Research & reports

Arnaud Frauenfelder, Christophe Delay, Laure Scalambrin · Espaces et sociétés · Switzerland (Geneva)

This article examines a contemporary urban reform in Geneva concerning family gardens, whose status is now in competition with new forms of community gardens. While the reform is presented as necessary, spokespersons for family allotment associations welcome it with some reservation. Social actors' positions for or against the reform implicitly refer to different socially situated modes of gardening and lifestyles, revealing that "urban agriculture" masks heterogeneous social meanings behind a visible consensus.

Thomas DeVere Wolsey, Diane Lapp · Journal of Education · Global

This article proposes a pedagogical framework for school gardens, highlighting their role in promoting healthier eating habits, sustainable local practices, and community service. It suggests that school gardens can integrate knowledge of cultures, resources, and sustainable food sources, potentially leading to increased care for the community and the planet. The article also notes that school gardens can provide opportunities for students to contribute to the availability of fresh, healthy foods in socioeconomically challenged areas.

Mark Matsa, Beauty Dzawanda · · Zimbabwe

This study assessed the performance of Caritas-initiated and sponsored community gardens in Chaka ward, Chirumanzu District, Zimbabwe, during and after the sponsors' regime. Data was collected using questionnaires, interviews, and direct observations, and analyzed with descriptive statistics and content analysis. Results showed that the gardens flourished during Caritas's presence but quickly shrank and folded after the NGO's departure, indicating a lack of sustainability.

古月 · 新农业 · Global

This paper describes urban agriculture using the popular 2013 term "gaodashang" (high-end, atmospheric, and classy). Urban agriculture is an industry in urbanized areas that utilizes pastoral landscapes, natural ecology, and environmental resources, combining agricultural, forestry, animal husbandry, and fishery production, agricultural business activities, rural culture, and rural life. It provides places for people to engage in leisure tourism, experience agriculture, and understand rural areas, integrating the three functions of agricultural production, life, and ecology.

Zoltán Dezsény, Bálint Balázs, Katalin Réthy · · Hungary

This study explored farm enterprises following Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) practices in Hungary. The research confirmed that CSA can be identified as a sustainable rural business strategy for innovative organic farmers. It also has transformative potential for food-system localization, providing decent livelihood, good care of natural resources, and strengthening social cohesion within the rural-urban interface in Hungary.

Zainil Zainuddin, David Mercer · Australian Geographer · Australia (Melbourne)

This pilot study conducted a fine-grained analysis of domestic residential garden food production among 15 selected householders in metropolitan Melbourne, Australia. Participants collected detailed daily information about their food production over a three-month period, with two respondents maintaining records for one or more years. The results demonstrated enormous diversity in harvested food and extremely high productivity levels from relatively small domestic spaces.

Song Pin · Anhui nongye kexue · Global

This paper examines the obstacles and forming factors in project financing for Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), identifying problems such as imperfect investment entities, unclear financing objectives, and single investment methods and channels. Using a four-stakeholder model (project investors, national policy, CSA, and consumers), the study elaborates on the causes of these financing difficulties. It proposes solutions including strengthening CSA's brand and marketing to cultivate loyal customers, and leveraging government, financial institutions, and private capital to address financing challenges.

Dominique Hes, Chrisna du Plessis · · Global

This chapter examines how the Living Building Challenge (LBC) supports transformation towards an ecological worldview, focusing on its "Petals." The LBC's Site Petal determines where and what type of development can be built and how to restore a place, while the Urban Agriculture Imperative requires projects to contribute to local and regional food production. The Energy Petal aims to utilize the site's energy budget, and the Materials Petal is noted for its demanding imperatives.

Isabelle Anguelovski · The MIT Press eBooks · Global

In Dudley, Casc Antic, and CayoHueso, residents feel strongly attached to their places of living and working, and to the relationships they have built. This attachment has motivated engagement in environmental revitalization initiatives, where activists repair community spaces, build parks, and develop urban farms to address trauma and fear of erasure. These environmental projects contribute to healing the community, achieving environmental recovery, and creating a sense of rootedness and home.

Ophélie Robineau, Julia Tichit, Thomas Maillard · · Burkina Faso (Bobo-Dioulasso)

This study examines the socio-spatial integration of urban agriculture in three southern cities: Bobo-Dioulasso (Burkina Faso), Metro Manila (Philippines), and Saint-Louis (Senegal). It highlights different integration modes resulting from urban farmers’ practices. In Bobo-Dioulasso, farmers establish social relationships to ensure access to productive resources; in Metro Manila, the appropriation of practices and networks of actors at the local level guarantees sustainability; and in Saint-Louis, farmer-initiated organizations assert their interests with urban authorities.

Tim Cook · · Global

Over 30 community projects, including guerrilla gardening and "grow your own" initiatives for family food banks, received grant funding from the North of England Horticultural Society (NEHS).

Sarah Selmer, James Rye, Elizabeth L. Malone, Danielle Fernandez, Kathryn Trebino · Science Activities · Global

This article describes how statistical literacy can be introduced at the upper elementary level through integrated science-mathematics instruction in a project-based learning context. Focusing on a farmers' market project and school gardening, it illustrates how to scaffold students' understanding of statistical questions and develop their ability to formulate survey questions. The approach extends to analyzing, interpreting, and representing data, enhancing the statistical problem-solving process.

Na Chen · · Global

This paper analyzed typical urban agriculture practices in domestic and foreign cities, categorizing them into industrialization and community citizenization modes. It compared differences in key functions, agricultural forms, and driving bodies, concluding that the modern industrialization mode is suitable for China's national conditions. The study proposes building an urban agriculture development system that focuses on economic functions while considering social and ecological aspects, with government leadership, enterprise operation, and farmer participation.

Michael Christie · · Australia

This study describes a government consultancy into the feasibility of a remote Aboriginal community garden in Galiwin'ku, Arnhem Land, Australia. Researchers collaborated with Yolgu knowledge-authorities to develop a "transdisciplinary research methodology" that integrates academic and Aboriginal knowledge practices. The project aimed to establish a garden with a non-Indigenous gardener to address high unemployment and food prices, but faced challenges in communicating with the government without compromising Yolgu methodologies.

Arne Wangel · · Denmark (Copenhagen)

This paper discusses efforts to develop a Social LCA methodology to account for social impacts in the life cycle of existing products. It specifically shifts focus to the design phase of products and services yet to be constructed by start-ups and community groups. A maritime gardening project concerning the growing, harvesting, and eating of native oysters in the harbor of Copenhagen is presented as an example of urban farming initiatives.

LU Fe · Ecological Economy · Global

This paper analyzed the similarities and differences between rural tourism complexes and urban agricultural manors using a comparative method. Both share resource bases, industrial bases, market orientation, development ideas, target markets, and high-quality services. However, they differ in core profit points, essential supporting facilities, location selection, operators, managers, and stakeholders. The study inferred insights for constructing urban agricultural manors from existing rural tourism complex development modes, proposing construction thoughts focused on agricultural foundation, urban-rural integration, cultural integration, industrial development, and ecological civilization.

Abiola A. Farinde, Brett Tempest, Lisa R. Merriweather · International Journal for Service Learning in Engineering Humanitarian Engineering and Social Entrepreneurship · Global

This report described a service learning project that exposed underrepresented high school students to engineering through a community service activity where students built irrigation equipment for a community garden. The project's objective was to motivate high school students to consider STEM majors using service learning. A qualitative study was also conducted to describe the impact of informal science education through service learning, revealing three themes: experiential learning, broadening perspective, and identity as performance.

Leslie Vorraber, María Sebastián López, Esteve Fernández, Marcelo Scofano · Redalyc (Universidad Autónoma del Estado de México) · Argentina (Flores)

Since 2012, the University of Flores (UFLO) in Buenos Aires, Argentina, has implemented an Urban Agriculture Development Program. This program creates organic garden models with various production systems and designs, utilizing recycled materials and urban-adapted formats, to be promoted in community productive spaces. It involves monitoring and evaluating physical-chemical parameters of system components to ensure optimal development and the use of seasonal species adapted to the local climate.

Ulf Hackauf · Repository hosted by TU Delft Library (TU Delft) · Global

This paper explores urban pig farming as a specific form of urban and peri-urban agriculture (UPA). It uses a design-based research strategy, drawing on the 'City Pig' study (2009) from Delft University of Technology, to identify the potential benefits of urban pig farming and assess how un-built design projects can inform future real projects. A significant limitation is that the study concerns virtual, un-built design proposals.

Aisling Murtagh · Irish Geography · Ireland

This exploratory paper considers the broad dynamics of alternative food activity in Ireland, examining the nature of resistance and whether a collective vision exists across initiatives, illustrated by two examples: a community garden and a consumer food co-op. Alternative food initiatives commonly found in Ireland include allotments, community gardens, farmers’ markets, farm shops, and on-farm food enterprises.

Bernadett Kis · Annals of Leisure Research · Hungary

Community-supported agriculture (CSA) is a relatively new concept in Hungary, with only five or six "share CSAs" established. This paper presents how the French variation of CSA (AMAP) was adopted in Szeged, Hungary, and how this vegetable community functions, along with its leisure and health impacts on the author. The author's CSA membership is interpreted from a health and leisure perspective, connecting it to health promotion and Blackshaw's 'liquid leisure' concept.

Kimberly Yates, Michael J. Brody · The Journal of Environmental Education · Global

This book states that the urban school garden represents a cultural, pedagogical, and practical shift in priorities towards the earth. Veronica Gaylie's latest book is just one example of the many ways she has addressed urban school gardens.

Kylie Markow, Sue Booth, Stephanie Savio, John Coveney · Nutrition & Dietetics · Global

This study compared perspectives of low socioeconomic individuals and food system representatives regarding access to community-based food systems. Focus groups with low socioeconomic individuals and interviews with food system representatives revealed that affordability, convenience, and knowledge were barriers. While representatives acknowledged these barriers, their understanding of importance differed, and views were divided on strategies, especially concerning affordability. A disconnect exists between the two groups' views on improving access for disadvantaged groups.

Jacqueline Percebois · ASp · Global

This paper linguistically analyzed various environmental terms, from the institutional discourse of "sustainable environment" to individualized local discourse like "guerrilla gardening" and "incredible edible." It investigated their emergence, development, linguistic characteristics, lexical environment, and French equivalents within economic and social contexts. The analysis highlighted a clear contrast between two discursive positions and the gap between intention and action.

Benedetto Rocchi · RIVISTA DI ECONOMIA AGRARIA · Global

This paper discusses the relevance of “relational goods” in studying the economics of agriculture and food supply chains. The concept of relational goods is used to discuss three specific topics: overcoming information asymmetries in the agro-food system, labor organization in agriculture, and social farming. The creation of relational assets can ease information problems in marketing and deepen the understanding of alternative food supply chains. Social farming clearly demonstrates the economic and social relevance of relational goods, where production activities become opportunities for personal care.