Research & reports

Rolando Peguero Pérez, Gisela María Riquenes Despaigne, Adriana de Santiago Aguilar · Revista Plus Economía · Cuba

This research, conducted with agronomy students in El Caney, Santiago de Cuba, Cuba, proposes a model for urban agriculture. The model, based on principles of equality, solidarity, and cooperation, is presented as a viable alternative for a solidarity work economy.

Nyasha Chaminuka, Ernest Dube · PEOPLE International Journal of Social Sciences · Zimbabwe

This qualitative study, involving 26 participants in Mkoba suburb, Gweru, Zimbabwe, analyzed urban agriculture as a food security strategy. It found that urban agriculture's growth is driven by population growth, poverty, high food prices, and unemployment, and it promotes food security, employment, and savings. However, existing legal frameworks, including the Urban Councils Act and Regional Town Planning Act, do not support but rather impede urban agriculture, alongside challenges like lack of supportive legislation, government support, and funding.

J. Chan, Bryce DuBois, Kristine T. Nemec, Charles Francis, Kyle D. Hoagland · CABI eBooks · Global

This chapter examines community gardens in three distinct urban locations in the Global North through the lens of social-ecological resilience. Case studies focus on Vienna, Austria; Lincoln, Nebraska, USA; and New York City post-Hurricane Sandy. These community gardens support vital social-ecological functions, ranging from generating local ecosystem services to cultivating community empowerment and bolstering food sovereignty, reflecting their local contexts.

Alec Thornton · Local Environment · Australia

This study, based on Australian city case studies, explored community gardeners' views and engagement in community gardens. Findings revealed that community gardeners identified local councils as barriers to the emergence of community gardens and other forms of urban agriculture. Unlike other Western cities, effective city–community relations for community garden growth have not yet emerged in Australian cities.

Klaus Lorenz · · Global

This chapter provides an outlook on how soil-based agriculture for growing food crops in urban areas can be strengthened. Credible assessments of the importance and extent of urban agriculture (UA) are challenging due to numerous and disparate definitions of UA. UA offers many benefits, particularly contributing to urban food security in high-income countries by providing fruits and vegetables. Urban soil properties differentiate the type and value of food produced, but urban soil quality can be improved for crop production.

Emily Holmes · · Global

This chapter explores the potential of community-based agriculture as a practice of peace and active non-violence. Community-based agriculture encompasses various methods of growing food for local communities, including urban community gardens, urban farms, and small, biodiverse rural farms. These forms of agriculture are distinguished from conventional, industrial, or monocultural practices by their commitment to sustainable and organic growing methods, and their dedication to local communities.

Maud Chalmandrier, Marine Canavèse, Yves Petit‐Berghem, Élisabeth Rémy · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · Global

This study, using case studies of public action and gardeners' relationships with urban soil, argues that the concept of "urban agriculture" smooths over inherent tensions to promote its development as an action category. This approach tends to minimize differences in meaning among actors regarding their cultivation practices and, critically, relegates the crucial question of urban soil quality and its suitability for food crops to a secondary concern.

Britta Baumgarten · Portuguese National Funding Agency for Science, Research and Technology (RCAAP Project by FCT) · Portugal

In Portugal, the impact of the 2011 socio-economic crisis on alternative projects, including urban gardening groups, in both urban and rural areas was analyzed. The study used data from an analysis of internet pages and a questionnaire on the impact of the socio-economic crisis on Rede Convergir projects in 2015. The findings strengthen the argument that the crisis had an adverse effect on resilience projects, supported by case studies from other crisis-affected countries and empirical observations in Portugal.

Ellen Almers, Per Askerlund, Sofia Kjellström · The Journal of Environmental Education · Sweden

This qualitative study in Sweden explored forest garden educators' ideas and experiences in a three-year project with primary school children, using interviews and observations. It found that educators aimed to provide children with opportunities to feel belonging, experience self-regulation and systemic dependence, co-create with non-human organisms, and imagine place transformation. The study discusses four pedagogical features of forest gardens.

Erin Vernoni, Jessica Price, Shoko Kumagai · · Global

A systematic review of quantitative peer-reviewed Farm to School (FTS) research found ambiguity and variability in FTS inputs. This makes it difficult to generalize outcomes for policymakers. The study proposes a pre-tested intensity measurement tool to standardize research in this area.

Ann Forsyth, Emily Salomon, Laura Smead · · Global

Green spaces and recreational facilities offer various health benefits, including urban cooling, opportunities for physical fitness and ecological education, improved water and air quality, refuge from traffic and noise, and enhanced mental health. An analysis of 10 British studies on green exercise found that as little as five minutes of outdoor activity was sufficient for mental health improvements. While increased recreational activity is less consistently linked to the built environment, with other factors like cost and personal preferences being more significant, access to recreational facilities can still provide opportunities for recreation.

Judith Schicklinski · · Global

This study examines individual motivations for commitment to sustainability issues, including urban food production, across different cities globally. It notes that legal frameworks can be a motivating factor, such as land development plans designating agricultural use. While quantitative data suggests food self-sufficiency is not a major motive in any region, qualitative data indicates its increasing importance in the Global South.

Amy Shaw, Teresa Capetola, Justin Lawson, Claire Henderson‐Wilson, Berni Murphy · International Journal of Sustainability in Higher Education · Australia (Melbourne)

This study investigated the sustainability of the food culture at Deakin University's Burwood campus and identified barriers to increasing its sustainability. An online survey of 697 staff and students from the Faculty of Health and a paper-based survey of 10 campus food outlets were conducted. The findings revealed that while sustainability considerations are important to staff and students, cost is the main issue and a significant barrier to developing a more sustainable food culture and making healthy food choices.

Colleen Hammelman · CABI eBooks · Colombia

In Medellín, Colombia, displaced women utilize urban gardens as a survival strategy amidst food insecurity and tenuous support from local government. Urban planning permits these gardens under the guise of supporting displaced families, but also for preserving open space and halting the growth of informal settlements. This chapter provides a clear example of how urban planning impacts the critical survival strategy of growing food.

Eric R. R. Weaver · Digital Commons - University of South Florida (University of South Florida) · Global

This document compiles three publications advocating urban agriculture as a solution for UN Sustainable Development Goals. The first publication examines stormwater Best Management Practices (BMP) modeling for urban agriculture. The second highlights agriculture's role as a driver for planetary systems impacts, and the third proposes a new definition for urban agriculture due to existing ambiguities.

Laura Menatti · International Journal of the Commons · Global

This paper analyzed how the concept of landscape relates to notions of the common good, commons, and common pool resources (CPRs). Through theoretical research supported by practical examples like community gardens, it argued that landscape can be defined as a common good and can include commons and collective management of common pool resources. This analysis led to the possibility of defining the "right to landscape," arguing that landscape is a domain where human rights can be claimed and a right to which human beings are entitled.

Julie Rosenthal, Anissa M. Martin-Conyers, Michelle Albritton · · Global

A vacant lot across from an urban professional development school was converted into a school garden through collaboration among community organizations, school staff, students, and university personnel. Teachers integrated gardening activities into language arts and science instruction, and teacher candidates facilitated a literacy unit on plant life. This project exemplified a PDS-University partnership.

Evangelia Athanassiou · Landscape Research · Greece (Thessaloniki)

Trends redefining public spaces in Thessaloniki, Greece, are analyzed. One trend involves official urban policies introducing private and voluntary sectors into public space management, while another consists of citizen-led initiatives reasserting 'publicness' through collective activity, exemplified by urban farming in an abandoned military camp. These trends are argued to create a hybrid landscape of public space where the public and private binary is redefined, representing divergent imaginaries of 'publicness'.

Muzammil H. Syed, Umair Majid, Reda Siddiqui · · Global

This paper proposes that community garden ventures could offer a solution for vulnerable populations struggling with mental well-being in isolation. Through gardening and acquiring agricultural techniques, participants would engage in Principle-Centred Therapy, aiming to guide individuals from dependence to independence and interdependence. Agricultural output would be sold in markets, contributing to community resilience by integrating isolated members and enhancing overall economic vitality.

Christa Wichterich · Feministische Studien · Global

This essay explores the transformative potential of caring and commoning in alternative projects such as community agriculture and urban gardening. While these self-organized experiments develop caring practices towards nature and humans, their transformative impact on society is limited. This limitation stems from unintended mechanisms of social or racist exclusion, or from appropriation by the municipality or the state.

MSc. Odalys Bárbara Burgos, Dra. C. María Elena Estrada Martínez, MSc. Carmen Benítez Ruíz · · Ecuador

This study aimed to design a school garden for the Ciudad Machala Educational Unit in Machala Canton, Ecuador, to contribute to students' agroecological training and promote sustainability and food hygiene. Using documentary analysis, the research developed a school garden design. The design is intended to foster a more comprehensive culture among students and encourage healthier, more sustainable dietary habits.

Izyan Ayuni Mohamad Selamat, Shahida Mohd Sharif, Januarius Gobilik · Journal of BIMP-EAGA Regional Development · Malaysia

This study shared the experience of Universiti Malaysia Sabah's Faculty of Sustainable Agriculture in developing green infrastructure (GI), specifically a rooftop garden, as a medium for Education for Sustainable Development (ESD). The project was conducted in four phases: planning and management team formation, participatory planning, site inventory and analysis, and GI design and development. Through this project, participants were directly exposed to identifying environmental issues and their solutions, implementing sustainable initiatives within the campus environment.

Lorena Meneses · DOAJ (DOAJ: Directory of Open Access Journals) · Colombia (Palmira)

In 2015, Pontificia Bolivariana University implemented the 'Environmental Education' project in Palmira, Colombia. This project aimed to offer an alternative means of food acquisition for children at Fundación Hogar Divino Niño and identify plants usable on the land to minimize negative environmental impact and promote food sovereignty. Although conceived from an agricultural perspective, it became a participatory scenario where non-formal education and communication for social change played a role in uniting a community around a common good.

Nugrahaning Sani Dewi, Masakazu Komatsuzaki, Yuriko Yamakawa, Hiromi Takahashi, Shibanuma Saori, Takeshi Yasue, Tsuyoshi Okayama, Atsushi Toyoda, Hikari Shimonishi, Sei‐Ichi Sasaki · Sustainability · Global

This study investigated the psychological and physical effects of stress from various intensity community garden activities on adults with and without mental disabilities (n=42 for psychological analysis, n=13 for physical assessment). After activities, the group with mental disabilities showed decreased salivary α-amylase levels while the control group showed increased levels, but both groups exhibited lower stress response scale (SRS-18) results. The group with mental disabilities had a significantly lower increase in heart rate ratio during low-intensity work but a significantly higher increase during high-intensity work, and experienced significantly higher fatigue during high-intensity work.

Antoinette WinklerPrins · CABI eBooks · Global

This chapter highlights three main points regarding urban cultivation. First, urban cultivation is much more than producing food. Second, it should be seen as a normal and accepted livelihood in all urban areas, requiring land rights and regulatory environments to align with this reality. Third, urban cultivation has a critical role in making cities sustainable, green, and more resilient in the future.