeggieRx, a produce prescription programme anchored to the Farm on Ogden — a 20,000-square-foot urban agriculture facility opened in 2016 in a historically disinvested food desert in Chicago, Illinois, by the Chicago Botanic Garden together with Lawndale Christian Health Center. Clinicians refer patients to the farm for free produce boxes, nutrition counselling and cooking classes. Using a retrospective, propensity-score-weighted cohort design covering January 2016 to December 2021, the study compared 680 VeggieRx participants with 978 weighted controls and found a mean body weight difference of −6.71 pounds (−4.7% of body weight) at eighteen months. Because the design is observational rather than randomised, residual confounding such as selection by motivation cannot be excluded.
HealthEconomicsPolicyCommunityPeningkatan Efektivitas Urban Farming untuk Meningkatkan Nilai Ekonomi dan Kesehatan Lansia Kelompok Tani Kurnia Lestari Kota Malang
2025Yati Sri Hayati, Sitawati Sitawati, Annisa Wuri Kartika, Niko Dima Kristianingrum, Sri Soenarti, Velinda Dewi Lutfiana, Risma Dwi Rahmawati, Herdyana Lintang Sari, Tria Armannaena, Nurliza Prita Arfiati · Kontribusi Jurnal Penelitian dan Pengabdian Kepada Masyarakat · Indonesia (Malang)
This study evaluated whether interventions of knowledge and community empowerment could improve the effectiveness of urban farming for the elderly in the Kurnia Lestari farmer group in Malang City, Indonesia. Intervention activities were conducted using a community empowerment model, including agricultural assistance, health education, ergonomic exercises, and health checks. Results showed an average increase of 5 kg in agricultural products per harvest due to changes in planting media and land settings. The activity is concluded to enhance the economic value of urban elderly groups through increased product and harvest quality, and improved quality of life for the elderly.
ElderlyHealthEconomicsCommunityGrowing your own food in small urban spaces
2025Shanurasab K Nadaf, VR Yadahalli, Bebijan Nadaf · International Journal of Advanced Biochemistry Research · Global
This review explores the motivations and practical strategies for growing food in small urban spaces, addressing challenges like limited space and poor soil. It discusses techniques such as vertical gardening, container planting, hydroponics, and raised beds, along with crop selection and resource optimization. The article also examines challenges, success stories, and the role of technology in making urban gardening accessible.
DIYUrban–rural linkageHealthEconomicsCommunityClimate changeTHE IMPACT OF SOCIAL SPACES IN RESIDENTIAL NEIGHBOURHOOD DURING THE COVID-19 PANDEMIC: URBAN FARMING INTO A SELF-SUFFICIENT COMMUNITY
2025Chua Siu Ting, Hazreena Hussein · Journal of Surveying Construction & Property · Malaysia (Port Dickson)
This study explored residents' perceptions of social spaces in Port Dickson, Malaysia, during the COVID-19 pandemic, using a mixed-method approach combining photographic documentation and a questionnaire survey. The majority of respondents experienced significant stress during the pandemic due to anxiety, job loss, and livelihood challenges, emphasizing the importance of effective space allocation and varied options within residential neighborhoods. These findings imply that strategically designed social spaces and zoning practices are key to developing self-sufficient communities in residential areas.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceHealthClimate changeFrom Crisis to Opportunity
2025Chris Blythe, Silvio Caputo, Michael Hardman, Paul Milbourne, Mina Samangooei, Victoria Schoen · · United Kingdom
This chapter provides a narrative review of how urban food growing in the UK responded to past crises and during the COVID-19 pandemic. It discusses the positive impacts of urban food growing on individual, household, and community resilience, well-being, environment, and local food systems during the pandemic. The chapter suggests that further recognition and support for urban food growing would improve its ability to respond to future crises.
CommunityHealthFood sovereignty & justiceClimate changeUrban Agriculture as a Food Security Solution Through Green Economy Approach
2025Agustin Windianingsih, Wiwin Wiwin, Tanti Febrianti · Journal of Finance and Business Digital · Global
This research investigated the potential of urban agriculture to overcome food crises and impact food security. Using a mixed-methods approach (quantitative and qualitative), the study found that people practicing urban farming are supported in terms of urban farming skills, food security, creation of green open spaces, entrepreneurial opportunities, fulfillment of nutritional needs, enjoyment of fresh crops, creation of community bonds, educational benefits, and awareness for mental health and the environment.
Food sovereignty & justiceEconomicsCommunityHealthFood educationClimate change111Chapter 6 Cultivating the Self, Tending Others: Wellbeing, Relationality, and Transformation in Community Gardens
2025Anna Sofia Salonen, Giovanna Paccillo, Lauren Strumos, Rebecca Banham · · Global
This chapter discusses the relationship between community gardens and wellbeing, viewing wellbeing as a cultural field. It explores how gardeners experience wellbeing through their gardening and what these experiences reveal about their lifestances. The analysis shows that gardening can contribute to collective wellbeing through transformative engagement with ethics and ontologies, and that community gardens can serve as "everyday utopias" for expressing critique and desire for change. It identifies both the possibilities and limits of community gardens in fostering holistic, relational, transformative approaches to wellbeing.
CommunityHealthUrbant landbruk og retten til byen: et veikart for utøvere
2025Arild Eriksen, Deni Ruggeri, Esben Slaatrem Titland · · Norway (Oslo)
This essay examines urban agriculture from the perspective of an architect and urban farmer/beekeeper practicing bottom-up, participatory design in Oslo. Critical dimensions of urban agriculture in public space include private and corporate claims on these landscapes, and its current aesthetics of impermanence are critiqued. The essay questions the notion that the joy and freedom urban agriculture brings to a community should be built upon and enriched by future development and policy.
Governance failureCommunityPolicyHealthBiodiversityAgricultural Crop Production in the Urban Community: Its Opportunities and Challenges
2025Ermar A. Amistas, Joedar P. Satojito, Erly M. Martir · International Journal of Science and Management Studies (IJSMS) · Philippines
This quantitative study examined opportunities and challenges in agricultural crop production within two urban school communities in the Philippines (Jalandoni Memorial National High School and Iloilo City National High School) during the 2024-2025 school year, involving 352 Grade 10 students. Students reported practical skills, improved food access, environmental awareness, and community engagement as opportunities in urban gardening, but cited limited space, inadequate skills, resource gaps, and weak support systems as challenges. No statistical relationship was found between opportunities and challenges.
Food educationCommunityHealthEfectividad del Huerto Urbano: Un Enfoque para el Bienestar de los Adultos Mayores Urban Garden Effectiveness: An Approach to the Well-being of Older Adults
2025Marisol Silva-Vera, María de Jesús Jiménez González, Laura Varela Almanza · JÓVENES EN LA CIENCIA · Mexico
A quasi-experimental study in Mexico with 21 adults over 65 evaluated a community urban garden intervention for nutritional status. Participants showed increased nutrition knowledge, a 47.7% rise in vegetable intake, and a 23.8% increase in physical activity. However, anthropometric variables did not show significant differences, indicating limited impact on physical measurements despite positive changes in knowledge and habits.
Limited or null effectElderlyHealthFood educationCommunityUrban foraging behavior in public green spaces: a case study of Nanjing’s central urban area
2025Xiang Zhou, Nan Wang, Jiaying Shi, Michael Hensel · Humanities and Social Sciences Communications · China (Nanjing)
A study of urban foraging behavior in Nanjing's central urban area, China, revealed significant enthusiasm among residents, linking personal childhood experiences to their foraging motivations. However, environmental pollution was identified as a critical barrier to these activities.
Contamination & food safetyCommunityHealthFood educationBiodiversityAsyl, Gemüse und Nachhaltigkeit: Urban Gardening in einer Unterkunft für geflüchtete Menschen
2025Juliane Forßmann, Simon Goebel · Zeitschrift für Flüchtlingsforschung · Germany
An urban gardening project in a residential facility for up to 230 refugees in Germany aims to counteract precarious living conditions. While the garden offers a low-threshold space for knowledge exchange on resource-saving cultivation, biodiversity, and health promotion, this paper also reflects on the project's limits.
Limited or null effectCommunityWelfareHealthBiodiversityFood educationClimate change