Research & reports

Christopher Bryant, Ghalia Chahine · Geographical Research · Canada (Montreal)

This 2015 case study from the Montreal Region, Canada, analyzed an action research project initiated in 2008 to reduce the vulnerability of peri-urban agriculture. Despite initiatives since the mid-1960s, significant pressures continue to increase the vulnerability of peri-urban farming, with farmland often removed from agricultural reserves. The project in Senneville involved farmers, non-farm actors, and municipal presentations over three years, aiming to integrate conservation and leisure activities.

Laurelyn Sandkamp, Emily Jorgensen · University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy (University of Minnesota) · United States

This document is a report, presentation, and poster completed by students enrolled in the PA 5242: Environmental Planning, Policy, and Decision Making course in spring 2015. The abstract provides no further details on the content, methods, or findings of the work.

Elvis Albert Robe Wandscheer, Rosa Maria Vieria Medeiros · LA Referencia (Red Federada de Repositorios Institucionales de Publicaciones Científicas) · Brazil (Porto Alegre)

This study descriptively and qualitatively analyzed the socioeconomic dynamics of urban agriculture in Porto Alegre, Brazil. It highlighted issues in the demarcation of urban and rural spaces, showing that many areas designated as urban possess distinctly rural characteristics. The most significant impacting factors were markets and real estate speculation. The study concluded that while urban agriculture is relevant to the municipality, it faces difficulties arising from competition for space, which can lead to the extinction or displacement of production activities to other areas.

Donna Freeman · Journal of the Arkansas Academy of Science · United States (Fayetteville)

This study in Fayetteville, United States, utilized data triangulation from site analysis, policy analysis, and surveys to explore how urban farms could be improved in areas like visibility and worker comfort. The research aimed to determine what workers and volunteers value in urban farms. It developed general physical and procedural templates for farms to enhance relationships with workers and surrounding communities.

Bryanna Sherman · · United States

This literature review comprehensively studied local food system efforts in Watauga County, United States, examining how local food is integrated into the landscape. The review analyzed benchmarks for success and failure, and the recognized impact of local food on community life. It determined the social, environmental, and economic reasons for continuing to produce quality food for community benefits, noting strong community readiness and support for local agriculture in Watauga County.

N. Claire Napawan · Landscape Journal · United States (San Francisco)

This paper evaluated five case studies of communally-managed urban farms in San Francisco to determine their ability to operate dualistically as areas for food production and public space. Using a case-study methodology, it compared the spatial characteristics of these farms against the spatial criteria for successful public space. The study identified both conflicts and compatibilities in the spatial considerations for both functions.

Faith Rusk · · United States

This resource provides information for UDC students on urban agriculture as a social movement that combines traditional farming with the lifestyle of an urban dweller.

Sebastião Gabriel Chaves Maia · Revista Ouricuri · Brazil (São Paulo)

This case study focuses on understanding the representations of rural environments within urban spaces, emphasizing urban agriculture practices. It applies theoretical assumptions of pluriactivity and multifunctionality from traditional rural agriculture to urban agriculture in Piracicaba, São Paulo, Brazil. The organization of urban gardens exemplifies the application of rural representation in urban settings, with these activities contributing to local well-being, the local economy, and the conservation of agrobiodiversity.

Jacques Abelman · Kobra (Universitätsbibliothek Kassel) · Brazil (Porto Alegre)

The "Cultivating the City" project attempts to apply landscape architectural thinking to integrate urban agriculture into the city. A proposed network of urban agriculture typologies, emphasizing agroforestry with native species, was developed for Porto Alegre, Brazil. These hypothetical designs aim to serve as a basis for dialogue among potential stakeholders and as catalysts for future projects.

Ari Novy, Devin Dotson · CSA News · United States

This article argues that botanical and public gardens are well-positioned to connect the public with agriculture, especially in urban centers where interest in food and agriculture is resurging. With over 70 million visitors annually and existing infrastructure, botanical gardens can serve as urban nodes for science-based education. They can perform plant research, offer education, interpret plant uses, and showcase plant beauty.

Matthew Potteiger · · United States (New York City)

This paper explores a fundamental shift in urban agriculture based on productive urban ecologies and foraging practices. Part one identifies urban foraging as a significant cultural practice, summarizing ethnographic research in Syracuse and New York City, and a multi-city USDA Forest Service study. Part two focuses on design strategies for urban foraging and productive ecologies, presenting case studies and design proposals for Syracuse and New York City. The study outlines a paradigm shift in design and planning to integrate urban agriculture with critical landscape systems and re-localize urban metabolism.

Stephen R. Miller · · United States (Newark, New Jersey)

This article proposes a new approach to financing local food, viewing it as a finance problem similar to urban manufacturing, to scale up local food production. It explores the necessity of large-scale urban agriculture, focusing on vertical farms, and examines creative financing examples like AeroFarms in Newark, New Jersey. The paper suggests deploying existing and potential financing types, modeled on economic development agreements, to advance local food initiatives.

Silene Maciel dos Santos, Samuel Ferreira da Fonseca, Luiz Andrei Gonçalves Pereira · Dialnet (Universidad de la Rioja) · Brazil (Pirapora-MG)

This study analyzed the spatial distribution of urban agricultural activities in the Sagrada Família neighborhood, Pirapora-MG, Brazil, through a literature review. It examined urban agriculture practices, their socio-economic role, and the problems and challenges faced by urban agriculture actors in the neighborhood. The study concluded that the identified issues suggest urban agriculture as an emancipatory process.

Haoluan Wang, Brent Swallow · 2015 AAEA & WAEA Joint Annual Meeting, July 26-28, San Francisco, California · Canada (Edmonton)

This research aims to assess the multiple values of agricultural land in the Alberta Capital Region, Canada, where significant agricultural land conversion has occurred. The study's objectives are to estimate residents' values for conserving land in different agricultural uses, explore links between these values and residents' affinity for ecosystem goods and services, and identify public interest areas for agricultural conservation. The methodology began with focus group discussions.

V. Ernesto Mendez, Christopher M. Bacon, Roseann Cohen, Stephen R. Gliessman · Agroecology · United States

This chapter discusses the rise of movements for just and sustainable food systems in the United States over the last 15 years, encompassing areas like urban agriculture and food sovereignty. It notes that while most practitioners in US alternative agrifood movements do not use the term "agroecology," they share similar principles. The chapter also describes the evolution of agroecology from a farm-scale focus to a systems-based, transdisciplinary approach for sustainable food systems.

Mélissa Jean · Refugee Survey Quarterly · United States

A qualitative study using participant observation and in-depth interviews examined the role of farming activities in the place-making processes of 30 refugees participating in a local urban farming program in Salt Lake City, Utah, USA, after resettlement. Seventeen of the participants, from Burundi, Sudan, Bhutan, the Republic of Congo, the Democratic Republic of the Congo, Chad and Cuba, took part in in-depth interviews, which showed farming activities embodying both assimilation and resistance post-transition, leading to the conclusion that continued access to agricultural activity carries material and emotional benefits for refugees with agrarian backgrounds.

Melanie Clark · Educational Media Reviews Online · United States

This is a review of Growing Cities, a 2013 documentary film (92 minutes) directed by Dan Susman and produced by Susman, Andrew Monbouquette, and Dana Altman. The film follows the two filmmakers' journey from their hometown of Omaha across the United States—to San Francisco, Detroit, New York, New Orleans, and Austin—surveying urban farms, noting that U.S. urban farming culture traces to World War II Victory Gardens, when 40 percent of the country's vegetables were produced in home and community gardens; it profiles New York's rooftop farms as adaptive reuse, a Detroit farm in an area where healthy food is hard to obtain, farms employing people who would otherwise struggle to find work, and a New Orleans farm functioning as a program for at-risk youth, closing with the filmmakers' own mobile garden project and the message to "grow where you are."

CBC News · CBC News · Canada

This 2 October 2015 CBC News article reports that Common Roots Urban Farm, in its fourth year on the site of the former Queen Elizabeth High School in Halifax (obtained through a land swap with the former Capital Health Authority), offers 175 community garden plots and a 'nibble garden' open to anyone, and grows food for the Parker Street Food Bank. Facing a funding shortfall as traditional revenue streams dried up, the farm launched a fundraising drive—including a contemplative guided walk and a 1 November harvest party—aiming to raise $8,000 CAD by the end of October.

Anne Pfeiffer, Erin Silva, Jed B. Colquhoun · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · United States

A project centered at the University of Wisconsin-Madison gathered data through site visits and interviews with urban agricultural organizations in seven US cities. It examined how structural and strategic food system factors shape urban agricultural efforts, considering diverse business and production models. The study discusses unique innovations in space-intensive agricultural production and assesses significant challenges facing urban agriculture.

Amanda Nichols Hess, Annie Larson, D. D. Gilbertson, Elizabeth Cerny · University of Minnesota Digital Conservancy (University of Minnesota) · United States (Rosemount)

This report and presentation were completed by students enrolled in SUST 4004: Sustainable Communities, taught by Samantha Grover and Amir Nadav in fall 2014.

de Vries, Arianna · · United States (New Jersey)

This study investigated three large-format suburban community gardens, each with over one hundred plots, in Central New Jersey, United States. Using geospatial mapping, on-site observation, and interviews with coordinators and gardeners, the research explored participation reasons and the suburban conditions fostering these gardens. It found that suburban gardeners participate for reasons similar to their urban counterparts, but the suburban context significantly shapes how these motivations are defined and described.

Judy Egeland · UNI ScholarWorks (University of Northern Iowa) · United States (Postville)

This oral history project recording features Judy Egeland, a master gardener and Vice President of the Diversity Council in Postville, United States. Egeland, who moved to Postville in 1970, was instrumental in establishing a community garden and a school garden in the rural town. The community garden is noted for bringing together people from diverse backgrounds.

Freeman Wu · · United States (Chicago)

This graduation project proposes an urban farming theme restaurant located in an abandoned industrial area in South Chicago. The design strategy focuses on using urban farming to activate the vacant site. The proposed building is an urban farming themed restaurant.

Erin Silva, Fengxia Dong, Paul D. Mitchell, John Hendrickson · Renewable Agriculture and Food Systems · United States (Wisconsin)

A survey of Wisconsin-certified organic vegetable farmers investigated the relationships between farm characteristics, marketing strategies, and farmers' perceptions of profitability and quality of life. The data indicated that farmers selling into farmers' markets and through community-supported agriculture (CSA) were more likely to be dissatisfied with their profitability. Conversely, farmers selling into wholesale markets and restaurants/institutions were significantly more likely to be dissatisfied with their quality of life.

Jeanne Simonelli, Stephanie Paladino · Culture Agriculture Food and Environment · United States

This issue focuses on the movement to reintegrate food production into the civic, moral, and economic life of communities. Specifically, it highlights a qualitative study on the perceived benefits of community gardening in Baltimore, Maryland. The study explores the benefits to individuals, neighborhoods, and the city, suggesting these can be used as urban planning tools for developing healthy urban environments.