Research & reports

California State Legislature · California Legislative Information · United States

California's AB-551 (enacted 2013-2014 session) allows local governments to establish Urban Agriculture Incentive Zones, letting landowners enter contracts of at least five years to have land used for agriculture assessed at the lower value based on the state's average irrigated farmland value, rather than market value. Eligible parcels must be between 0.10 and 3 acres, dwellings are prohibited on the property while under contract, and new contracts originally had to begin by January 1, 2019.

City of Chicago, Department of Planning and Development · City of Chicago, Department of Planning and Development · United States

The Chicago Department of Planning and Development publishes a dataset and map of the location, satellite imagery, and square footage of green roofs citywide, derived from high-resolution multispectral imagery acquired in September 2013. The analysis identified 509 vegetated roofs within city limits totaling 5,564,412 square feet of coverage.

Aleenah Mehta · Undergraduate Journal of Service Learning & Community-Based Research · United States

Framed around the argument that obesity and food insecurity in the United States are increasingly understood as conjoined rather than mutually exclusive problems, this paper introduces the Fruit of Folks Project as an urban farming response to local hunger. The abstract notes that the industrial food model's emphasis on producing ever greater quantities of food can itself threaten food security, defined as a person's or community's access at all times to enough food for an active, healthy life.

Grewal S., Grewal P. · Cities · Cleveland, United States

Using Cleveland as a post-industrial case study, three maximal scenarios achieved food self-reliance of only 4.2-17.7% by weight and 1.8-7.3% by expenditure, showing even ambitious urban production can supply only a small share of a city's food needs.

Scherb A., Palmer A., Frattaroli S., Pollack K. · Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development · USA

National survey of US food policy councils describing their engagement in the policy process. Finds that although councils include policy goals in their missions, their actual engagement in and impact on the policy process is very limited, exposing a gap between stated ambition and delivery.

Winifred Curran, Trina Hamilton · Local Environment · USA (Brooklyn, NYC)

Coins 'just green enough' by showing how conventional green-amenity planning triggers environmental gentrification and displacement of working-class residents; argues greening policy must be deliberately constrained to avoid the speculative development it otherwise unleashes.

Efrat Eizenberg · International Journal of Urban and Regional Research · USA (New York City)

After the Giuliani-era threat to NYC gardens, land-trust/NGO 'rescue' models became the governance solution; the paper shows how this institutionalization altered community space—trading grassroots autonomy for managerial control and revealing the trade-offs of the policy fix.

Annie Crane, Leela Viswanathan, Graham Whitelaw · Local Environment · Canada (Kingston, Ontario)

This paper examines guerrilla gardening as an example of sustainability in action, using participatory action research methods. Two case studies were developed in Kingston, Ontario: Dig Kingston, a guerrilla gardening project, and the Oak Street Community Garden. The research found that interventions like guerrilla gardening open up unexpected possibilities for conceptualizing sustainability and contribute to producing engaging and sustainable communities.

Pierre Walter · Environmental Education Research · United States

This paper argues that community gardens in the North American food movement serve as rich non-school sites for informal adult learning, despite being under-researched in environmental education. It proposes applying theories of public pedagogy and social movement learning from Adult Education to frame the study of learning within these gardens. The paper reviews empirical research on the benefits of community garden participation to illustrate the potential for further research on the link between learning and these benefits.

Kathryn Colasanti, Michael W. Hamm, Charlotte M. Litjens · Urban Geography · United States (Detroit)

This research explores perceptions of expanding urban agriculture in Detroit, Michigan, through semi-structured interviews and focus groups. While revealing widespread support for urban agriculture as a strategy for food security and urban sustainability, the study highlights contested aspects regarding the extent to which it should occur, its purpose, and the people it would involve.

Joseph N. Cohen, S. Gearhart, Elizabeth Garland · Journal of Hunger & Environmental Nutrition · United States (New York City)

A prospective cohort study in New York City investigated whether Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) participation increased fruit and vegetable consumption and home-cooked meals. Among 583 individuals who completed both surveys, CSA members showed a statistically significant increase of 2.2 servings of fruit and vegetables per week and 4.9 home-cooked meals per month compared to non-members. CSA participation was also associated with subjective reports of increased fruit and vegetable consumption.

Kevin C. Matteson, Gail Langellotto · Cities and the Environment · United States (New York City)

This study used mark-recapture and translocation experiments to assess the residency and movement of the urban butterfly, Pieris rapae, within and among community gardens in New York City. While most marked butterflies used gardens transiently, recruitment and residence time were higher in larger gardens and those with more flowers. The study demonstrated the butterfly's ability to move through developed landscapes and locate floral resources.

Nathan McClintock, Heather Wooten, Alethea Brown · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States (California)

This 2012 reflective case study documented the efforts of the Oakland Food Policy Council (OFPC) in Oakland, California, to develop recommendations for urban agriculture zoning. Despite popular interest in urban agriculture, zoning often acts as an obstacle to its expansion. The OFPC faced obstacles in gaining the attention of city officials and advancing its policy agenda for new zoning definitions and operating standards for urban agriculture.

Community Gardening Works! ACGA 2011 Conference, Carolin Mees, Edie Stone · Cities and the Environment · United States

This abstract discusses the rapid expansion of the community gardening movement in US urban areas. It highlights the potential for urban agriculture planning to turn against its original community-driven roots, as suggested by the title. The movement began over 30 years ago, with residents creating gardens on abandoned land, supported by programs like New York City's GreenThumb.

Alan Hunt, Gary C. Matteson · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States

Agricultural producers are diversifying their marketing channels, but the U.S. Census of Agriculture primarily tracks only direct-to-consumer sales, organic sales, and community supported agriculture farms. This paper proposes that administrative reporting changes in the 2012 census and the introduction of new questions for the 2017 census can improve observations on marketing channel usage at both farm-level and sector-level with greater precision.

Jennifer Dean · Educational Media Reviews Online · United States (Detroit)

The documentary "We Are Not Ghosts" tells the story of Detroit through interviews, focusing on the city's future and revitalization initiatives like urban farming. However, according to the review, the film glosses over the city's troubles and attempts to cover too many issues in 52 minutes, resulting in a lack of appropriate analysis for any single issue. It is described as serving more as a promotional video for Detroit than an academic one.

Barry E. Smith · · Canada

The British Columbia Farmland Preservation Program, established by the Land Commission Act on April 18, 1973, aims to preserve the province's valuable farmland. This program has sustained economic and social benefits from agriculture, preserved community character, and maintained natural capital. The Agricultural Land Reserve (ALR) has also acted as an urban growth boundary, contributing to compact urban development and addressing land use conflicts.

Erica Giorda · · United States (Detroit)

This chapter examines the emergence of urban gardens and farms in Detroit, United States, as a grassroots response to urban decay and food deserts. It notes that while institutional support was initially limited, the number of gardens is growing, with over 300 community gardens and five self-identified farms operating. The study argues that Detroit's urban farmers envision the city's future as one of gardens, driven by concepts of food justice.

Redazione · TERRITORIO · United States

This paper presents the basic features of two urban farming projects in Milwaukee and Philadelphia aimed at solving the problem of food deserts in declining inner cities of the US rustbelt. It discusses the forms and relevance of convergences between food culture and food justice, relating them to the debate on the future of urban forms in these inner cities.

Nahed N. Mahrous · The Journal of Pediatrics · Canada (Hamilton)

This project investigated metal, bacteria, and corn root interactions in metal-contaminated soils from Blackfrairs Community Garden and a Hamilton home. It found that bacterial numbers were lower than in uncontaminated soils, and bioavailable metal concentrations increased over time. High concentrations of metals were detected in grains, with copper, iron, and manganese accumulating in rhizospheres, and zinc distributed throughout root tissue in Blackfrairs plants.

Joan Armon, Elizabeth Grassi · ePublications at Regis University (Regis University) · United States

This study describes two initiatives aimed at developing justice-oriented pre-service teachers. "Study Abroad in the Neighborhood" involves pre-service teachers visiting local families to learn Spanish language and culture. "Environmental Regeneration through Permaculture Food Gardens" focuses on pre-service teachers and children constructing school gardens linked to curriculum, food cultures, and health. These community contexts aim to enhance pre-service teachers' cultural and environmental awareness of local injustices.

· · United States (New York City)

In New York City, social workers and community organizers engage in environmental protection practices through community organizing aimed at creating and preserving green spaces. Much of this activism takes place within community gardens, which are recognized as spaces for social engagement, community building, and social justice-based activism.

Bruntfield, Jaclyn Rose · Scholars Archive - University at Albany (University at Albany, State University of New York) · United States (Columbia County, NY)

This abstract discusses the increased public scrutiny of food origins in the U.S. and the growing demand for alternatives to the mainstream food system, as evidenced by more farmers markets, organic products, and Community Supported Agriculture programs. It notes that post-WWII industrialization of food production, while providing inexpensive food, has potentially compromised people's relationships with food. Currently, only one percent of Americans identify farming as their primary occupation.

Alisson Amorim da Silva, Sammy Sidney, Rocha Matías, Rafaela Ribeiro de Souza, Roberto Lustosa Silva, Júlio César Azevedo Nóbrega · · Brazil

The effect of different percentages of cattle manure (0%, 20%, 40%, and 60%) on millet development was evaluated in a greenhouse at the community garden of Corrente city hall, Brazil. The percentage of cattle manure significantly affected the number of leaves, plant height, shoot dry mass, and main root length. A manure dose equivalent to 40% of the total substrate volume was found to provide nutrient amounts closer to the ideal for achieving maximum efficiency in millet's physical variables.

Siqing Chen · APCBEE Procedia · United States

This paper uses a housing development project in the United States to exemplify how civic agriculture can be integrated into urban development through forms like Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), kitchen gardens, and farmer's markets. This integration creates a local food web, enhancing civic engagement and welfare among residents, maintaining landscape authenticity, strengthening ecosystem services, reducing carbon footprint, and promoting long-term sustainability. Civic agriculture represents a transition in agricultural practice from large-scale commodity enterprises to small-scale, self-sustaining civic activities.