Research & reports

Gabriela Civeira Hermida · · Argentina

Peri-urban agroforestry — combining agricultural and forestry species on small urban plots — was evaluated for its potential to sequester carbon and produce electrical and thermal energy at the municipal level across the Buenos Aires Metropolitan Area (AMBA), Argentina. Carbon sequestration was estimated between 200 and 400,000 tonnes per year, thermal energy between 0.5 and 200 MJ depending on the hectares in each municipality, and electrical energy between 10 and 15,000 kW, leading to the conclusion that agroforestry can generate jobs, food, and bioenergy while reducing greenhouse gas emissions.

James Tolleson · Southern Anthropological Society Proceedings · United States

This essay considers what may become of a manufacturing city like Detroit, once called the "arsenal of democracy," after being abandoned by industry, asking whether such cities can be rebuilt and redefined as models of self-reliant, sustainable, multicultural twenty-first-century communities, and situates Detroit's urban agriculture movement within that food-justice framing.

Duncan Hilchey · Journal of Agriculture Food Systems and Community Development · United States

This 2015 editorial for the Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems and Community Development introduces the issue's articles, describing them as addressing barriers and limitations of local and regional food initiatives while also presenting opportunities and strategies. It highlights pieces including John Ikerd's proposed 'Food Ethic,' a viewpoint on local food, food democracy and food hubs, a paper on the limits of urban agriculture to deliver food, job training and income without outside funding, a study of municipal ordinances governing backyard slaughter, and an analysis of how farmers' market ownership structures affect market conduct.

Georges Courade · Recherches Internationales · Africa

This essay examines the food challenge facing an increasingly populous and urbanized Africa, worsened by land grabs for biofuels and food production destined elsewhere, climate change and speculative management of food security; it states a quarter of Africans, and more than a third of young children, remain malnourished. It argues that responses from peasant agriculture untouched by the green revolution are insufficient, but points to paths toward food sovereignty: agricultural policy favoring family farms, urban agriculture, diversified agroecological models, stock-based food policy, and peasant organizations.

Charlotte Flink, Jenny Persson · · Europe

This thesis examines whether Community Supported Agriculture (CSA), as an alternative food production model, can promote sustainable urban and rural development in Sweden, using a Triple Bottom Line (economic, environmental, social) framework across two parts: a literature review and a quantitative participant survey at the CSA farm Stackvallen. The literature review indicated CSA operations can contribute to sustainable societal development through economic stimulus and environmentally sound food supply, while the participant survey found respondents rated the social aspects low and valued the health and environmental aspects more highly.

Simon Meisch · ·

A paper arguing, via the social philosophers Michael Sandel and Alan Gewirth, that sustainable food production and consumption require substantial public debate on their aims and social organisation. It reviews debates over different food regimes and different institutional settings, consumer information/certification versus participatory approaches such as community-supported agriculture, and contends that public debate can be guided by moral principles that carry universal claims while remaining open to different ways of life.

Ashley Tryba · · United States

A paper on community gardens and urban farms in underserved and gentrifying areas of redevelopment in the United States combines case studies, interviews, quantitative analysis of land values, comparative analysis of vacant land policies, urban archival news documents and photographs, and empirical models of urban land use and food distribution. It states that urban agricultural programs rarely alleviate the pressures of food insecurity on a large scale, while showing that community food gardens function as an oasis from the food insecurity, violence and sexual harassment that urban areas often pose. The qualitative data support existing literature indicating that, if maintained, community agricultural projects produce social, economic, environmental and physical health benefits, and the paper argues that with government support, these small grassroots programs can have larger societal impacts.

Roberto Aguilera Peña · OBSERVATÓRIO DE LA ECONOMÍA LATINOAMERICANA · Colombia

This paper argues that an "integral farm" (granja integral) functions as a life project for families in rural communities and in the large cities of Ecuador and elsewhere, offering not only improved nutrition but also an opportunity to live in harmony with nature while conserving and preserving the environment without significant impacts on ecosystem components or biocenosis. Urban gardens are described as contributing to community food provision while also creating business opportunities, and the paper argues for the importance of building alliances between small food producers on integral farms and supermarkets. It describes supermarkets as a distribution channel with growing demand, with much of the fresh food supply coming from urban or rural family and community gardens applying good agricultural practices, creating opportunities for sustainable strategic alliances.

惠子 重冨, Keiko Shigetomi · Institutional Repositories DataBase (IRDB) · Global

This paper examines the transformation of the integrated harmony system in the indigenous Andean worldview of the Central Andes — combining "harmony with nature" and "harmony among communities," historically centered on llama caravans — as it erodes under modernization, urbanization, industrialization and mass consumerism. As the market economy gains importance, indigenous peasants are converted into agricultural producers, and mutual relations among rural communities give way to an increasingly invisible relationship between producers and consumers; yet the paper also identifies an emerging tendency toward solidarity between producers and consumers that values both ecological and social sustainability while using the market. It cites Ecological Agriculture promoted by the Asociación de Organizaciones de Productores Ecológicos de Bolivia (AOPEB) and Urban Agriculture promoted by the FAO as examples of this new trend toward harmonic integration.

Bernd Pölling, Hans Wydler, Denise Kemper, Dona Pickard, Biancamaria Torquati, Óscar Alfranca, Wolf Lorleberg, Pedro Mendes‐Moreira, Giulia Giacchè, A. Spornberger, André Luis Alves Miguel, María José Prados Velasco, H. Weissinger, Axel Timpe, Lea Deborah Egloff, Bruno Ronchi, Paola Branduini, Gunilla Andersson, Oleg Paulen, Luís Neves, Avigail Heller, Xavier Recasens, E. Alves, Kristine Herkströter, J.W. van der Schans, Galina Koleva · RWTH Publications (RWTH Aachen) · Global

The available text for this RWTH Aachen publication consists only of a list of contributing authors — Pölling, Alfranca, Alves, Andersson, Branduini and numerous others — with no methods, findings or conclusions stated.

Andrea D. Isogai, Erin Alexiuk, Holly Gardner, Daniel D. McCarthy, Vicky Edwards, Leonard J. S. Tsuji, Nicole Spiegelaar · The International Journal of Social Sustainability in Economic Social and Cultural Context · Canada

This article by authors Andrea D. Isogai, Erin Alexiuk, Holly Gardner, Daniel McCarthy, Vicky Edwards, Leonard J. S. Tsuji and Nicole Spiegelaar was published in The International Journal of Social Sustainability in Economic, Social, and Cultural Context. No further details of the study's content are given in the available abstract.

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."

Secretaría Distrital de Ambiente de Bogotá · Observatorio Ambiental de Bogotá · Colombia

The Bogotá Environmental Observatory reported on 11 September 2015 that the city, via Acuerdo 605 de 2015, established guidelines to institutionalize a sustainable, low-cost Urban and Peri-urban Agroecological Agriculture program. The program includes eight farming systems -- vertical agriculture, biointensive systems, floating roots, raised beds, agricultural recycling, family farming, biological fertilizer production and biocontrol preparation -- coordinated by the District Secretariat of Environment together with the José Celestino Mutis Botanical Garden and the Secretariats of Social Integration, Economic Development, Government and Health.

Anne Thebo, Pay Drechsel, Éric F. Lambin · Environmental Research Letters · Global

This study used spatial overlay analysis of global cropland and urban extent data to estimate the global area of urban and peri-urban irrigated and rainfed croplands. Urban irrigated croplands were estimated at approximately 24 Mha (11.0% of all irrigated croplands) with a cropping intensity of 1.48. Urban rainfed croplands were estimated at about 44 Mha (4.7% of all rainfed croplands) with a cropping intensity of 1.03. Additionally, 60% of all irrigated croplands and 35% of all rainfed croplands were found within 20 km of urban extents.

Kubi Ackerman, Michael Conard, Patricia J. Culligan · RePEc: Research Papers in Economics · Global

This multi-year study by the Urban Design Laboratory at the Earth Institute assessed urban agriculture in New York City (NYC). It presented metrics on potential growing capacity, surveyed NYC urban farmers on production challenges, and monitored a commercial rooftop farm in Brooklyn. The study aimed to provide insight into urban agriculture's role in creating sustainable food systems for NYC and other cities.

Chiara Tornaghi · Progress in Human Geography · Global

This paper defines the scope and an initial agenda for a critical geography of urban agriculture, noting that despite growing interest across disciplines, it remains a marginal field in human geography. Beyond rhetoric, urban agriculture raises questions for critical geographers, particularly regarding its role in reshaping urban landscapes and experimenting with alternatives to capitalist urban organization. The paper highlights that urban agriculture is sometimes establishing embryonic forms of recreating the Commons.

Carey Clouse · · Cuba (Havana)

Following the collapse of the Soviet Union in the early 1990s, Cuba developed a significant urban agriculture initiative. By 1998, Havana alone had over 8,000 urban farms, producing nearly half of the country's vegetables. This grassroots effort evolved into the largest sustainable agriculture program, establishing Cuba as a world leader in urban farming.

Sarah Schindler · Faculty publications · Global

This article explores unauthorized actions in urban and suburban communities that further local food goals, despite violating existing laws and norms. Examples include keeping chickens, planting gardens on foreclosed lots, and operating underground restaurants. The study examines the overlap between food policy and land use law concerning these transgressive activities.

Izeldin A. Babiker · Journal of animal research · Saudi Arabia

This study aims to characterize the diversity of camel production systems in Saudi Arabia, with a focus on peri-urban camel production. Socio-economic changes post-petroleum era led Bedouins to settle in urban areas, increasing demand for camel milk from an urbanized population. This stimulated the development of peri-urban camel dairy production, which the study seeks to describe in terms of production orientation, resource endowments, and strategies.

Laura-Anne Minkoff-Zern · Antipode · United States

Research on farmworker food insecurity in the USA points out that food assistance providers often treat farmworkers' inability to afford healthy food as a lack of knowledge, reinforcing racialized assumptions that people of color do not know "good" food. This study argues that food security and healthy eating are not a matter of consumers making healthy "choices," but rather a matter of class-based and racial differences within the food system.

Olga Orlić · Etnološka tribina · Croatia

This paper presents research results on solidarity exchange groups in Zagreb County, Croatia. These groups are described as an alternative form of direct food procurement, primarily organic, from producers. They promote ecological food production, foster equal partnerships between buyers and producers, and build solidarity and trust among people.

Zogo Ndomo, Yannick Emmanuel · Bulletin of animal health and production in Africa · Global

Urban agriculture in developing countries is a vital asset in the livelihood strategies of urban households, having expanded rapidly over the last two decades and contributing to income generation for unqualified workforces. However, the illegal status of urban agriculture has created a governance vacuum, necessitating policy formulation and institutionalized management to secure land for the urban poor and improve food security and the environment. Political leaders have a role in regulating this sector.

Rafaela Soto Ortíz, Michael Peña Smith, Idia Concepción, Islay García Hernández · Revista Científica Agroecosistemas · Cuba (Cienfuegos)

In Cienfuegos province, Cuba, limiting factors and seed production quality were identified through a non-experimental, longitudinal study from 2001 to 2012. The investigation revealed a decreasing trend in seed production levels and genetic erosion at the Company of Several Seeds in Cienfuegos, with basic seed categories declining and producers lacking necessary knowledge. Productive infrastructure, resource availability, climate change impacts, and insufficient knowledge were identified as key limiting factors.

Dorottya Szabó, Szabó, Dorottya · AgEcon Search (University of Minnesota, USA) · Hungary

This study examines the situation of short supply chains (SSC) in Hungary. It highlights that developing SSC in Hungary is not an easy task, as small farmers typically have weak cooperation and lobbying skills. While traditional direct marketing is common, innovative forms of SSC are rare.

O. A. Odusina, C. A. Afolami, S. Momoh · · Nigeria (Ibadan)

This study in Ibadan, Nigeria, assessed household food access and diversity across 180 households during harvest and hunger periods using structured questionnaires. Findings indicated significantly better food access during harvest (HFIAS 5.23-7.01) compared to hunger periods (HFIAS 9.75-11.77), though adequate access was maintained in both. Dietary diversity also decreased from an average of 3 food groups during harvest to 2.54 during hunger periods, a significant difference (p<0.01).