Research & reports

Paredes Guzmán, Germán Ricardo · · Colombia (Bogotá)

This project aims to describe different methods of establishing and producing urban agriculture, focusing on sustainability and food security for the vulnerable population of Altos de Cazucá, Soacha municipality, Colombia. This population is affected by forced displacement due to armed conflict, resulting in increased poverty and malnutrition, with a chronic malnutrition rate of 30% in children compared to the national average of 8%. The project proposes to apply participatory action research methodologies and techniques to develop an urban production model that addresses these issues.

Hollis J. Laird · D-Scholarship@Pitt (University of Pittsburgh) · Global

This paper reviews the effects and evaluation methods of garden-based nutrition education programs, noting their positive impacts on children, including increased knowledge, preference, and consumption of fruits and vegetables, and increased self-efficacy. It identifies a lack of standardized evaluation methods for these programs as a limitation. The paper also describes the evaluation of the Enright Community Garden's nutrition education component for children.

Andrew Hursthouse, T. E. Leitão, Annette Voigt, Avigail Heller, Béatrice Bechet, Paulo Brito da Luz · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · Europe

This chapter overviews factors influencing the chemical, physical, and biological status of soils, water, and the biosphere in urban allotment gardens. It highlights that urban garden soils, water, and biosphere are affected by pollution due to their location in city centers or suburbs, with traffic infrastructure and industrial zones widely identified as impacting soil and water quality. Concerns over long-term risks from pollutant transfer (mainly metals) from soil to plants in these uncontrolled environments have been widely publicized.

Heather McMillen, Lindsay P. Campbell, Erika S. Svendsen, Renae Reynolds · Sustainability · United States (New York City)

This study analyzed qualitative data from community-managed open spaces in the New York City area, including living memorials and a community garden, that have responded to chronic pressures and acute disturbances such as a hurricane and a terrorist attack. Using a deductive coding approach drawing on existing resilience frameworks, it identified grounded stewardship practices demonstrating community-level indicators of social resilience: place attachment, social cohesion, social networks, and knowledge exchange and diversification.

Carolin Retzlaff‐Fürst · Universal Journal of Educational Research · Global

At the University of Rostock's educational garden in Germany, second-semester pre-service teacher students were interviewed and tested about their subjective well-being in connection with garden activities, as part of an argument that school gardens can support health education not only in lower grades but also in 11th and 12th grade. The study found that garden activities had highly positive effects on the students' self-esteem.

Krystyna Pudelska, Kamila Rojek · Teka Komisji Architektury Urbanistyki i Studiów Krajobrazowych · Poland

This case study examines the historic school and its adjoining park in the village of Sobieszyn, Ułęż County, Lublin Voivodeship, Poland, established at the end of the nineteenth century under the will of Count Kajetan Kanty Kicki. Located away from the village center on the slope of the Świnka, a tributary of the Wieprz River, the site continues to operate today as the Kajetan Kicki Agriculture School.

Thenral Mangadu, Michael P. Kelly, Max C. E. Orezzoli, Rebecca Gallegos, Pracheta Matharasi · Health Promotion International · United States

In the US–Mexico border region — El Paso, Texas, and Las Cruces and Anthony, New Mexico, areas with high obesity rates — three pilot community gardens funded through the local Healthy Eating Active Living (HEAL) initiative were implemented by two local governmental organizations and one community-based organization (2016). A built environment marked by an arid desert climate, lack of access to healthy foods, barriers to physical activity, and cultural and community norms that deter healthy eating and sustainable food production contributes to obesity-related health disparities in these minority communities. A mixed-methods evaluation (n=223) examined the implementation process, immediate outcomes and best practices of implementing and sustaining the gardens. Beyond nutrition-related outcomes, potential psychosocial outcomes from participating in the community and school garden projects were observed. Best practices identified concerned (i) assessing community norms related to growing food, (ii) increasing access to land and water for community and school gardening, and (iii) enhancing social support for gardening.

Sin-Ae Park, A-Young Lee, Geung‐Joo Lee, Daesik Kim, Wan Soon Kim, Candice A. Shoemaker, Ki-Cheol Son · 원예과학기술지 · Global

A literature review aiming to identify research trends and characteristics of horticultural activity interventions. Searching databases including Web of Science, ProQuest Dissertations and Theses, Academic Search Premier, the Research Information Sharing Service, and the Korean National Assembly Digital Library, the authors identified 14,414 journal articles published before April 2014 and selected 509 for review. Participants aged 8 to 64 were the most commonly studied, and interventions usually combined activities such as outdoor gardening, indoor planting, and crafts with live, artificial, or pressed flowers. Short-to-medium programs of 11-20 sessions were most frequent, typically lasting 60-120 minutes per session. Most studies focused on psychological or emotional effects such as emotional intelligence, self-esteem, stress, and depression, and the authors call for further research analyzing methodology, specific outcomes, and the strengths or weaknesses of existing studies.

Linda Naeve, Catherine Strohbehn · Iowa State University Digital Repository (Iowa State University) · United States

As more consumers use Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) farms for their fresh produce, this publication discusses how to keep food safe before, during, and after delivery, from harvest through storage.

Sin-Ae Park, A-Young Lee, Geung‐Joo Lee, Daesik Kim, Wan Soon Kim, Candice A. Shoemaker, Ki-Cheol Son · Horticultural Science and Technology · Global

A literature review on the outcomes of horticultural activity interventions — gardening activity, gardening programs, allotment gardens, urban agriculture, horticultural therapy — searched databases including Web of Science and ProQuest Dissertation and Theses, initially identifying 14,414 journal articles published before April 2014 and selecting 509 for review. Studies most often targeted people aged 8 to 64, short-to-medium term programs of 11-20 sessions were most frequent, medium-duration interventions of over 60 to 120 minutes were common, and most studies focused on psychological or emotional effects such as emotional intelligence, self-esteem, stress, and depression.

M.P Dr. Enny Zulaika · · Indonesia

A study using Azotobacter isolated from eco urban farming land at ITS, Indonesia, tested resistance and bioaccumulation of mercury (HgCl2) via selective media isolation, streak resistance testing and atomic absorption measurement, analyzed by ANOVA and LSD at the 5% level. Three isolates (A5, A6, A9) tolerated HgCl2 up to 20 mg/L, and at 5 mg/L exposure the highest bioaccumulation efficiency was recorded for A5 (89%) and A9 (87%).

Tylar Setser · Journal of Small Business Strategy · United States

A report by a FoodCorps Member in Mississippi, USA, describes responsibilities including grant writing, school garden development, and educational outreach, coordinating with local farmers and local District Nutrition Directors to source local produce into school cafeterias. It describes benefits for children including learning to describe healthy choices, identifying new fruits and vegetables, and being introduced to different nutritious recipes and food preparations. Building on the author's experience and that of colleagues, it provides teachers with information for securing fresh, local produce on behalf of children's health and guidelines for creating a "culture of food appreciation."

Stefanie Schneider, Jennifer R. Pharr, Timothy J. Bungum · Health Behavior and Policy Review · Global

This systematic review searched Web of Knowledge and SCOPUS in April 2015 and examined 14 studies on the impact of garden-based interventions on nutritional knowledge, fruit and vegetable consumption, taste preferences, physical activity, and math/science achievement; 11 studies covered dietary outcomes, 2 examined physical activity, and 2 assessed math and science achievement. Findings indicate that school gardening programs that include a nutritional component are more likely to increase participants' nutritional knowledge, fruit and vegetable consumption, and range of taste preferences. The review concludes that combining an educational curriculum with gardening activities is an effective strategy for improving attitudes toward healthy food and healthy dietary behaviors.

Rosalie M. Sharp · Wellesley College Digital RepositoryWellesley (Wellesley College) · United States

Through an interdisciplinary literature review and interviews with stakeholders in the Boston, Massachusetts urban agriculture network — including The Food Project — this study examines the social and historical context of lead exposure in urban gardens in the Dudley neighborhood. It shows that products of structural racism, particularly redlining and disinvestment, created the social and physical environments that allow lead contamination to persist in low-income communities of color like Dudley. An alternate growing material or soil amendment was found to dilute lead concentrations, reduce lead bioaccessibility, and limit fine particle resuspension, and working with The Food Project, these findings shaped gardeners' behavior to reduce lead exposure. The findings on urban soil lead bioaccessibility are presented as contributing to a broader body of research that informs policy decisions such as benchmarks for safe soil or compost lead levels.

Tiffany B. Hunter · CORE Scholar (Wright State University) · United States

A pilot study (Wright State University, CORE Scholar, 2016) adapted a community garden and environmental education model, first observed during an internship with Israel's Ministry of Health in an Arab village, to an urban, minority-concentrated school population in Dayton, Ohio. Administered in July 2016 at a local foodbank with a pre-existing urban garden, using an eight-week curriculum, the pilot found that participants—who lived in urban, low-income areas—had poor eating habits and low literacy scores at baseline, though the program was reported to enhance participants' learning and understanding of the world around them.

James E. Allen, Jairus Rossi, Timothy A. Woods, Alison F. Davis · International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability · United States

A survey of 151 shareholders across three midsized Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) operations near Lexington, Kentucky (International Journal of Agricultural Sustainability, 2016), addressed a gap in prior research that had relied mostly on small samples (n < 25). Using 20 paired before/after questions, paired two-sided t-tests, and regression of paired differences on socioeconomic factors, self-reported health, and years of CSA enrollment, the study found that food lifestyle behaviors and health outcomes changed after CSA participation, with respondents who reported "poor health" before enrollment showing the most change overall. The authors describe these results as an initial analysis of CSA's impact on shareholder food lifestyle behaviors and health outcomes.

Saverio Miccoli, Fabrizio Finucci, Rocco Murro · Agriculture and Agricultural Science Procedia · Global

Against a backdrop of rising food demand driven by global urban population growth, this paper (2016, no specific region) argues for fostering urban agriculture to integrate with traditional agricultural production, which it characterizes as no longer sustainable on its own. After proposing implementation of integrated urban agriculture systems, it introduces the "Community Esteem Value," a measure of community social appreciation obtained through a deliberative appraisal procedure.

Anjar Lulu Sakinah · · Indonesia

Mercury is a highly toxic and hazardous heavy metal, and bacteria able to live in mercury-contaminated habitats — mercury-resistant bacteria, including Azotobacter — are known to exist. This study aimed to obtain superior Azotobacter isolates resistant to mercuric chloride (HgCl2) from land at the ITS (Institut Teknologi Sepuluh Nopember) Eco Urban Farming site — land where mercury contamination was present — and to determine mercury reductase enzyme activity as a bioreductant converting Hg2+ to Hg0. Isolation used selective Azotobacter agar media, resistance was tested by a slant-agar streak method containing HgCl2, and mercury reductase activity was analyzed using the MRA method and spectrophotometry at 340 nm. Ten HgCl2-resistant Azotobacter isolates were obtained; isolates A5 and A9 tolerated 10 mg/L HgCl2 with optimal growth and relatively high mercury reductase activity, showing a reduction capacity of ≥3 mg/L and a reduction efficiency above 70% at an HgCl2 concentration of 5 mg/L.

Duncan Stephen · · United Kingdom

A short report describes students studying Garden Design at Scotland's Rural College (SRUC) visiting a North Edinburgh Community Garden, as part of preparation for Gardening Scotland, to better understand how green spaces can positively influence health and wellbeing.

Adriella Camila Gabriela F. da S. Furtado da Silva, Danielle Regina Bento Lessa da Silva, Ana Carolina Damm dos Santos Gomes de Farias, Joyce Alves Carvalho Martins, Caroline Giot Bronner, Mônica de Caldas Rosa dos Anjos · Cadernos de Agroecologia · Brazil

A report on the "Cultivando Saúde" (Cultivating Health) program in Brazil examines an effort linking urban agriculture practice to promoting healthy eating habits and productive use of urban space for food production. Using participatory methods, dialogue-promoting activities emphasizing knowledge exchange were carried out over three months, yielding a positive response in the acceptance and adoption of suggested recipes; the practice of growing one's own food was observed both in participants' statements during group sessions and during household visits.

Berezowitz C., Bontrager Yoder A., Schoeller D. · Journal of School Health, 85(8):508-518 · United States

A review examining the academic and dietary effects of school garden programs. It found that garden-based learning does not harm academic performance and may favorably affect science and math achievement as well as fruit and vegetable intake and preferences.

Poulsen M. N., McNab P. R., Clayton M. L., Neff R. A. · Food Policy 55:131-146 · Global

Synthesizing 35 peer-reviewed studies from 1980-2013, this review finds urban agriculture in low-income countries can improve food availability and dietary diversity, especially benefiting women, though income gains are not always sufficient to ensure household food security.

Sharma S.V., Hedberg A.M., Skala K.A., Chuang R.-J., Lewis T. · Journal of Early Childhood Research, 13(1):93–110 · United States (Texas)

An 8-week teacher-led PLANT Gardens (Preschoolers Learn About Nutrition Through Gardens) program with 103 Head Start preschoolers in two Harris County, Texas centers. Confirmed feasibility and acceptability and a significant increase in parent-reported willingness to try new fruits and vegetables.

Corcoran M.P., Kettle P.C. · Local Environment · Ireland (Dublin)

This comparative study of plot holders in Dublin and Belfast shows that allotment gardens can act as 'spaces of potential' where shared gardening dissolves social differences and fosters intergenerational knowledge exchange. The authors argue that urban agriculture sites function as civic interfaces bridging community divides.

Pulliat G. · Articulo – Journal of Urban Research · Vietnam (Hanoi)

Based on qualitative fieldwork with underprivileged households in Hanoi, this paper argues that small-scale urban and peri-urban agriculture provides affordable, safe, and diverse food for low-income residents, while current urbanization policies generate spatial injustice by restricting access to agricultural land.