Research & reports

Bruno Dias Magalhães, D. B. Almeida, Gabriel Mattos Ornelas, Lara Andrade Silva Viana, Flávia de Paula Duque Brasil, Carneiro, Ricardo José, 1955-, Fundação João Pinheiro, Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais, Universidade do Estado de Minas Gerais, Fundação João Pinheiro, Fundação João Pinheiro, Fundação João Pinheiro · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Brazil

An analysis of the process of building the Participatory Guarantee System (SPG) for organic/agroecological production in the Belo Horizonte Metropolitan Region (RMBH), Brazil. The SPG's construction traces back to 2004, driven mainly by social movements and civil society actors engaged with urban agroecology; in 2018 the Belo Horizonte municipal government initiated the first protocol of intentions to strengthen agroecology in the RMBH, creating an Inter-institutional Support Committee with SPG consolidation as one of its goals. The article traces this articulation trajectory, emphasizing civil society and social movements' role in what it frames as a "peri-institutional" space, examining how the Committee builds capacities as agroecology draws closer to the state, while also questioning how much real autonomy and agency the people who actually produce and sell within this arrangement retain.

Laurence Bhérer, Pascale Dufour, Françoise Montambeault · Urban Affairs Review · Canada

A two-level analysis tracing the trajectory of urban gardening and dumpster diving/food recuperation practices in Montréal, Canada, from grassroots emergence to inclusion within institutional frameworks. Rather than treating citizen-led initiatives as either co-opted by formal institutions under austerity or as pure "spaces of resistance" to neoliberalism, the study shows that individuals and loosely organized collectives involved in these practices are embedded in complex relationships with local institutions and third-sector organizations, which in turn structure the practices and their consequences. It describes this institutionalization as occurring gradually, through practitioners' interactions with each other and with their social and institutional environment.

Raul Augusto Barroso, Otavio Neto · Revista Multidisciplinar do Nordeste Mineiro · Brazil

A literature review of scientific articles, established websites, books and magazines — searched online using keywords such as "urban agriculture," "urban gardens," "vertical gardens," "small-space agriculture" and "sustainable agriculture" — examined how urban agriculture is transforming urban spaces. An initial 622 related documents were identified and narrowed to the most recent (2021-2022), leaving 20 used in the analysis. The results show urban agriculture consolidating as a transformative force that shapes urban spaces beyond simple food production, providing both environmental and social benefits, promoting food security for participants and their communities, and making use of underused and often abandoned spaces.

Gamal El Afandi, Hossam Ismael, Souleymane Fall · Sustainability · United States

Using a hybrid approach combining the HYSPLIT and AgDRIFT models, this study estimated organophosphate pesticide spray drift from corn and soybean fields into urban-agricultural interface communities in Sangamon County, Illinois, at both field and county scales. Preliminary findings indicate that all residential areas near agricultural land are at risk of pesticide drift, since buffer zones do not exceed 25 meters; of 34 water bodies (rivers, lakes, streams, and drains) within the 30,200-acre study region, 12 fall within the high-drift zone, and roughly 106 buildings across an estimated 10,300 km² were found to have potential exposure to drift.

Edson Fonseca de Oliveira, René Eugênio Seifert, Thiago Cavalcante Nascimento, Luan Matheus Pedrozo Kolachnek · Revista de Economia e Sociologia Rural · Brazil

A qualitative, descriptive-exploratory multicase comparative study of Curitiba, Brazil, characterized three modes of urban agriculture organization based on Feniman's (2014) typology: Assisted, Vernacular, and Politicized. The Assisted mode was technically driven and dependent on government assistance, favoring production of market-value species, with formalized social structures that limited internal and external social integration and less use of unconventional production technologies. The Vernacular mode had an informal, affective structure valuing ancestral knowledge and traditional practices anchored in strong family ties. The Politicized mode expressed participants' desire to make urban agriculture integrative, alternative, sovereign, autonomous, and innovative, but showed limitations in building a stable communal life.

Composting Consortium (Closed Loop Partners) · Closed Loop Partners · United States

The largest field test of its kind in North America — 18 months, 10 facilities, over 23,000 units — found that certified compostable packaging breaks down in properly managed compost facilities. Compostable plastics averaged 98% degradation by surface area and fiber packaging averaged 83%, both exceeding industry thresholds (90% and 80% respectively). The market is projected to grow 16% annually.

Cascadia Consulting Group · Washington State Department of Ecology · United States

A report to the Washington State legislature summarizing an advisory committee's research on standards for managing compostable products at composting facilities. Compostable products make up only 0.4% by weight of material sent to commercial compost facilities in the state, yet the associated contamination disproportionately raises processing costs, and consumer confusion is identified as a major driver of misdisposal.

· BioCycle · United States

A report on EREF's 2023 survey of U.S. landfill tipping fees. The national unweighted average fell to $56.80/ton, a 3% decrease from the prior year and the first decline since 2020, with fees dropping in most regions except the Northeast.

California Department of Resources Recycling and Recovery (CalRecycle) · California Code of Regulations, Title 14 (via Cornell Law) · United States

A California regulation setting the physical contamination limit for compost: material larger than 4 mm must not exceed 0.5% by dry weight, of which film plastic must be no more than 20%. Operators must sample every 5,000 cubic yards.

Closed Loop Partners, Composting Consortium · Closed Loop Partners / Composting Consortium · United States

Closed Loop Partners' Composting Consortium conducted the largest known North American field test of certified, food-contact compostable packaging, analyzing over 23,000 units across nine commercial composting facilities. While roughly 70% of food waste composters already accept such packaging, the report says public data on actual disintegration performance and optimal composting conditions had been limited. Data will feed a public database and the first ASTM field test standard for compostable packaging.

Advocates for Privately Owned Public Space (APOPS) · Advocates for Privately Owned Public Space (APOPS) / Municipal Art Society of New York · United States

New York City's 1961 zoning resolution created incentive zoning, letting private developers earn floor-area bonuses in exchange for providing public plazas and similar spaces. From 1961 to 2000, developers built more than 500 POPS, gaining about 16 million square feet of bonus floor area while providing roughly 80 acres of public space. However, a 1998–99 field survey found about half of POPS out of legal compliance, and a 2000 study rated 41% as of limited quality.

Internal Revenue Service (IRS), Department of the Treasury · Federal Register · United States

On 8 October 2024 the IRS and Treasury issued final regulations (TD 10007, RIN 1545-BQ39) identifying certain syndicated conservation easement transactions and substantially similar transactions as listed transactions, a type of reportable transaction. Material advisors and certain participants must file disclosures with the IRS and face penalties for failing to do so. Public comments on the proposed rule extensively discussed the so-called '2.5 times rule' — a multiple-of-investment threshold used to flag transactions.

Willowsford Conservancy · Willowsford Conservancy · United States

This 2024 FAQ from Willowsford Conservancy, the nonprofit tied to the Willowsford residential development in Virginia, explains that it operates independently from the developer and manages about 2,300 acres of open space (including 200+ acres of farmland and 2,000+ acres of grassland, wetland, and forest) plus 40+ miles of trails, funded in part by a 0.25% transfer fee paid by homebuyers. Its seven-seat board currently has six resident members, and the resident-led board structure began in 2021.

USDA Economic Research Service (ERS) · USDA Economic Research Service · United States

A USDA Economic Research Service 'Chart of Note' based on the 2022 Census of Agriculture. 39% of the 880 million acres of U.S. farmland was rented or leased in 2022, a rate similar to 2017. Rental activity is concentrated in grain-producing regions such as the Mississippi River corridor, Corn Belt, and Northern Plains, with roughly two-thirds (68%) of rented farmland on operations of 2,000 acres or more.

Stephanie Hinnershitz · The National WWII Museum · United States

Published 26 November 2024, this article from The National WWII Museum describes the U.S. Victory Garden movement of 1942-1945, during which Americans tended more than 20 million gardens, producing 42 percent of the nation's fresh produce (10 billion pounds) in 1943 alone. It also notes that 120,000 incarcerated Japanese Americans were made to garden in internment camps.

Agência Senado · Agência Senado (Senado Federal) · Brazil

An Agência Senado article reporting that Law 14,935/2024, sanctioned on July 26, 2024 and published in the official gazette on July 29, 2024, created Brazil's National Policy on Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture (PNAUP). The law defines urban and peri-urban agriculture as farming and livestock activity integrated into the urban ecological and economic system, and lists seven objectives including expanding food security for vulnerable urban populations, occupying idle urban spaces, generating alternative income, linking production to public procurement, promoting family labor and cooperatives, encouraging agroecological production, and spreading organic-waste recycling.

AIPH (International Association of Horticultural Producers) · AIPH (International Association of Horticultural Producers) · Brazil

AIPH's Green City case study on Curitiba, Brazil (associated with the 2024 AIPH World Green City Awards), describes an urban agriculture program dating to the mid-1990s comprising 147 gardens — 47 community, 43 school, and 36 institutional — covering 17 hectares (177,000 m²). The gardens produce about 160 tons of vegetables per month and benefit 37,000 people; 89 beehives are also installed.

Câmara dos Deputados (Agência Câmara de Notícias) · Agência Câmara de Notícias, Câmara dos Deputados (Brasil) · Brazil

A Brazilian Chamber of Deputies news article reporting that Law 14.935/24 — originating from Bill PL 906/15 introduced by federal deputy Padre João — was published on July 29, 2024, creating a National Policy on Urban and Peri-urban Agriculture. Its stated objectives include expanding food security for vulnerable urban populations, putting unused urban and peri-urban land to use, generating alternative income for urban residents, linking food production to public procurement (schools, hospitals, prisons), supporting family farming and solidarity-economy organizations, promoting environmental education and organic farming, and encouraging reuse of organic waste and rainwater; implementation is to be decentralized across federal, state and municipal governments, civil society and educational institutions.

Goralnik L., Radonic L., Garcia Polanco V., Hammon A. · Land, 12(1):68 · United States

A qualitative study of a food-bank-run community garden in Lansing, Michigan, examining what fosters inclusion for refugee and immigrant gardeners. It shows how garden management practices promote inclusion that builds social capital, an outcome important for refugee and immigrant wellbeing.

Kerstin Schreiber, Klara J. Winkler, Killian Abellon, Graham K. MacDonald · Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems · United States

This study analyzes 25 local food strategy and action-plan documents from 22 major US and Canadian cities (over 300,000 residents) to assess how cities plan for peri-urban and rural food production. It finds that topics such as farmland access and quality, farm viability, agricultural training, processing infrastructure, and the needs of marginalized groups (including BIPOC) are often overlooked, and that fewer than half of cities defined how progress would be measured.

Samuel J. W. Peters, Sydney M. Warner, Eri Saikawa, P. Barry Ryan, Parinya Panuwet, Dana B. Barr, Priya E. D'Souza, Gil Frank, Rosario Hernandez, Taranji Alvarado, Arthur Hines, Chris Theal · GeoHealth · United States (Atlanta)

Using community-engaged research, researchers and community gardeners co-designed a study measuring soil lead concentrations via XRF and ICP-MS at 19 urban agricultural and residential sites in west Atlanta and three rural Georgia sites. Most sites were below the EPA residential screening levels but above the University of Georgia's low-risk agricultural levels, and some sites containing metal-refining waste or slag reached three times the EPA level. The findings led local and federal agencies to initiate cleanup of the slag residue.

Hannah Ramer, Kristen Nelson · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development · United States (Minneapolis)

Using a contextualized case comparison of the City of Minneapolis and the independently elected Minneapolis Park and Recreation Board, this study examines how urban garden land policies granting access to publicly owned land can either reduce or exacerbate racial inequities. It argues that seemingly minor policy details systematically shape who benefits, and that the Park Board went substantially further on racial equity—aided by more intensive public participation in developing the policy details.

Stacy M. Philpott, Peter Bichier, Genesis Perez, Shalene Jha, Heidi Liere, Brenda B. Lin · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · United States (California)

This study examined how garden physical features, garden "luxury," and land-tenure security influence plant species richness, functional diversity, and composition in community gardens on the California central coast. It found that land-tenure-secure gardens had higher plant and crop richness, while luxury-associated variables raised ornamental richness and flower abundance but lowered crop richness.

Justine Lindemann · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · United States (Cleveland)

This article explores the potential for "collaborative survival" in deindustrialized urban spaces, arguing that abundant so-called vacant parcels offer a pathway toward more self-determined food systems. Using the work of Black gardeners and farmers in Cleveland, Ohio as a case, it frames urban food production as a praxis of liberation that contests structural racism and reimagines alternative urban futures.

Range Camille, O'Hara Sabine, Jeffery Tia, Toussaint Etienne C. · Foods · USA

Assesses effectiveness of food policy councils in major US cities, highlighting how unstable funding and weak institutional support undercut their ability to influence policy. Concludes that many councils underperform relative to their mandate due to resource and capacity constraints.