Research & reports
Peer-reviewed research and reports on community urban agriculture, food education, composting, welfare and more.
Theme
Critical findings
7626 results(91 / 306)
Implementation of Urban Farming to Achieve Sustainable Development Goals (SDGs) in Sampangan Sub-District
2023Siti Asiah, Eva Banowati, Erni Suharini · International Journal of Research and Review · Indonesia
A study examining the implementation of urban farming to achieve Sustainable Development Goals in the Sampangan sub-district of Semarang City, Indonesia. Focusing on the Puspitasari Women Farming Group and Mina Garden Spirit Farming Group under the city's "Ayo Nandur" (Let's Garden) program, using purposive sampling with observation, interviews, documentation and questionnaires, the study found that urban farming — applying environmentally friendly use of yards — contributed to fulfilling family nutrition, increasing income, and improving welfare through community participation, while strengthening the groups into independent organizations.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceWelfareRural politics in undemocratic times: Exploring the emancipatory potential of small rural initiatives in authoritarian Hungary
2023Noémi Gonda, Péter József Bori · Geoforum · Europe
A study using the case of Hungary examined how agricultural initiatives such as Community Supported Agriculture, permaculture, and small-scale and regenerative farming relate to sustainable rural politics under an authoritarian regime. Based on qualitative interviews conducted in Hungary, it identifies three rural pillars sustaining the Hungarian authoritarian regime — unequal land relations, agricultural subsidies, and agricultural commodity sales — and proposes emancipatory alliances, counter-knowledge claims, and emancipatory subjectivities as potential rural pillars of sustainable democracy in response.
PolicyCommunityFood sovereignty & justiceHospital-Based Community Gardens as a Strategic Partner in Addressing Community Health Needs
2023Daniel R. George, Amy E. Ethridge · American Journal of Public Health · United States
A US article on nonprofit hospitals' community health needs assessments notes they are identifying a high prevalence of chronic diseases linked to poor diets, and have responded with nutrition-related initiatives such as farmers' markets and community gardens. It describes diverse strategies undertaken by the hospital-based community garden at Penn State Milton S. Hershey Medical Center, and offers implications and implementation guidance for other US hospitals.
CommunityHealthWelfarePerspective Chapter: How Important is Urban Farming in Indonesia to Support Food Sovereignty?
2023Arini Putri Hanifa, Eka Triana Yuniarsih, Retna Qomariah, Nurmalinda, Yopi Saleh, Yati Haryati, Indarti Puji Lestari, Susi Lesmayati · IntechOpen eBooks · Indonesia
A book chapter discusses the urban farming movement in Indonesia across five topics: trends in yard utilization and food provision policy, the importance of urban farming in society, community perception and involvement, the pandemic's impact on household food security and supply chains, and government strategy for sustaining participatory urban farming. In the Indonesian context, urban farming is defined as cultivating food crops, vegetables, fruit, herbs, and medicinal or ornamental plants combined with fish and poultry, on home yards, office yards, school gardens and communal gardens. It concludes that the sustainability of urban farming still requires government assistance and intervention plus private-sector involvement through corporate social responsibility, and that government must support both policy and physical infrastructure to build business partnership networks between producers and market actors.
Food sovereignty & justiceCommunityPolicyWelfareFood education農協の組合員組織活動による 地域農業の振興 ーJA大阪中河内，柏原ハウスぶどう出荷組合の事例を中心にー
2023王 文倩, 大島一二 · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Japan
A paper on the Kashiwabara House Grape Shippers Association, a member organization of JA Osaka Nakakawachi in Japan, examines what activities the member organization undertakes to demonstrate the cooperative's organizational strength, its functions and issues, and its future direction, based on a review of prior research and field interviews. JA Osaka Nakakawachi has natural conditions suitable for agricultural production but has been strongly affected by the urbanization of Osaka Prefecture; as a result, its agricultural management has developed in the form of urban agriculture, with farmland and management scale considerably smaller than the national average. Its main agricultural products are vegetables and fruit trees such as grapes.
CommunityPolicyEconomicsEfektivitas Pertanian Perkotaan (Urban Farming) dalam Mitigasi Urban Heat Island di Kawasan Perkotaan
2023Christian Nindyaputra Octarino · ATRIUM - Jurnal Arsitektur · Indonesia
A study examined how effective urban farming and greenery integrated into a residential area are at maintaining microclimate quality, using field measurement and ENVI-MET simulation in the Tompeyan district of Yogyakarta, Indonesia. The results show vegetation in outdoor spaces has a significant effect on surface and air temperature. The ENVI-MET simulation showed an increase in the thermal comfort index in vegetated areas, although it had not yet reached the ideal value.
CommunityClimate changePolicyEdible landscape: Key factors determining consumers’ commitment and willingness to accept opportunity cost and risk of foraged food
2023Meike Rombach, David Dean · Frontiers in Horticulture · Global
A study on urban food foraging examines key factors determining consumers' willingness to try foraged food, spend time and effort on it, accept risk, and commit to food foraging. A conceptual model — in which general perceptions of nature, food foraging, and COVID-19 shape three specific attitudes toward food foraging, which in turn drive four behavioral intentions — was tested using partial least squares structural equation modelling. Results show the strongest drivers of willingness to try are approval of responsible foraging activities and individual benefits of foraging. For willingness to spend extra time and effort, all predictors had some impact. For willingness to accept risk, approval of responsible foraging activities and societal benefits were influential. For commitment to food foraging, individual and societal benefits were the most important drivers.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceFood educationFinding the friends of food security
2023Sabine O’Hara · · United States
A book chapter introduces the people behind new urban agriculture and food systems innovations emerging in cities across the United States. These innovators come from all walks of life, and the ways they envision and implement more decentralized urban and peri-urban food systems are as varied as the people themselves. Their stories raise questions about which food systems innovations are most likely to create win-win outcomes of improved food security and improved sustainability. A transformation of the conventional food system is already under way, even in cities with less than optimal growing conditions, but much more remains to be done.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceEconomicsPolicyThe Green Ring of Tradition and Culture in Łódź as an example of a strategic plan to protect and shape the landscape of a former industrial city
2023Maria Dankowska · Protection of cultural heritage · Poland
This study examines a design proposal, the Green Ring of Tradition and Culture, for a system of attractive spaces surrounding the city centre of Lodz, Poland, incorporating green areas such as parks and allotment gardens, greenery along the Lodka and Jasien rivers, cemeteries, and post-industrial buildings including factories and owners' villas, with Piotrkowska Street and its adjacent buildings serving as the connecting element. The Green Ring is currently not implemented but is presented as a system of public spaces that could highlight and preserve the city's most valuable cultural and natural heritage elements.
CommunityPolicyStrengthening the Character of Caring for the Environment in Elementary Schools through Ecoprint Artwork
2023Arief Setyo Nugroho, Bambang Sumardjoko, Anatri Desstya, Minsih Minsih, Choiriyah · International Journal of Elementary Education · Indonesia
This qualitative descriptive study examined strengthening environmental-care character through ecoprint artwork in Indonesian elementary schools, set against a backdrop of poorly tended school garden plants and littered food and drink packaging. Using interviews and observations with triangulation for validity and an interactive data collection-reduction-presentation-conclusion analysis, the study reports an 88.32% success rate for the ecoprint intervention in strengthening environmental care, with a secondary effect of awakening students' entrepreneurial spirit through producing leaf-motif paintings and cloth products.
Food educationCommunityWelfareStrategi dan Model Komunikasi Lingkungan Komunitas Makassar Berkebun Dalam Memperkenalkan Konsep Urban Agriculture Di Kota Makassar Sulawesi - Selatan
2023Febrianto Syam, Zulfiani Zulfiani, Sadhriany Pertiwi Saleh · Al-MUNZIR · Indonesia (Makassar)
This qualitative study examines the environmental communication strategies and models used by Makassar Berkebun, an urban farming community in Makassar, South Sulawesi, Indonesia, to introduce the concept of urban agriculture, drawing on interview and literature data analyzed descriptively through an environmental communication and urban agriculture framework. It finds the community applies four types of communication strategy, socialization, campaign, education and training, to realize its vision and mission, and that the communication model used is a mechanistic and interactional one based on David K. Berlo's (1960) and Schramm's (1954) communication models.
CommunityFood educationPolicyA systematic review of the ecological, social and economic sustainability effects of community-supported agriculture
2023Lukas Egli, Judith Rüschhoff, Joerg A. Priess · Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems · Global
A systematic review of quantitative empirical research on the sustainability effects of community-supported agriculture (CSA) covered 39 studies. Fewer than 30% of the studies assessed ecological sustainability aspects, but where CSA farms were compared to reference systems, they mostly performed better on resource use efficiency and greenhouse gas emissions. Most studies assessed social aspects; many showed that CSA still fails to reach low-income households, so members do not represent the average population, while CSA membership was associated with improved health and sustainability behavior. Economic variables were assessed in more than half of the studies, but knowledge of CSA's relative economic performance remains scarce, though early studies indicate high economic viability. The review calls for more research on ecological aspects specifically, comparisons across farming and marketing systems, and integration of knowledge from theses and practical sources in multiple languages.
Equity & displacementCSA & TeikeiCommunityEconomicsHealthPolicyBiodiversityRe-Thinking Knowledge in Community-Supported Agriculture to Achieve Transformational Change towards Sustainability
2023J. Meyer, Markus Hassler · Sustainability · Germany
A qualitative study applied the "leverage points" concept, which holds that rethinking how knowledge is produced and used within systems is a key lever for transformation toward sustainability, to community-supported agriculture (CSA), an application not previously made. Semi-structured interviews were conducted at 22 CSA farms in Germany to gather detailed insight into the production and flow of knowledge among stakeholders and to analyze the degree to which these CSAs hold potential to leverage transformational change toward sustainability. The data indicate that CSAs bear substantial potential to leverage sustainability transformation with regard to rethinking agriculture, with a highly cooperative, participatory and transparent structure identified as the characteristic that allows the creation and exchange of information to flourish.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityPolicyFood sovereignty & justiceCommunity Garden as a Context for Civic Ecology: A Multidisciplinary Project in Restoration and Environmental Education
2023Mary Leou, Tania Goicoechea, Bethany Kogut · Catholic education/Catholic education (Dayton, Ohio. Online) · United States (New York City)
A report on "Bees Alive!", a civic ecology program run over three years by the NYU Wallerstein Collaborative for Urban Environmental Education & Sustainability in Greenpoint, Brooklyn, New York. A university, public schools, non-profit organizations and the Lentol Garden community garden collaborated to establish a native-plant pollinator garden, funded by EPA Region 2, using place-based education and experiential learning theory to create an outdoor classroom that supports wildlife and teaches the public about pollinators.
CommunityFood educationPollinatorsBiodiversityHow Close Are You to Gestational Diabetes Mellitus?
2023Najma Abdullahi, Erika F. Werner, Patrick M. Vivier, Blythe Berger, Lauren Schlichting · PubMed · United States
A study using Rhode Island birth certificate data from 2015–2016 to evaluate whether proximity to food sources, rather than density, is associated with gestational diabetes mellitus (GDM) risk. Proximity analysis measured the distance from each pregnant person's home address to the nearest fast food restaurant, supermarket, and farmers market/community garden, and multivariable logistic regression tested the association between distance and GDM risk. Of 20,129 births meeting inclusion criteria, 7.2% (1,447) involved GDM. Distance to food sources varied by insurance type, education and race/ethnicity, but in the adjusted model there was no statistically significant association between distance to any food source and GDM.
HealthCommunityWelfareFood sovereignty & justicePerancangan Apartemen di Bandung Teknopolis: Arsitektur Berkelanjutan di Konteks Iklim Tropis
2023Taufik Zarkasya Sastrawinata, Ilhamdaniah, Agara Dama Gaputra · Prosiding Temu Ilmiah · Indonesia
A report on an apartment design project — a final-year architecture thesis at UPI — sited at Bandung Teknopolis within the Summarecon Bandung residential development in West Java, Indonesia. Located in a tropical climate, site analysis found that most of the solar exposure received from 9am to 5pm, east to west, was disadvantageous. The design applies sustainable landscaping, sun shading, cross ventilation, renewable energy through photovoltaic panels, an alternative water source via rainwater harvesting, and urban farming, with an environmental focus as the project's central sustainability strategy.
PolicyClimate changeCommunityUnveiling the importance of public gardens in resilience to climate change
2023Devisri S.S. Senthilkumar, Moumita Malakar · Climate Change and Environmental Sustainability · India
This review examines "public gardens" — green spaces holding diverse plant collections for public enjoyment, education, and biodiversity conservation — as a potential option for climate change hazard mitigation, drawing on recent built-environment interventions in non-agriculture-based rural cities in India that use urban gardening. It notes a deficit in public awareness and understanding of climate information and governance systems, including technical knowledge, and compiles knowledge on how urban gardening approaches feature in climate change programs that seek to legalize green infrastructure implementation.
Climate changeCommunityBiodiversityPolicyANALISIS DINAMIKA KELOMPOK WANITA TANI PERKOTAAN D’SHAFA KELURAHAN MALAKA SARI JAKARTA TIMUR
2023Shafira Ayuning Lestari, Dika Supyandi · MIMBAR AGRIBISNIS Jurnal Pemikiran Masyarakat Ilmiah Berwawasan Agribisnis · Indonesia (Jakarta)
All 11 members of the D'Shafa women farmer group — a model group for urban agriculture development in Malaka Sari, East Jakarta, Indonesia — were surveyed in a qualitative descriptive study analyzing the group's dynamics. All eight group dynamics elements analyzed showed active results, with a total score of 1,203 (95.93%), and the elements of group structure, group cohesiveness, and group atmosphere achieved the maximum scores, indicating that organized structure and task distribution support solid, family-like interaction among members.
CommunityWelfareWhat does it mean for urban life to see livestock grazing in post-industrial American cities?
2023Tithi Sanyal, Geoffrey Thün, Fabian Neuhaus, Natalie Robertson · Architecture_MPS · United States
An essay arguing that American urban dwellers cohabited with livestock in ecologically diverse cities until the nineteenth century, until late-nineteenth-century urban livestock policies and industrial agricultural transformation displaced livestock to urban fringes and rural areas, shaping present-day food access and food justice issues. Detroit passed its Urban Agriculture Ordinance in 2013, formalizing decades of community-driven urban agricultural practice. Using Detroit as a case, the piece presents a speculative urban design proposal - the Riverbend Farming Cooperative, a courtyard-based cooperative farm incorporating permaculture and animal husbandry within a former residential superblock - to examine the possibilities and challenges of urban development models built around cohabiting with livestock.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceCozinhando mudanças: o ato de cozinhar como ferramenta de enfrentamento aos desafios do Antropoceno
2023Gabriela Rigote, Alessandra Xavier Bueno, Marco Akerman · Saúde e Sociedade · Brazil (São Paulo)
A qualitative study of seven women urban farmers in the eastern zone of São Paulo, Brazil, describing and analyzing everyday cooking practices and their relationship to the food system. Using narrated body maps - a creative visual research method in which participants drew their own body outlines - the study generated visual and oral data on the meanings of cooking, analyzed thematically. It found that cooking functions as a connector from field to table, mutually reinforcing urban and peri-urban agriculture practices, and serves as a tool promoting biopsychosocial wellbeing tied to social, economic and environmental sustainability.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justiceHealthAdoption of smart urban farming to enhance social and economic well-being ofelderly: a qualitative content analysis
2023Nasreen Khan, Teck Chai Lau, Booi Chen Tan · Food Research · Global
A qualitative content analysis examining social entrepreneurship and adoption factors behind smart urban farming among elderly people. Interviews were conducted via purposive sampling and analyzed using the framework method, drawing on diffusion of innovation theory and the theory of planned behavior. It found that positive attitudes and positive social influence increase adoption of smart urban farming, that using technology can help elderly farmers continue farming, and that effective social entrepreneurship involvement - providing information and technical advice - influenced adoption. Ease of use was the most important adoption factor, with attitude and subjective norms also shown to be influential.
ElderlyCommunityDigital agricultureWelfareAttributes that Influence Consumers’ Preferences for Choosing Locally Grown Food Sources During and After the COVID-19 Pandemic
2023Frank Seo, Darren Hudson · Journal of Agricultural and Applied Economics · United States
To identify attributes that influenced consumers' choice of locally grown food sources during and after the COVID-19 pandemic, this US study estimated willingness to pay (WTP) across sources. Respondents valued Freshness, Accessibility, Variety, and Risk Shift attributes, in that order. Community-supported agriculture (CSA) had the lowest WTP among the sources examined, and respondents weighted CSAs' general weaknesses more heavily than their advantages when choosing where to buy. However, increasing levels of community outreach positively affected the probability of choosing CSAs over other sources.
CSA & TeikeiCommunityEconomicsFood miles & supply chainCommitting to change? A case study on volunteer engagement at a New Zealand urban farm
2023Daniel Kelly · Agriculture and Human Values · New Zealand
This case study examines volunteer engagement at Farm X, an urban farm with a strong volunteer culture in Tāmaki-Makaurau Auckland, New Zealand's largest city, drawing on extended researcher participation and 11 in-depth interviews with volunteers and project coordinators. Engagement was helped by strong leadership, learning by doing, socializing around plants, and a sense of contributing to a movement. It was hindered by time scarcity, economic hurdles, and struggles over direction. Building on McClintock's (2014) account of the hybrid and contradictory nature of urban agriculture as a tool for social change, the paper identifies two trade-offs in both farm management and movement-building at Farm X: focused leadership versus volunteer agency, and asking more versus less of volunteers.
CommunityFood sovereignty & justicePerancangan Animasi Eksplainer Berseri Budidaya dengan Metode Self-Watering System untuk Usia Remaja
2023Fadhilah Ramadhana, Nurina Orta Darmawati · Jurnal Sains dan Seni ITS · Indonesia
Gardening in densely populated areas — urban farming — has been widely practiced among urban communities using narrow plots or home yards, a trend that gained further interest during the pandemic, though facilities and costs pose challenges. The self-watering system method is presented as a solution using easily available tools and materials that can be implemented independently. Public knowledge, particularly among teenagers, about the benefits of medicinal plants is described as still minimal. To introduce cultivation via an accessible method, this design research combined observation of the self-watering system, experimental study, in-depth interviews with a gardening community, comparative study of similar videos, and literature review for secondary data, producing an explainer animation. The output is a two-part series: the first episode explains the self-watering system method overall, and the second explains its application using two wild medicinal plants. The video content covers the self-watering cultivation method, plant profiles, and the edible or medicinal parts of the plants, and is to be distributed via YouTube.
Food educationDIYCommunityRegenerative Food Forest: A Case Study of Vanya Organic Farm
2023Poonam Bewtra · Current Agriculture Research Journal · India
Food forests involve planned agroforestry. The abstract states that, like a real forest, a food forest requires no pesticides, herbicides, weeding, crop rotation, mowing, or digging, and ensures the sustainability of flora, fauna, birds, animals, and particularly bees. This is a case study of one such food forest, Vanya Organic, realized by one of its owners, Mr. Patanjali Jha, who grew native trees, creepers, and shrubs in combination with symbiotic vegetation to maximize carbon sequestration, forest cover, and usable by-products. A key component is Vetiver grass, and Jha argues that food forests and vetiver plantations should be planned and established together, terming the combination a "Regenerative Food Forest." The abstract states that Compressed Bio Gas (CBG) or Renewable Natural Gas (RNG), described as a "green fuel," can be derived from the agricultural waste and other biomass that regenerative food forests produce in abundance; a CBG plant produces sulphur-stripped, automotive-grade methane along with a high-quality organic fertilizer by-product approved for regular use by the Ministry of Agriculture, and the abstract argues for linking CBG plants with regenerative food forests to provide jobs, increase farm incomes, and bring sustainable changes to air, water, and soil quality over time. The case study is stated to have been prepared with the owner's consent and approval.
BiodiversityOrganic cycleClimate changeCommunity