Research & reports

Antoinette WinklerPrins · CABI eBooks · Global

This chapter highlights three main points regarding urban cultivation. First, urban cultivation is much more than producing food. Second, it should be seen as a normal and accepted livelihood in all urban areas, requiring land rights and regulatory environments to align with this reality. Third, urban cultivation has a critical role in making cities sustainable, green, and more resilient in the future.

Klaus Philipsen · · Global

This text discusses how custom production, facilitated by technologies like 3-D printing, challenges traditional mass production theories. It notes that urban agriculture is exploring experimental, low-impact production methods to integrate urban surfaces into food production for a growing urban population. The high costs of mass production prototypes can be significantly reduced by 3-D printing, allowing for greater product variation at lower costs.

Karla L. Hanson, Jane Kolodinsky, Weiwei Wang, Emily H. Morgan, Stephanie Jilcott Pitts, Alice S. Ammerman, Marilyn Sitaker, Rebecca A. Seguin‐Fowler · Nutrients · United States

This study surveyed 41 adults and children (2-12 years) in August 2015 and 23 in February 2016 from low-income households participating in a 50% subsidized Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program in the United States. Participants' fruit and vegetable intake (FVI) was higher than US averages, and they more frequently met vegetable recommendations. While some seasonal produce was consumed more often when locally in-season, causality between CO-CSA participation and FVI could not be inferred due to potential self-selection bias.

C.O. Edeoghon · IOSR Journal of Agriculture and Veterinary Science · Nigeria (Benin Metropolis)

This study assessed the effect of urban agriculture on food security and farmers' economic empowerment in Benin Metropolis, Edo State, Nigeria, by surveying 120 randomly selected urban farmers. The majority (62.6%) were male, with a mean age of 45 and an average household size of 9. Reasons for urban farming included high living costs, profitability, and household feeding. Urban agriculture provided economic empowerment for acquiring household equipment, better education, and medical services. Major constraints identified were land acquisition, capital, and transportation difficulty.

Sophia E. Hagolani‐Albov, Sarah J. Halvorson · CABI eBooks · Finland

This chapter examines grassroots food distribution networks in Finland, focusing on their role in creating farmer-consumer linkages for urban foodsheds. It discusses and compares two networks: Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), exemplified by the Herttoniemi Food Cooperative, and REKO Circles, which are based on the principle of 'fair consumption'.

Monika Egerer, Alessandro Ossola, Brenda B. Lin · BioScience · United States (California central coast)

This study conceptualizes community garden soils within the novel ecosystem framework, arguing that gardeners cultivate novel agroecosystems from their garden beds' soil. On the California central coast, community garden soils may not be influenced by land-use legacies associated with geographic location. Instead, intensive soil reworking by gardeners can wash out legacy signals and decadal chronological trends, leading to soil homogenization that reduces biophysical ties to the underlying earth.

Jennifer Jettner · VCU Scholars Compass (Virginia Commonwealth University) · United States

A mixed-methods approach examined race, racial diversity, and social capital in community gardens located in Southern urban food deserts in the United States. Results indicated that while gardeners were racially diverse across the sample, most community gardens were racially segregated, and the majority of gardeners appeared middle-class. Community gardens showed limited potential to advance social justice and indirectly enhanced community food security, primarily through the efforts of people of color, rather than directly benefiting food-insecure gardeners.

Nóra Gombkötő, Judit Vincze, Judit Hegyi, Károly Kacz, Gombkötő, Nóra, Vincze, Judit, Hegyi, Judit, Kacz, Károly · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · Hungary

A questionnaire survey was conducted among producers and consumers regarding Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) systems in Hungary's West Transdanubian region. The study found that CSA is not mature in Hungary and requires broader support. Producers were predominantly over 45 years old, with few engaged in animal product production, and primarily used traditional markets, missing out on other sales opportunities. Consumer awareness of CSA types was low, with only 25% preferring buyer communities and 3% each for subscription/box systems and share farming.

Zilma Borges de Souza, Lya Cynthia Porto de Oliveira, E. C. A. S. S. LIMA, Fábio Bruno Queiroga, Joyce Rodrigues · Cadernos de Agroecologia · Brazil (São Paulo)

This research analyzes the development, functions, social practices, and income generation of urban agriculture in Jardim Angela and Jardim Sao Luis, located in the M’Boi Mirim region of São Paulo, Brazil. It maps existing initiatives and prospects opportunities for agroecological food production in private and collective spaces. The study presents partial results from an interdisciplinary project involving three universities.

Wendy Castañeda Abad, Angelina Herrera Sorzano, Roberto González Sousa, Eduardo San Marful Orbis · Revista Novedades en Población · Cuba (La Habana)

This research studies the organization, structure, and development of urban agriculture in Cuba, focusing on organoponics as a high-yield modality using agroecological techniques. The study evaluates the behavior and community impact of these centers in Havana Province, an urban territory, as a factor for local development.

Silvana Maria Ribeiro, Jessica Franco, Mariana Tarricone Garcia, Cláudia Maria Bógus, Helena Akemi Wada Watanabe · DEMETRA Alimentação Nutrição & Saúde · Brazil

This paper discusses the recovery of practices focused on food, health, and the environment through four workshops held in Brazil in 2012 and 2013, which systematized experiences from the agroecological urban agriculture project "ColhendoSustentabilidade." This participatory qualitative research, involving 24 participants, revealed that contact with land in garden activities contributes to cultural recovery and new knowledge construction, promotes gradual changes in eating habits by emphasizing the food-health-environment relationship, and provides opportunities for social interaction involving food.

Stephanie White, Michael W. Hamm · CABI eBooks · Global South

This chapter discusses urban agriculture's role in urban food systems, particularly in the Global South, and proposes theoretical framings of urban agriculture as an 'urbanistic practice'. It argues that urban agriculture studies can enhance understanding of regional food provisioning and exchange, especially concerning informality, shed light on urban socio-ecological processes including food insecurity and marginalization, and provide case-study accounts of peripheral livelihoods that challenge conventional understandings of urban construction.

C. Alejandro Rafael Socorro Castro, C. Fernando Carlos Agüero Contreras, MSc. Raúl Ramón Rodríguez Rodríguez · Revista Científica Agroecosistemas · Cuba

This study evaluates the cultural contribution of urban agriculture as a global phenomenon expanding since the second half of the 20th century. Its universality is observed in industrialized and emerging economies, characterized by a tendency to face correlated ecological or alimentary dangers. Urban agriculture's contributions stand out in both material and spiritual culture associated with agrarian and agricultural productive processes. The Cuban experience, examined in Cienfuegos, confirms international literature and highlights essential contributions that are indispensable to study and socialize for Cuban society's efforts towards 2030 goals.

Kristin Reynolds · International Journal of Food Design · United States (New York City)

Farm School NYC, an adult education program in New York City, was examined as an example of radical innovation in urban agriculture education for social justice. Based on research conducted between 2013 and 2014, the program uses critical pedagogy and popular education to train adult students in urban farming, social justice advocacy, and teaching skills. A network of urban agriculture practitioners, educators, and activists created this community-based training program, which infuses radical visions of social change into its daily educational activities.

Wendy Castañeda Abad, Angelina Herrera Sorzano, Roberto González Sousa, Eduardo San Marful Orbis · Novedades en población · Cuba (Havana)

This research studied the organization, structure, and development of urban agriculture in Cuba, focusing on organoponia as a high-performance modality developed with agroecological techniques in the urban territory of Havana province. The study considered the behavior of these organoponicos in the territory and their impact on the community as a factor in local development.

Tec. Jesús Gioser Medina Varens · Revista Científica Agroecosistemas · Ecuador (Machala)

This issue of Revista Científica Agroecosistemas contains multiple articles on various agricultural and environmental topics. One article discusses the potential of urban agriculture for small entrepreneurs in Machala canton, Ecuador, as part of sustainable food systems. Another article explores the cultural contribution of urban agriculture.

Jonathan Lowell, Sara Law · CABI eBooks · United States (Texas), Cuba

A comparative study of urban agriculture projects in Austin, Texas, and Havana, Cuba, revealed that sustainability discourses primarily focus on food production methods, with little attention paid to persistent food insecurity issues that urban agriculture has yet to address, or to the cultural politics of food, where race, class, and gender shape access to food choices. While agricultural practices and their perceived value were similar in both cities, the study found comparable outcomes in how food exposed spatial and social divisions.

Njenyuei Gideon Agho · Journal of Nutrition & Food Sciences · South Africa (Johannesburg)

This research investigated how urban agriculture contributes to the sustainable livelihood of Cameroonian migrant women living in the inner city of Johannesburg. Findings revealed that urban agriculture is used as a strategy for sustainable livelihood by many Cameroonian migrant women, enabling them to raise substantial income to support their families in both South Africa and Cameroon. The study employed a mixed-method approach, combining purposeful sampling, a transect walk, in-depth face-to-face interviews, and written sources.

Daniel Balcero Benitez · · Colombia (Bogotá)

This study proposes a rururban landscape (urban-agricultural) for the Usme district in southern Bogotá. It is based on a model for ordering rururban fringes and sustainable occupation typologies for these territories, responding to expansive pressures from high environmental impact uses (mining, landfill) and urban growth on peasant territories. The proposal starts from the preservation and strengthening of the environment and current peasant ways of life.

S. H. Ahmed, M. Emam, M. Abul-Soud · Zagazig Journal of Agricultural Research · Egypt (Cairo)

This study investigated the effect of different vermicompost rates (10%, 20%, 30%) and pot volumes (4, 6, 8 L) on celery and red cabbage grown under green roof conditions in Cairo, Egypt, during 2014/2015 and 2015/2016. Increasing pot volume from 4 to 8 L increased vegetative growth and yield but decreased economic efficiency. A 20% vermicompost rate increased vegetative and yield characteristics, while 30% had a negative impact. Increasing vermicompost from 10% to 30% increased N, P, and K contents, but increasing pot volume from 4 to 8 L/plant decreased N, P, and K contents.

Denes Dantas Vieira, Reimilde Gomes da Silva Amorim · EXTRAMUROS - Revista de Extensão da Univasf · Brazil (Juazeiro)

This study aimed to investigate the dilemmas of the social trajectory of the Povo Unido community garden in Juazeiro/BA, Brazil, located on the banks of the São Francisco River. This garden is known for its organic vegetable production and as one of the first groups focused on overcoming poverty and combating hunger in Brazil's semi-arid northeast. The research contributes to reflection based on social organization and organic food production.

Piyapong Boossabong · Palgrave Macmillan US eBooks · Thailand (Bangkok)

This chapter examines how the policy network on urban agriculture in Bangkok, Thailand, developed collaborative governance mechanisms to cope with food distribution disruption caused by floods. It argues that deliberation between policy network members and flood victims determines meaningful collective actions that enhanced victims' resilience and promoted fair distribution, political and cultural recognition, and parity of participation.

Rebecca Gresh · Illinois Digital Environment for Access to Learning and Scholarship (University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign) · United States (California)

This qualitative study investigated two alternative food projects in San Diego, California, to reveal how food justice is envisioned and practiced. "Project New Village (PNV)" in a low-income area resists institutional racism and class inequality through a community garden and farmers market. In contrast, the affluent "San Diego Roots Sustainable Food Project (SDRS)" resists suburban sprawl and environmental destruction through sustainable food production. PNV faces obstacles like law enforcement patrols interrupting community rebuilding, indicating that alternative food movements may reproduce structures of oppression.

· Policy Press eBooks · United States (Detroit)

This interview chapter features Grace Lee Boggs discussing revolution, evolution, and change in Detroit. Boggs posits that revolutions stem from communities claiming spaces to realize their desired world, viewing urban agriculture and grassroots movements as acts of revolution that "grow our souls." She highlights Detroit as a pioneer in this new form of revolution, advocating for revolution as a way of life rather than a power grab.

Benjamin Goldstein · · United States

This project aims to address uncertainties regarding the environmental performance of urban agriculture, using the Northeast United States as a case study. Existing literature lacks environmental appraisals comparing urban and rural food production, leaving questions about whether the benefits of reduced farm-to-fork distance are outweighed by energy demands of year-round growing systems, and if farm-scale resource efficiencies translate to meaningful shifts in a city's environmental footprint. This report comprises six chapters that explore and contribute to the understanding of urban food systems.