Research & reports

Claire L. McCarty, Pamela Dixon · Journal of case studies · Global

A case study on the West Central Food Hub Producers' Co-op reveals that the group decided not to proceed with starting the Food Hub Co-op. The decision was made because the costs for management, infrastructure, and delivery would far outweigh the co-op's profitability, leading to its discontinuation.

Christine Aubry, Jeanne Pourias, Anne Cécile Daniel · HAL (Le Centre pour la Communication Scientifique Directe) · Global

Urban agriculture is gaining popularity, often for its contribution to urban greening, re-establishing connections between urban dwellers and agricultural and food production, and among urban dwellers themselves. However, urban agriculture also involves significant health issues, which advocate for urban planning that promotes its maintenance or establishment under healthy environmental conditions.

Federico Davila, Robert Dyball · Australian Journal of Environmental Education · Australia

This article examines the potential of food sovereignty, as defined by La Via Campesina, to reframe food as a human right within the Australian food discourse. It argues that urban food production in Australia offers educative value by transforming individuals' social and environmental concerns about food systems. Community participation in urban food production can foster political understanding and support for alternative food systems, developing elements of food sovereignty in an Australian urban context.

Chiara Certomà, Bruno Notteboom · Planning Theory · Belgium (Ghent)

This article examines a new planning mode involving collaboration between state, private, and community actors in the context of urban gardening movements. It analyzes urban gardening projects in Ghent, Belgium, to explore the transformation of planning practices. The article concludes that urban gardening exemplifies an emerging informal planning mode supported by a transactive governmentality, potentially leading to co-creative transformation of public urban space.

Jeanne Pourias, Éric Duchemin, Christine Aubry · · Global

This paper investigated the food function of urban collective gardens (CGs) in Paris and Montreal, defined as the quantitative and qualitative food supply they provide to gardeners. Comprehensive interviews with gardeners, production quantification, and plot monitoring revealed a wide diversity of practices regarding CGs' food function. This diversity must be considered in relation to the multifunctionality of these gardens.

Cat Buxton · · Global

This record documents a community work day held on May 7, 2015, at Thetford Elementary School Garden. The event involved after-school work by community members.

Nishesh Chalise · Open Scholarship Institutional Repository (Washington University in St. Louis) · Global

This study investigated the processes leading to sustained or eroding community engagement over time in urban community gardens within a low-income urban neighborhood. Key informant interviews were conducted with gardeners from various community gardens, and the data was used to understand the context of garden establishment and to revise a system dynamics model based on collective action theories. The model, which incorporated eight main structures including gardeners, land, activities, and social relationships, successfully produced both sustained and eroding community engagement.

Jodi Kushins · OpenSIUC (Southern Illinois University Carbondale) · Global

This paper describes an art educator's experience transforming her backyard into an urban farm with the help of friends and neighbors, combining an autoethnographic account with research. She leveraged her knowledge of artistic and educational initiatives prioritizing collective activity to position her work as participatory environmental art education. The paper is structured around the main steps of planting a garden—siting, amending, seeding, tending, and harvesting—to draw parallels between garden maintenance and designing holistic art education.

R. Alan Wight · Environmental Education Research · Global

This abstract cites a study titled "Community supported agriculture as public education: networked communities of practice building alternative agrifood systems." The study was published in Environmental Education Research, volume 22, issue 3, pages 456–457.

Gerardo Patron-Cano · Digital Commons - DU (University of Denver) · Global

This thesis argues that agriculture should be divorced from capitalist economic principles, pointing out that industrialized growing methods have been economically, socially, and environmentally unsustainable. For sustainable and equitable agriculture, food systems need to be de-commodified, with policies empowering local community control and subsidizing localized production-consumption cycles. Urban farming and food hub initiatives are discussed as primary solutions to address challenges limiting local food systems from replacing the dominant industrial agricultural paradigm.

Gabrielle O’Kane, Barbara Pamphilon · Public Health Nutrition · Australia

This paper contributes to a food-related doctoral research study by applying narrative inquiry methodology and focus groups across five food systems in the Canberra region of Australia: community gardens, community-supported agriculture, farmers' markets, fresh food markets, and supermarkets. Based on data from eight focus groups with 52 participants, the paper demonstrates the application of narrative inquiry and reveals the important role of narratives in generating new knowledge.

Andrew Adam‐Bradford, R. van Veenhuizen · Pure (Coventry University) · Global

This chapter explores the linkages between urban agriculture and disasters and emergencies by broadly illustrating the potential role urban agriculture can play in disaster risk management. Disaster risk management is an overarching term covering all aspects of disaster management, including pre-disaster activities like disaster risk reduction (DRR) programs aimed at building resilience, and post-disaster activities such as working with refugees in camps or urban areas, linking relief, rehabilitation, and development (LRRD).

Klaus Lorenz · Soil Science · Global

Urban agriculture (UA) engages approximately 800 million people globally and covers over 67 million hectares of urban cropland. While UA contributes to food security, growing food in urban ecosystems, particularly on degraded urban soils, presents challenges. Past research on UA has focused on social sciences, and although studies on urban soils have increased, many urban areas remain neglected. Further research and dissemination of knowledge are needed on how to maintain or enhance urban soil fertility through soil and land-use management practices.

Ingrid Jahrl, Otto Schmid · Organic Eprints (International Centre for Research in Organic Food Systems, and Research Institute of Organic Agriculture) · Switzerland

In Zurich, Switzerland, urban agriculture policies have evolved towards fulfilling multiple functions. This multifunctional approach aims to provide diverse services for city dwellers, fostering biodiversity, offering attractive recreational landscapes, and creating educational opportunities, with food production being a part but not the main goal. The city administration has implemented various support mechanisms to ensure the concept's implementation and maintenance.

Abdullah Ambusaidi, Rashid Al‐Yahyai, Neil Taylor · Econstor (Econstor) · Oman

A school gardening project in Oman, funded by the Oman Research Council, aims to improve educational outcomes in the short term and dietary outcomes in the longer term, addressing the country's rising lifestyle diseases. The article reports on the project's rationale, conceptualization, and design, noting its potential for expansion to more schools and long-term economic benefits through local food production.

Christine Brown-Paul, Sam Ross · Practical Hydroponics and Greenhouses · Australia

A Sydney-based company supplies hydroponics products and services to a diverse range of clients in Australia, including home growers, market gardeners, commercial growers, schools, and community gardens. This broad client base provides a competitive advantage in the current market.

Elise Whatley, Tracy Fortune, Anne Williams · Australian Occupational Therapy Journal · Australia (Melbourne)

This ethnographic study explored Mind 'Sprout', a supported community garden in inner-city Melbourne, Australia, to understand how it created a socially inclusive environment and enabled occupational participation for people recovering from mental ill-health. Data were collected through participant observation, six individual interviews, and document review. The study found that Sprout enabled social inclusion and occupational participation by fostering community, providing a flexible environment, and creating a learning environment.

Bongajum Simplice Ngoran, Suinyuy Derrick Ngoran · Journals & Books Hosting (International Knowledge Sharing Platform) · Cameroon (Bamenda)

This article examines the socioeconomic implications of urban agriculture in Bamenda, Cameroon. It found that urban agriculture has improved living conditions, providing employment to about 11% of the working population and reducing food expenses for civil servants. However, urban agriculture in Bamenda lags behind other cities due to rudimentary tools, suggesting a need for advanced technology and improved seedlings.

Jenny Sjöblom · · Sweden

This study describes the origin and development of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in Sweden, identifying and interviewing organizations and entrepreneurs. While CSA is nascent but growing, with prerequisites for expansion in both rural and urban areas, the study notes implications regarding its accessibility to the broader population that require further exploration.

Anna Maria Orrù · Chalmers Publication Library (Chalmers University of Technology) · Sweden (Stockholm)

This paper investigated whether engaging citizens as design agents through an alternate participation platform could bridge the gap between urban design processes and citizens. This approach was applied to Stockholm's urban agriculture movement, aiming to engage citizens in locating existing and potential food growing places and gathering information. Results showed that a combination of digital and bodily approaches was necessary for critical cartography to holistically engage citizens as spatial agents informing urban policy.

Melinda VanDevelder, Kierstyn Johnson, Alicia R. Thompson · · Global

This chapter explores the versatility of school and community gardens, which have historical roots in social justice. It investigates multiple theories embracing critical and ecological pedagogies in urban communities, schools, and neighborhoods. The driving forces behind this work include democratic movements for food security, addressing food deserts, and socioeconomic sustainability through gardening programs.

Annette B. Fromm · Journal of American Folklore · Global

"Taking Public: Redefining Foodways in a Changing World" is a volume compiling interdisciplinary approaches to five specific topics in worldwide food studies. Authors from diverse fields such as anthropology, sociology, geography, nutrition, and gender studies contribute, addressing themes like production, consumption, performance, food in the diaspora, and activism and foodways. The content spans various subjects including organic farming, veganism, agribusiness, fast food, urban gardens, and dumpster diving, with global examples from Cuba to Southeast Asia, the UK, and African American and Jewish homes in the American South.

Delgado Pontón, Daniela María · · Ecuador (Machala)

This work aims to provide guidelines for implementing a municipal urban and peri-urban agriculture program in Machala, Ecuador, to improve environmental quality and food security for the population. The proposed program's guidelines are presented, supported by arguments for its importance in combating hunger, enhancing food and nutritional security, reducing urban habitat deterioration, and generating employment for participating families.

Abou Bâ · VertigO · Global

This reviewed work offers an unusual vision of agricultural production, contrasting with the homogeneity often seen in industrialized countries' agricultural landscapes. The book represents a significant effort by its various authors and is presented as an indispensable tool for researchers interested in urban agriculture.

Sara Parme · Educational Media Reviews Online · Global

The documentary film "Plant This Movie" (2014, 83 min) explores our relationship with food and the wasted space and resource of the 21st-century lawn. This film, one of many similar documentaries on urban farming, proposes learning from and improving upon past mistakes of the Green Movement. It notes that many agricultural nonprofits, including one highlighted, fail due to lack of funding, and while it suggests sustainability efforts should be run like a business, only a fraction of the film is dedicated to this aspect.