Research & reports

Virginie Lavallée-Picard · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Canada

This paper describes the background, policy and program changes, implementation, and early outcomes of "Growing in the City," a municipally led comprehensive strategy launched in 2016 by the City of Victoria, British Columbia, Canada, to expand food production within the city. It focuses on initiatives enabling small-scale commercial urban food production and public-realm community programs—including community gardens, boulevard gardening, an inventory of city-owned land with community gardening potential, and a pilot program to plant food trees on city land—and discusses the success factors, challenges, and areas for improvement in achieving the initiative's goals.

Chatura Vaidya, Kaleigh Fisher, John Vandermeer · Sustainability · United States

A study placed experimental bumblebee nests at 10 sites (nine of them community gardens) across an urbanization gradient (0-99% urbanization) in the United States to assess the effects of urbanization on colony development and reproductive success. Reproductive success and colony size were positively correlated with the nests' cumulative weight gain (p < 0.05), but the degree of urbanization had no significant effect on population growth rate or forager activity (p > 0.05). Growth rate was strongly negatively affected by the abundance of wax moth larvae (p < 0.05) and positively correlated with parasite diversity (p < 0.05) and the number of foragers entering the nest (p < 0.01). The study concludes that both bottom-up and top-down effects are equally important for pollinator population dynamics.

Virginia L. J. Bolshakova, John Gieng, C. Sheena Sidhu · California Agriculture · United States (California)

In San Mateo County, California, teen ambassadors trained by UC Cooperative Extension educators and volunteers at UC Elkus Ranch taught nutrition science, food cultivation and healthy living skills to elementary schoolchildren in an urban setting through an 8-week, garden-based after-school program (the Healthy Living Ambassador Program) in spring 2015. A mixed-methods pilot study measured children's vegetable selection and consumption preferences and teens' perceived self-efficacy in healthy living behavior. Children trended toward increased preference for gardening, cooking and science, and teens showed an increase in perceived health self-efficacy.

Charles C. Branas, Eugenia South, Michelle C. Kondo, Bernadette C. Hohl, Philippe Bourgois, Douglas J. Wiebe, John M. MacDonald · PNAS 115(12): 2946-2951 · United States (Philadelphia)

A citywide cluster-randomized trial assigning 541 Philadelphia vacant lots to treatment or control. Residents near treated lots (445 surveyed) reported significantly reduced perceptions of crime (-36.8%), vandalism (-39.3%) and fear of going outside (-57.8%), and significantly increased use of outdoor space for relaxing and socializing (+75.7%). In neighborhoods below the poverty line, police-recorded crime also fell significantly: overall crime -13.3%, gun violence -29.1%, burglary -21.9%, nuisance crime -30.3%. Concludes that vacant-land restoration is an effective, scalable infrastructure intervention against gun violence, crime and fear.

David Ceaser · Agritecture · United States

In this December 7, 2018 article for Agritecture, horticultural consultant David Ceaser reports on the challenges facing agrihood development, using The Cannery in Davis, California (500+ homes, 150 acres, with a 7.4-acre organic farm) as a case study. He notes that residents held unrealistic expectations about how the farm would be run and their role in it, and that poorer-than-expected soil quality required amending with organic matter, delaying farm development. Farm Director Sri Sethuratnam described the aging farmer population and food-production challenges as "a national security issue."

Chris McGivern, Shuttleworth Foundation Team · Shuttleworth Foundation · United States

A Shuttleworth Foundation interview article (dated 24 December 2018) with Rory Aronson, founder of FarmBot, describing how he joined the Shuttleworth Fellowship in 2014 to work on FarmBot full-time and his commitment to open-source principles. He states Facebook videos of FarmBot were shared over 200 million times, preorders exceeded $1 million in the first two months after launch, and the latest manufacturing run completed 500 units.

Horta das Corujas · Horta das Corujas (blog oficial) · Brazil

The official blog of Horta das Corujas, a volunteer-run community garden on Praça das Corujas in the Vila Beatriz neighborhood of São Paulo. Opened on September 29, 2012, the roughly 800 m² garden practices agroecological vegetable and herb cultivation, restores a local spring, keeps bees, and hosts school environmental-education visits. It operates without formal permits, run by volunteers, with about 10-15 people regularly active.

Coyle B. D., Ellison B. · Choices 32(1):1-8 · United States

Analyzes US consumer demand and willingness to pay for vertically farmed produce, finding consumers are price-sensitive and largely unwilling to pay a premium simply for indoor-grown greens, posing a market challenge for scaling beyond niches.

Flores R. M. V., Quagrainie K. K., Kim H.-J., McClain V. · Journal of Applied Aquaculture 30(1):1-14 · United States

Conducts an economic analysis of aquaponic and hydroponic production in the US Midwest, comparing the cost structures and profitability of the two systems to assess the commercial feasibility of controlled-environment horticultural production.

Lee R.E., Parker N.H., Soltero E.G., Ledoux T., Hernandez I., Sahnoune I. · BMC Public Health, 17:242 · United States

Piloted SAGE—a 12-session garden education program with songs, games, taste tests and garden care—for 89 children aged 3–5 in six early care and education centers across two US cities, evaluating reach, efficacy and implementation using the RE-AIM framework for PA and fruit and vegetable intake.

Nevin Cohen, Janet Poppendieck, Nicholas Freudenberg · Journal of Food Law & Policy · United States

This essay outlines priorities for food advocates following the election of President Donald Trump: preserving SNAP, preventing industry deregulation, and sustaining regional food systems. It analyzes the potential conservative-backed counter-proposals to each of these priorities.

Rosalie M. Sharp, Daniel J. Brabander · GeoHealth · United States (Boston)

This study assessed lead (Pb) bioaccessibility, transport, and exposure pathways in urban gardens in Roxbury and Dorchester, MA, in partnership with The Food Project, which brings local farmers into the research. Compost had lower total Pb, lower gastric Pb solubility, and less fine-particle resuspension than soils, with a mean bioaccessible Pb of 265 mg/kg—nearly an order of magnitude lower than soils. Across all matrices, grain sizes under 37 μm held a disproportionate share of bioaccessible Pb, whose isotopic composition pointed to leaded gasoline and leaded paint.

Maia G. Fitzstevens, Rosalie M. Sharp, Daniel J. Brabander · Elementa: Science of the Anthropocene · United States (Boston)

To support urban agriculture and limit childhood lead exposure from resuspended urban soils, this study measured bulk and bioaccessible lead in five types of compost used in Boston urban gardens. Different feedstocks showed unique geochemical fingerprints; bulk lead in compost was a fraction of that in urban soils, yet the bioaccessible fraction exceeded the IEUBK model's default parameters. Based on the observed bioaccessibility, 170 mg/kg total lead in compost yields the same bioaccessible lead as the model predicts for the 400 mg/kg EPA soil benchmark, so risk assessments should treat compost as an urban matrix.

Tammy E. Parece, James B. Campbell · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · United States

This study used the Normalized Difference Vegetation Index (NDVI) from U.S. Landsat 5, 7, and 8 satellites to assess the environmental impact of urban community gardens across three eastern U.S. cities—Roanoke, VA; Pittsburgh, PA; and Buffalo, NY—over the 2007–2015 growing seasons. It reports that establishing community gardens altered seasonal NDVI trajectories, sometimes declining initially but then increasing over time, revealing the vigorous vegetative character of urban agriculture.

Nagle L., Echols S., Tamminga K. · Journal of Green Building · United States (Pennsylvania)

Monitors the productivity of a 7.5 m² outdoor living wall planted with produce crops during the 2015 summer in State College, Pennsylvania, also collecting irradiance, water-use and soil-moisture data.

Gatto · Pediatric Obesity · USA (Los Angeles)

A randomized controlled trial of a 12-week after-school nutrition, cooking, and gardening program held at a community garden, assessing reductions in obesity and metabolic risk among Hispanic/Latino youth.

Goldstein B. · Environmental Science & Technology · Northeast United States

An analysis for the northeastern US concluded that local and urban farming provides only small environmental benefits to urban sustainability (carbon, land, water), partly because it cannot displace livestock, which dominate agricultural emissions and land use.

· Frontiers in Environmental Science · Brazil (Sao Paulo)

PAHs, including carcinogenic congeners, were detected in vegetables grown in urban gardens of Sao Paulo, showing that urban air pollution and soil contamination drive PAH accumulation in city-grown produce.

Hunold C., Sorunmu Y., Lindy R., Spatari S., Gurian P. L. · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development · Philadelphia, USA

An exploratory study of small-scale urban market farms in Philadelphia finds they cannot cover costs from sales alone and depend on grants, donations, and unpaid volunteer labor, concluding that financial self-sufficiency for urban agriculture is currently very difficult.

Safransky S. · Antipode · Detroit, USA

Examines Detroit's land reordering (including greening and urban farming) under fiscal austerity, arguing that repurposing 'vacant' land reignites racialized dispossession and undermines the sovereignty and land claims of existing low-income Black communities.

Sbicca J., Myers J. S. · Environmental Sociology · USA

Using two food justice organizations in the Bay Area and New York, the article situates urban food activism within 'racial neoliberalism,' showing that food/urban-agriculture movements are inseparable from racial and economic inequities and structures such as mass incarceration.

Paddeu Flaminia · Town Planning Review · USA (Detroit)

Examines Detroit's 2012 zoning ordinance legalising urban agriculture, arguing it functioned as a contested 'planning for decline'. Shows the reform was shaped by political trade-offs and left land-tenure and equity questions unresolved, limiting real benefit to residents.

· Journal of Urban Affairs · USA (Detroit)

Analyzes the political controversy over disposing municipal vacant land for urban agriculture in Detroit (incl. the Hantz large-scale scheme), showing how the land-disposition policy stoked fears of speculative land grabs and 'giving up' on the city rather than delivering community benefit.

Fanny Carlet, Joseph Schilling, Megan Heckert · Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems · United States

This article investigates the current state of research and practice regarding urban agriculture as a strategy for regenerating shrinking U.S. cities. It examines how repurposing vacant land for food production can address urban blight and food insecurity. The study highlights key findings and provides observations for public officials and practitioners on leveraging this research to enhance urban agriculture for vacant land treatment.

Melissa N. Poulsen, Roni Neff, Peter J. Winch · Local Environment · United States (Baltimore)

This qualitative case study in Baltimore, Maryland, explored community perceptions of how urban farms benefit neighborhoods. Interviews with residents, neighborhood leaders, and urban farmers in three residential neighborhoods revealed that benefits stemmed from the creation of public projects, physical improvement of degraded spaces, local food production, and new businesses. These changes led to perceived benefits such as increased social connectedness, a transformed physical landscape, improved neighborhood reputation, and enhanced access to fresh produce, demonstrating the importance of a multifunctional paradigm beyond traditional economic indicators.