Research & reports

Juan Sebastián Muñoz Castiblanco, José Francisco Landinez Cardona · · Colombia (Bogotá)

In the Manantial and Triangulo Alto neighborhoods of Bogotá, serious problems in solid waste management necessitate solutions involving the community and public sanitation companies. This project proposes diagnosing the current state of waste and, based on the findings, implementing an environmental education campaign with an emphasis on urban agriculture and vermiculture. It also aims to improve community collection centers and promote the use of various household materials.

Noortje Marres · Palgrave Macmillan UK eBooks · Global

This text explores the concept of "material participation," where everyday material practices like gardening, washing, and cycling are proposed to facilitate engagement in social and public life. It suggests that material environments, such as kitchens and allotment gardens, have unique capacities to involve people and make broader social problems accessible for intervention. The text raises questions about the legitimacy, efficacy, and distinctiveness of these explicitly material forms of engagement.

john standish · · Global

Indira Naidoo and Nick Rose have focused on improving food production and supply chains, encompassing everything from inner-city balcony and community gardens to large-scale commercial production.

Clare E. Collins, Rosalina Richards, Anthony I. Reeder, Andrew Gray · Health Promotion Journal of Australia · New Zealand

To investigate the implementation of edible gardens in New Zealand primary and secondary schools, a questionnaire was mailed to principals from 764 schools, with 491 responding (64.3% response rate). Among responding schools, 52.9% currently had an edible garden, with most started in the previous two years. Gardens were integrated into curriculum subjects, cooking lessons, recipes, and messages promoting increased fruit and vegetable consumption, with vegetables, herbs, and tree fruit commonly grown.

Mohd Yazid Mohd Yunos, Neda Jafari, Utaberta Nangkula, Nor Atiah Ismail, Sumarni Ismail, Nastaran Jafari · · Malaysia

This study examined high-rise building residents' preferences for rooftop gardens to promote urban agriculture in condominiums in Kuala Lumpur and Selangor, Malaysia. A quantitative survey questionnaire revealed that most participants showed a positive correlation with having a rooftop garden in their living area. Rooftop gardens were found to reduce environmental problems and contribute to microclimate improvement.

Michael L. Pennell · Community Literacy Journal · Global

This abstract introduces a special issue of the Community Literacy Journal on community food literacies, highlighting the intertwined relationship between food and literacy. It notes that both are in "revolutionary" stages, with food systems re-localizing through farmers’ markets, CSAs, and community gardens. The issue presents various perspectives on community food literacies, responding to a call for service-learning practitioners and literacy workers to address these expanding relationships.

Susmita Dasgupta, Asif Zaman, Subhendu Roy, Mainul Huq, Sarwar Jahan, Ainun Nishat · · Bangladesh (Dhaka)

A study on flood mitigation in Dhaka explored complementary measures to existing drainage systems and discussed institutional, technical, and financial challenges to their implementation. A commonly acknowledged challenge for Dhaka is the lack of coordination among agencies, exacerbated by scarce resources and unplanned development. Clogging of stormwater drains with solid waste was identified as a primary reason for frequent localized flooding, and issues with khals (canals) regarding water flow, encroachment, and walkways were also noted.

Ana Lucrecia Nadal Fuentes · Temes de disseny · Global

This article discusses the historical relationship between cities and agriculture, noting that while agriculture was central to ancient civilizations, it was excluded from modern 20th-century urban plans. The study highlights that current and projected demographic growth in urban areas has increased the value of urban agriculture.

Barrientos Gómez, Yuly Anthoula · · Global

A paper examining that, while much research has attempted to establish the range of benefits and services attributed to urban agriculture across social/community, environmental, economic, political, and technical dimensions, uncertainty remains about the outlook from an environmental-management perspective, how the scholarly effort around the topic has evolved, and where this knowledge has been produced. Aiming to systematically evaluate the state of knowledge on urban agriculture through a literature review, the article presents a quantitative review of 300 studies on urban agriculture, examining the origin of publication, number of authors, type of publication, language, type and nature of the investigation, publication source, country of origin, and research objectives categorised by field of knowledge.

Michelle L. Kaiser, Michele L. Williams, Nicholas T. Basta, Michelle D. Hand, Sarah Huber · Journal of Food Protection · 米国・オハイオ

Focus groups (n=67) in four low-income Ohio neighbourhoods plus soil tests at six sites. Residents wanted gardens for fresh produce but worried about soil. Lead, zinc, cadmium and copper were present (paint likely main source); arsenic/chromium and PAHs were low. Further management to cut Pb/Cd bioavailability is needed before food crops; longer-established gardens showed lower contaminant signals. Critical evidence that vacant-lot gardening requires soil risk assessment.

Angela Glore · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · Global

A book review of Sustainable [R]Evolution, edited by Juliana Birnbaum and Louis Fox, a survey of permaculture (and permaculture-like) projects and communities around the world. Multiple contributors provide short profiles of ecovillages, urban agriculture projects, farms, and teaching centers, interspersed with writing on permaculture design principles. The review notes permaculture was coined as a word and design system by Australians Bill Mollison and David Holmgren in the 1970s, describes Mollison's Permaculture: A Designer's Manual as the seminal work on its elements and values, and characterizes permaculture as an inherently personal form of gardening tailored to a property's specific microclimate, topography, and use patterns.

Blanca Jiménez, Toshiyuki Asano · Water Intelligence Online · Global

A book surveying water reuse practices worldwide, organized by regions sharing similar water availability and social conditions, covering the water-quality requirements for different uses—agricultural, urban agriculture as a special case, municipal, and industrial—as well as indirect potable reuse through aquifer recharge. It addresses ethical and economic dilemmas, differing government policy roles and international standards, and public acceptance, and compares case studies from Japan, Germany, Pakistan, Brazil, Mexico, Windhoek (Namibia), the Mediterranean region, Israel, Spain, Cameroon, Nepal, and Vietnam.

Joseph Claghorn, Francesco Orsini, Carlos Restrepo, Christian Werthmann · urbe Revista Brasileira de Gestão Urbana · Colombia

A report on a four-phase research and implementation proposal to anticipate and mitigate landslide risk in low-income settlements on the mountainous urban periphery of Medellín, Colombia. A collaboration between a team of landscape architects from Germany and urbanists in Medellín proposes five pilot projects testing risk-mitigation strategies: monitoring and early-warning systems, drainage improvements, urban agriculture, slope forestation, and site development with basic services.

Guo Xiao-ha · Anhui nongye kexue · Global

A discussion of the development of Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) in China. While CSA has advantages over traditional agricultural production and sales models, the paper identifies limitations including heavy demands on labor and material resources, higher prices for agricultural products, difficulty building trust between producers and consumers, and loss of membership.

Yong Sock Chang · · Global

A study discussing an ecology awareness art project using school gardens, plants and environments. Noting that a recent survey found almost 50% of children cited ecological problems as the world's biggest problem, it draws on frameworks including Freire's critical pedagogy, Dewey's "art as experience," and the concept of haptic, multi-sensory perception, to propose an art education project through which children actively engage with ecological awareness and solutions, presenting various such ecology art education projects using school gardens, plants and environments.

Elisa Botella Rodríguez · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Cuba

This article examines cooperatives in Costa Rica and urban agriculture in Cuba from 1990 to 2008 as two cases of best practices that let small-scale farmers expand production and secure long-term survival amid globalization. It concludes these pathways might offer similar opportunities to smallholders in other developing economies operating under different agricultural policies.

Simon Meisch · ·

A paper arguing, via the social philosophers Michael Sandel and Alan Gewirth, that sustainable food production and consumption require substantial public debate on their aims and social organisation. It reviews debates over different food regimes and different institutional settings, consumer information/certification versus participatory approaches such as community-supported agriculture, and contends that public debate can be guided by moral principles that carry universal claims while remaining open to different ways of life.

Michael Foreman · · Global

A document setting out the rules for a community garden. It states that the rules were established to help gardeners maintain a beautiful green space for themselves and the surrounding community.

Ricardo Hernández Pérez, Flora Margarita Sosa Rodríguez, Juan Carlos Noa-Carrazana, Norma Flores‐Estévez, Dagoberto Guillén-Sánchez, Cristina Panfet Valdez · Cuadernos de Biodiversidad · Cuba

This study recorded nine Heliconia (Heliconiaceae) species as new accessions from gardens and yards and three botanical gardens (in forested mountain areas of Cienfuegos, Villa Clara, and Sancti Spíritus provinces) in Central Cuba, confirming species identification through molecular corroboration. A propagation strategy using micropropagation and in vitro conservation at the Cienfuegos Biofactory was applied, and the report states that collaboration among universities, the municipal government, and farmers allowed development of new cultivation areas, gardens, and home gardens despite limited resources.

Roberto Aguilera Peña · OBSERVATÓRIO DE LA ECONOMÍA LATINOAMERICANA · Colombia

This paper argues that an "integral farm" (granja integral) functions as a life project for families in rural communities and in the large cities of Ecuador and elsewhere, offering not only improved nutrition but also an opportunity to live in harmony with nature while conserving and preserving the environment without significant impacts on ecosystem components or biocenosis. Urban gardens are described as contributing to community food provision while also creating business opportunities, and the paper argues for the importance of building alliances between small food producers on integral farms and supermarkets. It describes supermarkets as a distribution channel with growing demand, with much of the fresh food supply coming from urban or rural family and community gardens applying good agricultural practices, creating opportunities for sustainable strategic alliances.

Nathanael Bacon · International Review of Mission · Global

Drawing on the author's ministry experience in Guatemala, this essay (2015) examines themes of injustice, loving service, need, and promise across three documents — the Lausanne Movement's The Cape Town Commitment, the apostolic exhortation Evangelii Gaudium, and the ecumenical mission and evangelism text Together Towards Life — with a particular focus on justice and Christian mission. It depicts the elements common to these texts through the image of a community garden exhibiting biodiversity and requiring a diversity of talents to flourish.

Andreas Wesener · Journal of Urbanism International Research on Placemaking and Urban Sustainability · New Zealand

In Christchurch, New Zealand — struck by a series of major earthquakes in 2010 and 2011 — community gardens, urban agriculture, art installations, event venues, cafés and pocket parks emerged as temporary uses on vacant post-earthquake sites. Through a review and analysis of exemplary transitional community-initiated open spaces alongside related literature, this paper examines how the post-disaster urban context shaped particular aspects of temporary urbanism compared with case studies in non-disaster settings. Focusing on the anticipated benefits of community-initiated open spaces, it discusses their relevance to urban sustainability in relation to community resilience, while raising unresolved questions about their possible long-term value.

Bernd Pölling, Hans Wydler, Denise Kemper, Dona Pickard, Biancamaria Torquati, Óscar Alfranca, Wolf Lorleberg, Pedro Mendes‐Moreira, Giulia Giacchè, A. Spornberger, André Luis Alves Miguel, María José Prados Velasco, H. Weissinger, Axel Timpe, Lea Deborah Egloff, Bruno Ronchi, Paola Branduini, Gunilla Andersson, Oleg Paulen, Luís Neves, Avigail Heller, Xavier Recasens, E. Alves, Kristine Herkströter, J.W. van der Schans, Galina Koleva · RWTH Publications (RWTH Aachen) · Global

The available text for this RWTH Aachen publication consists only of a list of contributing authors — Pölling, Alfranca, Alves, Andersson, Branduini and numerous others — with no methods, findings or conclusions stated.

Emmanuel Okello, Emmanuel Emmanuel, Amonya, Collins, Okwee Acai, James, Erume, K.S. Joseph, Gejihu De, Henri · International Journal of Livestock Production · Uganda

This study assessed the performance, factors affecting productivity, and challenges of intensive pig farming in peri-urban Kampala, Uganda, using data from 332 purposively selected sows and 521 grower pigs. Information on management practices, challenges, and prospects was gathered through farmer questionnaires, key informant interviews, and stakeholder focus group discussions. Most farms showed a good overall level of management, but breeding practices were uniformly erratic across all farms, with different breeds crossed indiscriminately, and both reproduction and performance parameters were suboptimal. Breed had a significant effect on growth performance (p < 0.001) and litter size (p < 0.005), while feeding had significant effects on litter size (p < 0.001), number weaned (p < 0.01), weight-to-age ratio (p < 0.05), and weaning-to-service interval (p < 0.05). The major constraints identified were high feed costs, disease, and competition for land with expanding residential estates, and performance indices varied greatly between farms, indicating substantial room for improvement; the study recommends improved housing, breeding practices, feeding, and biosecurity measures.

Julie A. Jacob · JAMA · Global

A JAMA Medical News and Perspectives piece introducing public health initiatives that aim to mitigate community violence by creating safe shared spaces where residents can take part in physical fitness activities and urban gardening.