Research & reports

Lindsay K. Campbell · Cornell University Press eBooks · United States (New York City)

In New York City, chapter six revealed how civic and public actors working outside PlaNYC iteratively embedded urban agriculture and food policy into municipal planning efforts. Within the void created by city hall’s lack of engagement, other figures in the municipal government seized the opportunity to advance food policy agendas for New York City. The 2011 update to PlaNYC included a brief crosscutting section on food, although it lacked capital funding to fuel the achievement of its stated goals, and was seen by advocates as a symbolic and political achievement.

Sam Smiley · Catalyst Feminism Theory Technoscience · United States (Provincetown, MA)

This arts-based action research, conducted by media artist and researcher sam smiley, explored the process of building a sculpture from Japanese Knotweed, an "invasive species," in the B-Street community garden in Provincetown, MA, USA. A series of community interventions with gardeners, naturalists, and sculptors were organized during the May 2016 Appearances Environmental Arts Festival. This article debriefs the journey of the Knotweed Sculpture from the community garden to its ultimate destruction in a bonfire on National Seashore.

Lisa Morano, Vassilios Tzouanas · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States (Houston)

The University of Houston–Downtown (UHD) launched an urban agriculture and sustainability program in 2016, engaging undergraduates in hands-on projects like creating aquaponics systems. Qualitative student surveys indicated increased knowledge and impact on career directions. However, the 2017 program plans were disrupted when Hurricane Harvey flooded the school and destroyed student aquaponics systems, necessitating a focus on rebuilding and future resiliency.

Tyson J. Sorensen, Kelsey Hall, David Francis, Joshua Dallin · Digital Commons - USU (Utah State University) · United States (Utah)

A survey was conducted among 42 teachers who attended the Urban Agriculture Workshop in Utah to assess the value of various workshop aspects and measure pre-post gains in knowledge, ability, and importance. The survey also measured attitudes, subjective norms, perceived behavioral controls, and behavioral intention, with demographic data also collected.

Roxanna Duntley-Matos, Victoria Arteaga, Ángel García, Rafael Arellano, Roberto Montes Garza, Robert M. Ortega · Journal of Community Practice · United States (Flint)

This critically intersubjectively engaged ethnography examines emergent Latinx lead crisis rehabilitation efforts in Flint, MI, focusing on the role of education within multicultural struggles for validation. It employs cultural humility, transformative complicity, and empowerment paradigms, emphasizing organizing strategies that respect faith-based, union, and urban gardening histories. The study's popular pedagogical methods promote agency among detained youths from Kalamazoo, who contribute through protest music, testimonies, and commentaries.

Helena C. Lyson · · United States (California)

This qualitative fieldwork in a large, urban school district in Northern California explored school food reform efforts addressing childhood obesity. Reforms transpired through three processes: sustained involvement of parent-activists, leadership by the school food service director in championing farm-to-school efforts and facilitating partnerships, and widespread community support for funding and implementation. These findings indicate how local social change transformed public school food programs to benefit youth health.

Catherine Villar · Scholarship@Western (Western University) · Canada

This ethnographic study, conducted from August 2013 to August 2014, examined Orchard Hill Farm, an organic, draft-horse powered Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farm in Sparta, Ontario, Canada. It found that the farm's management approach resulted in a financially viable small-scale farm. The study highlighted that CSA members experience a "re-enchantment" through closeness to food and the farm, while farmers and apprentices demonstrate a commitment to sustainable practices.

Rosa Jacob Chilundo, Paulo César Marques de Carvalho, Mário Diniz, Adriano Bezerra · Renewable Energy and Power Quality Journal · Brazil

This paper analyzed the technical and financial feasibility of a stand-alone photovoltaic powered irrigation system applied to a familiar production unit in Brazil. The system was installed at the Center for Teaching and Research in Urban Agriculture (NEPAU) on the PICI campus of the Federal University of Ceará, occupying 134 m² with a 3534-liter water reservoir, a 12 VDC pump motor, and a 135 Wp photovoltaic module. Efficiencies for the photovoltaic module, pump, and global set were 8.4%, 42%, and 3.5% respectively, with an assumed service life of 25 years and capital return after 9.3 years.

Lucy Diekmann, Leslie Gray, Gregory A. Baker · Local Environment · United States (California)

This case study in Santa Clara County, California, used interviews and surveys to explore the implications of historic drought for urban agriculture (UA). It found that metropolitan California's decentralized water supply and diverse institutional arrangements create an uneven landscape of water access for UA. This results in geographically and socially differentiated pressures on UA water users to change water-consuming practices, with responses varying due to site-specific sociotechnical arrangements and UA purposes.

Sydney Giacalone · Journal for Undergraduate Ethnography · United States (Boston)

This ethnographic study, conducted in Boston and Somerville in the summer of 2016, investigated how urban chicken keeping might transform keepers’ thinking about food systems and animal relationships. The research revealed the unexpected discovery of lead contamination in urban chicken flocks in the Boston area, which unsettled the imagined simplicity of urban agriculture and exposed a "metabolic rift." This finding prompted keepers to engage more deeply with the history of the soil and opened new ways of thinking about collective metabolism, multispecies living, and food politics.

Osazuwa Osayomwanbor · Open MIND · Canada

This study discusses the concept of urban agriculture in Regina, Canada, its growth, and the implications of municipal bylaws and policies on urban agricultural activities. It uses policy frameworks from other cities to suggest changes needed to improve Regina's urban agriculture landscape and presents practical actions required for urban agriculture to thrive in Regina.

John Diaz, Susan T. Webb, Erin Elsberry · EDIS · United States (Florida)

A three-page Extension fact sheet from the University of Florida outlining a framework for county garden associations, noting growing recognition of the educational, environmental, health, and social impacts of school and community garden projects, and describing how such associations allow Extension to provide technical information supporting new and existing gardens. It outlines the framework used by a pilot garden association program in Polk County, Florida, written by John M. Diaz, Susan Tyler Webb, and Erin Elsberry and published by the Department of Agricultural Education and Communication in March 2017.

Jim Leap, Darryl Wong, Orin Martin, Kirstin Yogg Comerchero · eScholarship (California Digital Library) · United States (California)

A guide for small-scale specialty crop growers on organic potato production on California's Central Coast. The region's climate is described as well suited to potatoes, with yields reaching up to 10 tons per acre. It covers mechanized weed management, hilling and harvest equipment, the growth habits of "new" and "creamer" potatoes, recommended varieties, and suitability for direct sales through CSAs, farmers' markets, specialty markets and restaurants.

Jennifer Marshall, Mindy Jewell Price, Joseph W. England, Kate LeGrand, Russell S. Kirby · Journal of Community Engagement and Scholarship · United States (Florida)

An online survey of 277 former college student volunteers in Florida, aged 21 to 71, examined whether the length of time spent volunteering with one organization during college was associated with later civic behavior. Longer service during college was positively associated with more favorable future service attitudes, dispositions and behavior, including greater likelihood of continuing to give service, valuing service to others, and believing one could make a difference in the community.

Monika Egerer, Stacy M. Philpott, Heidi Liere, Shalene Jha, Peter Bichier, Brenda B. Lin · International Journal of Biodiversity Science Ecosystems Services & Management · United States (California)

This study examined 25 urban community gardens in California to investigate relationships between soil properties and neighborhood socio-demographics, focusing on (1) how groundcover management affects soil properties, and (2) how socio-demographics, particularly social advantage, affect groundcover management and soil properties. Mulch groundcover was found to improve soil fertility and water holding capacity in gardens, and socio-demographic factors appeared to affect residents' access to mulch: neighborhoods with higher mobility (e.g., greater vehicle availability) but poorer public/environmental health indicators (e.g., poorer health care access) had higher soil organic matter, nutrient content, and water holding capacity. However, indicators of high-functioning soils were also found in the absence of mulch, suggesting that other factors such as social networks and organizational support may also be important for ecosystem services in urban agricultural systems.

Jairus Rossi, Timothy A. Woods, James E. Allen · Sustainability · United States

A controlled pilot study offered 95 first-time shareholders drawn from a university wellness program a $200 voucher to join a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program, surveying food lifestyle behaviors before and after participation and comparing changes against an 82-person control group using econometric analysis. Changes were found in four categories — fresh versus processed food consumption, food prepared at home versus away, food purchasing behavior and interest in nutrition, and self-reported health outcomes — and these changes were more strongly realized among shareholders who reported lower-than-average health prior to the CSA.

Lewis C. Gray, Lucy Diekmann, Susan J. Algert · CABI eBooks · United States

This book chapter examines the renaissance of urban agriculture in North America since the 1960s creation of community gardens, asking whether it is producing enduring landscapes and socio-economic change or is transitory like past movements. After surveying broad research themes — civic engagement, community development, food justice and ecosystem services — the chapter examines barriers to and impacts of urban agriculture in Santa Clara County, Silicon Valley, where significant economic disparities are reflected in unequal access to different forms of urban agriculture.

Kerstin Martin, Taylor Hinton, Darby Anderson, Elizabeth J. Schafer, Rebecca Dawson · The FASEB Journal · United States

This report examines a comprehensive community wellness initiative launched in 2014 in Meadville, Pennsylvania — a town classified as a food desert under USDA criteria, where 26.1% of residents lived in poverty and nearly 13% had poor nutritional status in 2014, and where an estimated 70% of adults regionally were overweight or obese with childhood obesity above 30%. The initiative established community gardens, piloted a fresh fruits and vegetables program in a local elementary school, and launched a mobile farmers market — piloted in summer 2016 in collaboration with the local bus company — targeting a low-income neighborhood to increase access to fresh produce and reduce obesity.

Jill Wieneke · Lincoln (University of Nebraska) · United States

A case study of urban agriculture's potential for cost savings at Hawley Hamlet Neighborhood Garden in Lincoln, Nebraska. Vegetables were weighed from two 50-square-foot garden plots over a four-month period and compared against prices at three local grocery stores; the two plots together averaged $497 in savings, equivalent to 3.13 pounds per square foot produced and $1.59 saved per square foot. Citing an assessment by the Mayor's Environmental Task Force that Lincoln would need 33 acres to be 1% food self-reliant while the city currently has only about 1.5 acres in community gardens, the study concludes more urban agriculture and self-reliance are needed in the city.

Juliana Portela do Rego Monteiro · · Brazil

The available abstract consists only of the names of the thesis advisor and the six committee members (four external, two internal); no information on the study's subject, method or findings is provided.

Patsy Eubanks Owens · Children Youth and Environments · United States

This is a review of Illène Pevec's book Growing a Life: Teen Gardeners Harvest Food, Health, and Joy (New Village Press, 2016, 407 pages), which presents the experiences of youth — typically low-income and ethnically diverse — participating in a dozen gardening programs across four US states: Colorado, New York, California and New Mexico. Examples cited include youth in New York helping plant green walls and youth in New Mexico learning to grow traditional Native American foods. The review characterizes the book as research-based evidence documenting the effects of school gardening programs on adolescent development and well-being.

Lindsay K. Campbell · Cornell University Press eBooks · United States (New York City)

This chapter traces the network of actors and storylines involved in creating, advocating for and maintaining urban agriculture in New York City. It recounts a brief history of community gardening as a social movement in the city since the 1970s, then explores the practices and narratives of a newer wave of civic practitioners active from the 2000s onward, distinguishing threads focused on local food production, food justice, and neighborhood stabilization and youth empowerment.

Emily Benton Hite, Dorie Perez, Dalila D’Ingeo, Qasimah Boston, Miaisha M. Mitchell · Annals of Anthropological Practice · United States

A study examined the structure and meaning of community gardens in Frenchtown, Tallahassee, Florida's oldest and most cohesive African American community. Using a mixed-methods approach during a five-week NSF-funded ethnographic field school with the Health Equity Alliance of Tallahassee, the study analyzed how residents transform empty spaces into places of engagement and empowerment, resisting systemic racism. Through garden activities, residents transcend race, culture, income, and neighborhood boundaries while promoting health, heritage, place-making, and economic opportunities, positioning community gardens as an expression of social resistance.

Kenna McMrrray, Kelsey Hall, Roslynn Brain · Digital Commons - USU (Utah State University) · United States

This descriptive piece from Utah, United States, explains Community Supported Agriculture as a farming arrangement providing a direct link between the community and the grower, in which shareholders purchase a share of the CSA and receive produce at regular intervals, typically weekly. It lists potential benefits — access to local, fresh produce free of preservatives and added hormones, and support for diversified agriculture — alongside potential barriers, including the seasonality of production, a smaller variety of products and the upfront cost of a share.

Gerardo R. Camilo, Paige A. Muñiz, Michael Arduser, Edward M. Spevak · Journal of the Kansas Entomological Society · United States

A three-year survey (2013-2016 growing seasons) in St. Louis, Missouri, USA, sampled bees by aerial netting across vacant lots, city parks, community gardens and urban farms, collecting over 7,700 specimens, supplemented with BioBlitz data, personal collections, museum-collection records and the literature. The survey identified 198 bee species from five families in the city, of which only nine were non-native, and found St. Louis hosts nearly 45% of Missouri's bee diversity, a proportion the study describes as likely making it one of the most species-rich cities relative to its state's total bee fauna in the country.