Research & reports

Richard C. Sadler, Godwin Arku, Jason Gilliland · Local Environment · United States (Flint)

This study examined local food networks (LFNs) and a food policy council (FPC) in Flint, Michigan, a post-industrial city facing food access issues. Participant observation with stakeholders revealed support for community gardens, farmers' markets, and urban agriculture. Based on the synthesis of stakeholder opinions, policy recommendations were developed to aid in the continued planning of the LFN.

Jeanne Simonelli, Stephanie Paladino · Culture Agriculture Food and Environment · United States

This issue focuses on the movement to reintegrate food production into the civic, moral, and economic life of communities. Specifically, it highlights a qualitative study on the perceived benefits of community gardening in Baltimore, Maryland. The study explores the benefits to individuals, neighborhoods, and the city, suggesting these can be used as urban planning tools for developing healthy urban environments.

Matthew Benson · Journal of Extension · United States

An online survey of Extension professionals in eight US state Extension systems examined their involvement in farm-to-school program activities. On average, professionals were involved in one activity, primarily supporting school or community garden programs, but expressed interest in participating in an average of four activities. The study found that all Extension program areas are currently involved and interested in supporting farm-to-school initiatives through various activities.

Becky L. Jacobs · eYLS (Yale Law School) · United States (Detroit)

Detroit, Michigan, has become a leader in urban agriculture, with an estimated 1500 to 2000 gardens supported by individuals and businesses, including the Cadillac Urban Gardens. Various organizations and public-private coalitions promote sustainable local agriculture in the city. Knoxville, Tennessee, proposed creating an "urban food corridor" in 2012 to improve food access, health, and stimulate economic development by connecting land, farming, processing, distribution, sale, and composting.

C. Bottenheft, Willeke van Staalduinen · TNO Repository · United States (New York City)

This study is a background research presenting examples of space in relation to healthy behavior, self-reliance, and social connections. It covers a scoping review process and addresses various topics including community gardens in New York, green buildings, neighborhood walkability, geographical access to tobacco and fast food, and social capital in walkable neighborhoods.

Ashley S. Harms, DeAnn Presley, Ganga M. Hettiarachchi, Chammi P. Attanayake, Sabine Martin, Steven J. Thien · Natural sciences education · United States (Kansas City)

This case study examines the decision faced by Mr. John Holloway in Harmony Park, Kansas City, MO, regarding establishing a community garden on a vacant brownfield site in 2009. Concerns arose about soil contaminants on the site, leading to a dilemma about the potential harm versus benefits of gardening in a food desert. The case requires students to evaluate environmental, agronomic, human health, social, and economic issues related to urban soil contamination.

Nii O. Tackie, Nakia C. McCallum, Leonard Githinji, Desmond G. Mortley, Goppal P. Reddy, Jannette R. Bartlett, Prosper K. Doamekpor, Togo M. Traore · Journal of Economics and Sustainable Development · United States (Alabama)

This study assessed the impact of selected socioeconomic factors on residents' perceptions of community garden benefits in Macon County, Alabama. Data from a convenience sample of 217 participants, collected via questionnaire, showed that at least 73% agreed with nutritional, health, and community benefits. Age, education, and annual household income had statistically significant effects on these perceptions.

Louise Chawla · Children Youth and Environments · United States

In 2013, the American Public Health Association issued a policy statement on "Improving Health and Wellness through Access to Nature." The statement reviews extensive evidence that contact with nature is a health-promoting experience in itself. Access to green spaces is associated with lower rates of heart disease, stroke, obesity, stress, and depression, as well as improved endocrine and immune system function, with low-income groups showing particularly significant benefits in reducing health disparities.

Ann Y. Robinson, Hannah C. Lewis · Iowa State University Digital Repository (Iowa State University) · United States (Des Moines)

Six schools in Des Moines, United States, served as testing grounds for using school gardens as an educational, community-building, and health-enhancing tool. FoodCorps members collaborated with teachers, staff, students, and parents to demonstrate how school gardens could enrich their lives.

Laure Emperaire, Ludivine Eloy · Bulletin of Latin American Research · Brazil (Rio Negro)

Indigenous agricultural systems in the periurban Rio Negro, Amazonas, Brazil, have transposed from forest contexts to periurban areas, maintaining multi-plot cultivation and traditional knowledge. However, this agriculture faces challenges from modern urban agriculture values. Its ecological and cultural relevance relies on new market integration and partnerships.

Pascale Joassart‐Marcelli, Fernando J. Bosco · Métropoles · United States (California)

This article explores the growth of local food practices in urban southern California, focusing on farmers' markets. While alternative food initiatives like farmers' markets are often seen as resistance to capitalist pressures, this research provides evidence that they have become increasingly popular among affluent and white urban residents. This finding challenges the claim that local food fosters democracy and justice, indicating that these initiatives can reproduce neoliberal urban agendas and reshape cities along lines of race and class.

Laura Oliven Silberfarb, Sonja Savre, Gayle Geber · Preventing Chronic Disease · United States (Hennepin County)

Hennepin County assessed the extent to which 41 cities were engaged in making policy, systems, and environmental (PSE) changes to increase residents' access to healthful food. Results revealed that some cities, particularly those with higher resident demand for healthful food, are making nationally recommended PSE changes, such as sponsoring farmers markets. However, cities moved more slowly to make changes in areas with perceived negative cost consequences or lesser public demand, such as parks and recreation vending.

Elizabeth Berg · Scholars' Bank (University of Oregon) · United States

State and local policies promoting urban agriculture contribute to revitalizing postindustrial American cities. Urban food systems encompass aspects of producing, processing, marketing, distributing, and consuming food, providing a multiplicity of benefits and services for local residents. These benefits include improved access to outdoor recreation, economic vitality, health and wellbeing, landscape beautification, and environmental restoration.

Pierrette Hondagneu‐Sotelo · · United States (Los Angeles)

This chapter focuses on life in urban community gardens in Los Angeles, United States. Here, the poorest and most marginalized newcomer immigrants, including undocumented immigrants, gather to grow homeland vegetables, share community ties, and build new places of belonging. They transform discarded urban patches into oases of freedom, belonging, and homeland connection, producing bountiful vegetables and vibrant community connections.

Melissa N. Poulsen, Kristyna R. S. Hulland, Carolyn A. Gulas, Hieu M. Pham, Sarah L Dalglish, Rebecca K. Wilkinson, Peter J. Winch · Culture Agriculture Food and Environment · United States (Baltimore)

This qualitative study explored the perceived benefits of community gardening in Baltimore, Maryland, through in-depth and focus group interviews with community gardeners. Gardeners reported benefits at multiple levels, including psychological benefits and a connection with nature individually, trusting relationships and shared learning at the neighborhood level, and reclaiming city space and improving the food environment at the community level.

Melissa Johnston, Andre Knight-Lira, Zoë Mager, Nadine Mulrooney, Matthew Poppleton, Samantha Shaw, Matthew Wilkinson · · Canada (Peterborough)

This document compiles research reports written by students in the Environmental Resource Studies/Science (ERTS) 3160H class at Trent University in the winter of 2014. The students critically examined urban food forests around the world and made suggestions for designing a food forest in Peterborough. Urban food forests have the potential to provide the same services as current urban forests, but also produce food and perhaps increase biodiversity in the process.

Sarah Legg · Figshare · United States (Wyoming)

ACRES Student Farm, a University of Wyoming organization, has grown significantly over six years, providing local produce, CSA shares, composting, and educational opportunities. However, the farm suffers from continuous losses in efficiency and acquired knowledge due to the transient nature of its student management and workforce, leading to unsustainable internal functioning. This project aims to develop a management plan and handbook to address these issues and improve the farm's operational efficiency.

Manuel Pastor, Rachel Morello‐Frosch · Health Affairs · United States (California)

This article reviews shifts in community development, highlighting programs that integrate community development, public health, and civic engagement to address neighborhood distress and promote well-being. Examples include Sacramento, California's Building Healthy Communities program, which promoted community gardens and bike paths, and San Francisco, California's Sunnydale-Velasco housing revitalization initiative, which is transforming a public housing site into a mixed-income community. These cases illustrate the importance of interdisciplinary approaches for economic mobility, democratic participation, and community health.

Sarah Himmelheber · Journal of Progressive Human Services · United States

This study discusses incongruities between social work's professional values and dominant public and private responses to food insecurity. Empowerment theory is positioned as an evaluative lens to examine food assistance, and dominant forms of food assistance are scrutinized using its basic tenets. Innovative programs, including community gardens, community kitchens, and D.C. Central Kitchen, are highlighted for their potential to yield empowering outcomes.

Pierrette Hondagneu‐Sotelo · · United States (California)

This chapter discusses possibilities for rethinking and reinventing new models of garden making in Southern California and metropolitan regions more generally. In Southern California, diverse gardens promoting environmental and cultural sustainability, shared backyard gardening, organic vegetable gardening, wall gardens, and lawn removal efforts are observed. The chapter reviews these projects, looking at new efforts in private residential gardens, urban community gardens, and public spaces, with a focus on immigration and the Southern California region.

Nevin Cohen, Kristin Reynolds · Journal of Planning Education and Research · United States (New York City)

This article examines urban agriculture (UA) policy-making processes in New York City, focusing on aspects of UA not fully addressed by existing policies, plans, and research strategies. Interviews with UA stakeholders and an analysis of the city’s UA policy-making processes show that resource needs and race- and class-based disparities within the UA system persist.

Katherine Luke · D-Scholarship@Pitt (University of Pittsburgh) · United States (Pittsburgh)

This study used a door-to-door survey in six Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania neighborhoods to measure the impact of community gardens on residents' perceptions of food access. It found that many gardeners do not consider gardening to improve their personal food security, and despite geographic proximity and expressed interest, community garden participation rates were low. Social and emotional barriers, including lack of gardening knowledge and racial prejudice, appeared to prevent residents from becoming active participants.

Matt Murray · Journal of Political Ecology · United States (New York City)

Efrat Eizenberg's book "From the Ground Up" explores New York City's community gardens as spaces that resist the commodification of land. The book details the history of these gardens, including their emergence during the 1970s economic crisis when primarily Black and Hispanic residents transformed vacant land into communal green spaces. As the real estate market recovered in the 1980s, land values increased, and many gardens were threatened by gentrification pressures. Eizenberg analyzes these transformations at individual, collective, and institutional levels, highlighting how gardeners create common spaces, solidify interpersonal ties, and organize to defend their gardens.

Rafael Ângelo Fortunato, Elza Neffa · Revista Turismo em Análise · Brazil

This article reflects on the potential of solidarity tourism for local development, analyzing the "Horta Comunitária do Morro da Coroa" community garden in Brazil. Based on a literature review, phenomenology, and one year of participant observation, the study identified the potential of the "6Vs" of solidarity tourism as pillars for a new concept. It also found that network formation, as proposed, is an important instrument for political action aimed at strengthening local development initiatives.

Andrew Salman · TopSCHOLAR (Western Kentucky University) · United States (Bowling Green)

This research documented the transformation of a house in Bowling Green, KY, into a model sustainability home by the WKU Office of Sustainability as a case study. Using LEED Core Concepts, the study assessed the benefits of weatherization, solar energy array installation, and the conversion of the backyard into an edible landscape and community garden to mitigate stormwater flooding. Procedural and institutional barriers to sustainability initiatives were analyzed, and exceptional results, such as the collaborative community gardening organization Project Grow, were described as a model for other institutions.