Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
1961 results(77 / 79)
Using Agriculture as the Foundation for an Extension Nutrition Education Program
2002L. Hughes · Journal of Extension · United States
Rutgers Cooperative Extension developed "From Our Farms," a nutrition and agriculture education program for children aged 3-8 in the United States. This initiative promotes improved nutrition and consumption of locally grown foods through family-based activities offered via local libraries.
CSA & TeikeiFood educationCommunityCommunity Supported Agriculture (CSA): Building Community Among Farmers and Non-Farmers
2002Jeff Sharp, Eric Imerman, Greg Peters · Journal of Extension · United States
This qualitative study of a Midwestern Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program explored how CSA builds connections between farmers and non-farmers. The findings indicate that CSA successfully met participant goals while fostering community among these groups. The study suggests that CSA can be promoted at the rural-urban interface to strengthen community and support local agriculture.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityUrban–rural linkageLa participation, dans quel sens? L'exemple des organisations communautaires et de l'agriculture urbaine dans les villes de Mexico et de Cuernavaca
2002Manon Boulianne · Anthropologica · Mexico
A study on community organizations and urban agriculture in Mexico City and Cuernavaca suggests that the very meaning of participation becomes an issue for community organizations engaged in popular entrepreneurship development programs. It illustrates how the structuring effects of market production activities lead to a renegotiation of the meaning attributed to participation among the individuals and groups concerned.
Governance failureCommunityEconomicsPolicyCitywide System for Environmental Self-help and the Landscape Architect Karl Linn
2002Feng We · · United States
This article details the landscape philosophy of Karl Linn, a landscape architect, through his project practices. It discusses the inevitability and importance of establishing a citywide system for environmental self-help, which is common in US community gardens.
CommunityDIYUrban and Agricultural Communities: Opportunities for Common Ground
2002CAST · · United States
A twelve-member task force report examines the changing role of agriculture in urban settings within American society. The report frames urban agriculture historically and contemporaneously, detailing geographic, demographic, and economic changes. Policy issues such as land preservation, alternative market opportunities, sprawl, taxation, and food security are discussed, alongside research and educational challenges for institutions of higher education.
PolicyEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceUrban–rural linkagePeople, Land and Sustainability: Community Gardens and the Social Dimension of Sustainable Development
2001John Ferris, Carol Norman, Joe Sempik · Social Policy and Administration · USA
This article reports on research and experience from the USA regarding community gardens and their role in the social dimension of sustainable development. It explores how the use of urban green spaces for gardens links to health, education, community development, and food security. The article concludes that using urban open spaces for parks and gardens is closely associated with environmental justice and equity.
CommunityHealthFood educationFood sovereignty & justiceWelfareBridging the Gap: Connecting School and Community with Service Learning
2001Sarah Edwards · The English Journal · United States
This article describes how the author's eighth-grade language arts inquiry-based instruction evolved into student-based community learning. Students brought the community to school with an art exhibit on tolerance, volunteered at a nearby elementary school, created community gardens to fulfill a neighborhood need, and established a new desert habitat community park, connecting the school and neighborhood.
CommunityFood educationSchool Gardens: Raising Environmental Awareness in Children.
2001Shira Brynjegard · Dominican Scholar (Dominican University of California) · United States
This study explored the reasons for gardens and natural spaces on school campuses and their effects on students. Blending case studies, observational data, and personal experience, it discussed the impacts of a garden on participating students, using the balance of administrative, teacher, parent, and student involvement to determine lasting effects on student attitudes toward environmental concerns. Evidence of increased environmental awareness in students was discussed.
Food educationCommunityDIFFERENTIATING MULTIPLE MEANINGS OF GARDEN AND COMMUNITY
2001Hilda E. Kurtz · Urban Geography · United States (Minneapolis)
This paper examines the variations among community gardens in Minneapolis, Minnesota, suggesting they reflect differing interpretations of "community" and "garden" in urban settings. While community gardens are seen as responses to urban decay, the study highlights that issues of enclosure, inclusion, and exclusion are central to their function. Decisions regarding garden enclosure shape their role in urban neighborhoods, indicating potential limitations related to equity.
Equity & displacementCommunityEconomicsPolicyGeographies of social activism: Women, democracy, and change in an urban community garden
2001Huei-Hsuan Lin · Syracuse University Libraries (Syracuse University) · United States
This three-year qualitative study of an urban community garden in a mid-size city in upstate New York, United States, examined how women community gardeners perceive their participation. It found that the community garden, intended as a space for social change, paradoxically became a site of internal struggles among participants. Emancipatory efforts to build a less unequal society did not automatically result in an egalitarian space, as the process of community building by individuals with various social positions required arduous efforts and involved negotiation and confrontations, rather than simple unity.
Equity & displacementCommunityPolicyTeaching and learning in the school garden
2001Elizabeth Lynn Waddell · CSUSB ScholarWorks (California State University, San Bernardino) · United States (California)
This project was developed to encourage educators to establish school site gardens. These gardens offer opportunities to introduce environmental topics and function as hands-on learning centers for various subjects.
Food educationCommunityThe food system: A stranger to the planning field
2000Pothukuchi, K., Kaufman, J.L. · Journal of the American Planning Association 66(2), 113–124 · United States
Analyzes the historical and institutional reasons the planning field has treated the food system as a 'stranger', and argues for urban-rural food planning.
PolicyThe Importance of School Gardens as Perceived by Florida Elementary School Teachers
2000Sonja M. Skelly, Jennifer Bradley · HortTechnology · United States (Florida)
A Fall 1997 questionnaire for elementary school teachers participating in a Florida school garden competition found that teachers used school gardens infrequently, with most using them as an instructional tool no more than 10% of the time. However, 97.1% used them for environmental education, 72.9% for experiential learning, and 84.3% reported enhanced student learning. The surveyed teachers had relatively new gardens and lacked or were unaware of educational resources.
Food educationCommunityHealthMarketing Strategies and Challenges of Small‐Scale Organic Producers in Central North Carolina
2000Susan Andreatta · Culture & Agriculture · United States
This paper describes marketing opportunities for small-scale, limited-resource organic producers in Central North Carolina, United States. It examines farmers' markets and community-supported agriculture programs, highlighting how growers advocate and educate consumers about local agriculture. The study discusses the increasing demand for local organic food and strategies for growers to enhance community support, suggesting that alternative production and niche marketing could help sustain small-scale growers amidst farm loss and declining conventional agricultural prices.
CSA & TeikeiEconomicsCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceAllergy-Free Gardening: The Revolutionary Guide to Healthy Landscaping - eScholarship
2000William Ted Johnson · Electronic Green Journal · North America
This is a review of Thomas Leo Ogren's book "Allergy-Free Gardening: The Revolutionary Guide to Healthy Landscaping" (2000). The reviewer notes that while the book attempts to quantify plant allergy potential, it overstates the case against many common North American garden species. Ogren's OPALS system for allergy classification considers various factors but lacks a clear explanation of how these factors combine into a single score, suggesting a reliance on subjective estimation rather than scientific objectivity. The book's focus on planting only female plants to achieve an "allergy-free" garden is criticized for undermining efforts to consider the holistic value of native plantscapes.
CommunityHealthNGO experiences in Lima targeting urban poor through urban agriculture.
2000Andres Dasso, Teobaldo Pinzas · · Peru
In Lima, Peru, a city with an infertile sandy environment and 0.0 mm average rainfall, urban agriculture has been implemented since the late 1980s to improve the living conditions of the resource-poor urban population. This initiative addresses the rapid urban growth experienced by Lima between the 1950s and 1990s, primarily due to migration.
WelfareCommunityEconomicsFood sovereignty & justiceMexico city: the integration of urban agriculture to contain urban sprawl.
2000Pablo Torres Lima, Luis Marino Santana Rodríguez, B. I. García Uriza, N. Bakker, Marielle Dubbeling, S. Gündel, U. Sabel-Koschella, H. de Zeeuw · · Mexico (Mexico City)
This record describes the geographical and climatic characteristics of the Mexico City Metropolitan Zone (MCMZ). The MCMZ covers an area of 7,860 km² and includes the Federal District and 54 municipalities. Mexico City is located in the center of the Mexican highlands at an average altitude of 2,238m, with main soil types including litosols, andosols, and feozem.
Urban–rural linkagePolicyLocal food and land-use in Washington County, Oregon
2000Joshua J. Cousins · · United States (Oregon)
This qualitative study examined local food networks in Washington County, Oregon, focusing on small-scale agricultural landscapes and farmers selling through farmers markets or CSAs. It explored farmers' concerns about urbanization, farmland preservation, and their difficulties participating in local food networks. The research concluded that local food sold through alternative venues can help preserve and develop specific farm sites.
Economic viabilityCSA & TeikeiCommunityEconomicsPeri-urban agricultureUrban–rural linkageA Community Diabetes Education and Gardening Project to Improve Diabetes Care in a Northwest American Indian Tribe
2000Donna Armstrong · The Science of Diabetes Self-Management and Care · United States
This study aimed to design a culturally appropriate diabetes education program for a Northwest American Indian tribe. A community-based intervention, including workshops on health themes and a community garden, was designed to address multiple barriers to diabetes care. However, prior to the implementation of the community workshops and evaluations, the tribal government chose to discontinue receiving federal funding for this project.
Governance failureCommunityHealthFood educationWelfareExploring Sense of Place of Community Gardens in Portland
2000Barbara Shields · · United States (Portland)
This study examined the social and physical connections and images that define the sense of place in three community gardens managed by the City of Portland, United States. Thirty gardeners participated, using a narrative photo storytelling method to express their connections to space and experiences of empowerment through community gardening. The study proposes the concept of the Natural Realm, where community gardeners experience empowerment by perceiving gardens as sacred places for growing healthy food, practicing green domesticity, and learning from nature in a beautiful setting. Gardeners achieve most of their empowerment goals through solitary efforts to maximize pleasurable activities and increase personal efficacy and satisfaction.
CommunityCitizen-led Urban Agriculture and the Politics of Spatial Reappropriation in Montreal, Quebec
2000Claire Bach · · Canada (Montreal)
A case study of informal citizen-led urban agriculture projects in Montreal, Canada, focuses on the dynamics surrounding their establishment and complex structure. While often initiated by citizen groups, other actors, including non-profit organizations, municipal officials, or business owners, are also involved. This research demonstrates that collective urban agriculture projects exist simultaneously as a political practice that might not significantly alter the existing spatial and social orders.
CommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justice456 Measuring the Intensity of School Gardening Programs and the Impact on Positive Youth Development
2000Sonja M. Skelly, John Bradley · HortScience · United States (Florida)
This research project aimed to develop a typology of school garden program intensity and to determine if variables related to positive youth development varied within this intensity typology. Twenty elementary schools in Florida participated, accounting for approximately 20 teachers and 400 third-grade students. The study examined student developmental assets, environmental attitudes, and attitudes toward science.
Food educationCommunityHealthManaging Hawaii's Forests: A Conjoint Analysis of Lei Plant Material Sources
2000Gary R. Vieth · · United States (Hawaii)
This article examines conditions to encourage Oahu hula dancers, who gather forest plant materials for lei, to switch to alternatives like community gardens or commercial purchase. Some hula teachers expressed willingness to switch if alternatives were attractive, while others did not. The study suggests that policies making alternatives more appealing, such as reducing labor in community gardens or lowering commercial prices, may be more cost-effective than trying to change user preferences.
CommunityUrban–rural linkageResearch Article: Managing Hawaii's Forests: A Conjoint Analysis ofLeiPlant Material Sources
2000Gary R. Vieth, Linda J. Cox, Margaret Josephson, James R. Hollyer · Environmental Practice · United States (Hawaii)
This article examines conditions to encourage hula dancers on Oahu, Hawaii, to switch from forest gathering for lei plant materials to alternatives like community gardens or commercial purchase. Some hula teachers expressed willingness to switch if alternatives were attractive, while others did not. The study suggests that policies making alternatives more appealing, such as reducing labor in community gardens or lowering commercial prices, may be more cost-effective than trying to change user preferences.
CommunityPolicyUrban–rural linkagePlacing the food system on the urban agenda: The role of municipal institutions in food systems planning
1999Pothukuchi, K., Kaufman, J.L. · Agriculture and Human Values 16, 213–224 · United States
A pioneering paper on urban food-system planning, exposing the invisibility of the food system in city planning and establishing the rationale for municipal involvement in food policy.
Policy