Urban Studies and Planning Commons^™

Advancing Social Equity And Promoting Black Self-Determination: A Community Garden Opportunity Plan For Richmond, Va, Alessandro U. Ragazzi

Master of Urban and Regional Planning Capstone Projects

Urban agriculture provides a variety of economic, environmental, and social benefits. Recognizing these benefits, the City of Richmond administers a community garden program known as “Richmond Grows Gardens.” Through this program, underutilized city properties are permitted for use as community gardens. However, an emerging concern is the potential for community gardens to perpetuate underlying structures of social and racial inequality through displacement and social exclusion. Considering these concerns, this plan investigates the implementation of community gardens in Richmond and establishes a methodology for ranking existing and available community garden sites based on the social and racial demographics of their surrounding …

How Well Is Urban Agriculture Growing In The Southern United States? Trends And Issues From The Perspective Of Urban Planners Regulating Urban Agriculture, Russell J. Fricano, Carla Davis

Urban and Regional Studies Institute Publications

In this study, we evaluate urban agriculture trends in 55 cities in the Southern United States. Our research is important for three reasons. First, as the geographic scope of urban agriculture research is limited mostly to Northeast and West Coast cities, we focus on the South, the fastest-growing U.S. Census region. Second, despite rapid growth, this region has also experienced the highest rate of poverty and food insecurity. Third, we surveyed urban planners who regulate and monitor urban agriculture sites, develop urban agriculture policies and programs, and advise local decision-makers. The study documents Southern urban agriculture changes between 2000 and …

Panel 1 Paper 1.3: Le Paysage Rural Patrimonial, Outil Et Projet Au Service De La Lutte Contre Le Réchauffement Climatique, Régis Ambroise

ISCCL Scientific Symposia and Annual General Meetings // Symposiums scientifiques et assemblées générales annuelles de l'ISCCL // Simposios científicos yy las Asambleas Generales Anuales

Cette intervention fait référence au paragraphe de la résolution19GA 2017/30 du Conseil International des Monuments et des Sites indiquant que « la 19° Assemblée générale de l’ICOMOS… salue l’adoption de l’accord de Paris et encourage tous les membres de l’ICOMOS à renforcer leurs efforts pour appuyer sa mise en œuvre et identifier les réponses qui s’appuient sur le patrimoine ou les paysages culturels… ». Elle prend l’exemple de la façon dont les paysages de terrasses ont été abordés ces dernières années dans trois situations différentes : en France, dans le Guizhou en Chine et dans le Priorat en Espagne.

En …

Degrowth Lessons From Cuba, Claire S. Bayler

International Development, Community and Environment (IDCE)

Cuba is the global leader in practicing agroecology, but agroecology is just one component of a larger climate-ready socio-economic system. Degrowth economics address the need to constrain our total global metabolism to within biophysical limits, while allowing opportunity and resources for "underdeveloped" countries to rebuild themselves under new terms. Degrowth recognizes the role of overdeveloped countries in surpassing the ecological limits of our planet at the cost of wellbeing for billions of dispossessed people within and between countries. Cuba's circumstances during and following the Special Period exemplify both sides of the degrowth scenario, as well as demonstrating policy and grassroots …

Stacking Functions: Identifying Motivational Frames Guiding Urban Agriculture Organizations And Businesses In The United States And Canada, Nathan Mcclintock, Michael Simpson

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

While a growing body of scholarship identifies urban agriculture's broad suite of benefits and drivers, it remains unclear how motivations to engage in urban agriculture (UA) interrelate or how they differ across cities and types of organizations. In this paper, we draw on survey responses collected from more than 250 UA organizations and businesses from 84 cities across the United States and Canada. Synthesizing the results of our quantitative analysis of responses (including principal components analysis), qualitative analysis of textual data excerpted from open-ended responses, and a review of existing literature, we describe six motivational frames that appear to guide …

Urban Agriculture And The Use Of Icts In Accessing And Disseminating Livestock Husbandry Information In Urban Areas Of Tanzania. A Review Of Related Literature., Consolata Angello 1

Library Philosophy and Practice (e-journal)

This review summarizes relevant research on the relevance of urban agriculture and how best various Information and Communication Technologies (ICTs) can be used in accessing and disseminating livestock husbandry information, in order to improve livestock husbandry practices in urban areas. Specifically, it reviews studies that have been conducted in relation to urban agricultural practices, the challenges of keeping livestock in urban areas and the solutions to overcome the challenges of urban livestock keeping. The review also discusses the extent of ICT integration in agriculture from a global perspective and specifically in Africa and Tanzania. The review focuses on the information …

Cultivating (A) Sustainability Capital: Urban Agriculture, Eco-Gentrification, And The Uneven Valorization Of Social Reproduction, Nathan Mcclintock

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Urban agriculture (UA), for many activists and scholars, plays a prominent role in food justice struggles in cities throughout the Global North, a site of conflict between use and exchange values, and rallying point for progressive claims to the right to the city. Recent critiques, however, warn of its contribution to gentrification and displacement. The use/exchange value binary no longer as useful an analytic as it once was, geographers need to better understand UA’s contradictory relations to capital, particularly in the neoliberal Sustainable City. To this end, I bring together feminist theorizations of social reproduction, Bourdieu’s “species of capital”, and …

Urban Garden, Where Art Thou? A Study Of Urban Agriculture In The Dallas Metropolitan Area, Jaronda Williams

MPA/MPP/MPFM Capstone Projects

Food security, the constant access to a variety of food at all times by everyone (USDA), is something not all Americans have the pleasure of experiencing. Beaulac et al. (2007) found evidence of disparities in food access by income and race. A neighborhood lacking access to food is what researchers in Scotland defined as food deserts in the 1990’s (Cummins and McIntyre 2002). Food deserts exist all across America leaving citizens with the hardship of deciding to travel for healthy food options or settle for the poor grocery option in their neighborhood. Millions of Americans are faced with this battle, …

The Farm In The City In The Recent Past: Thoughts On A More Inclusive Urban Historiography, Ruth Glasser

Urban and Community Studies Faculty Writing

The scholarly and journalistic literature usually treats urban agriculture as a new phenomenon, but it is a neglected dimension of urban history. Some U.S. cities, at least in the Northeast, had food-raising and processing practices not just in colonial times but right up until the relatively recent past. Three areas of history are explored that have mostly omitted discussion of city food production but nonetheless provide important frameworks to explore such production: urban development, agricultural, and immigrant history. Woven throughout this piece is evidence from a study of Waterbury, Connecticut. Local food production did not die when the Industrial Revolution …

From Empty Lot To Garden Plot: Urban Agriculture In Chula Vista, Jennifer E. Gutierrez

Undergraduate Honors Theses

This project is an exploration of how agriculture can be incorporated into the fabric of the city of Chula Vista, which has both uniquely urban and suburban areas. The proposal is to integrate agriculture as a design tool to reconnect to the city’s agricultural past and as a model for cities of the future. First, I discuss Chula Vista’s history and contemporary context, including demographics. I review the existing urban agriculture policies Chula Vista has and compare them to other cities in California. The second part of the project is concerned with how to choose and develop a site for …

Socio-Spatial Differentiation In The Sustainable City: A Mixed-Methods Assessment Of Residential Gardens In Metropolitan Portland, Oregon, Usa, Nathan Mcclintock, Dillon Mahmoudi, Michael Simpson, Jacinto Pereira Santos

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

As cities take center stage in developing and brokering strategies for sustainability, examining the uneven distribution of green infrastructure is crucial. Urban agriculture (UA) has gained a prominent role in urban greening and food system diversification strategies alike. Despite that it is the preeminent form of food production in North American cities, residential gardening has received little scholarly attention. Moreover, research on the intra-urban variability of home gardens is sparse. In this paper, we use a mixed-methods approach to assess the scale and scope of residential gardens in Portland, Oregon, a metropolitan region renowned for its innovations in sustainability. Using …

Urban Agriculture And Ecosystem Services: A Typology And Toolkit For Planners, Kathleen Doherty

Masters Theses

This thesis makes the connection between urban agriculture and a specific suite of ecosystem services and lays out a typology and toolkit for planners to take advantage of these ecosystem services. The services investigated here are: food production, water management, soil health, biodiversity, climate mitigation, and community development benefits. Research from a variety of fields was aggregated and synthesized to prove that urban agriculture can be beneficial for human as well as environmental health.

A set of urban agriculture typologies was generated to illustrate best practices to maximize a particular set of ecosystem services. The typologies are: production farm, stormwater …

Estimating Stormwater Runoff For Community Gardens In New York City, Mara Gittleman

Theses and Dissertations

While much of the literature cites community gardens as providing urban ecosystem services, there is very little research quantifying these benefits. This thesis compares the stormwater runoff rates of urban vacant lots, community gardens, and residential developments in New York City and evaluates community gardens as green infrastructure.

Food Policy: Urban Farming As A Supplemental Food Source, Bessie Didomenica

Walden Dissertations and Doctoral Studies

The distance between farms and cities and the limited access that some residents have to fresh foods can be detrimental to a city's capacity to feed people over time. This study addressed the under-studied topic of urban farming as a secondary food source, specifically by exploring the opportunities and limitations of urban farming in a large Northeastern city. Brundtland's food policy was the pivotal theory supporting food production to end global starvation, and was the link between environmental conservation and human survival. The research question for this study examined the potential food policy opportunities and limitations that assist urban farms …

Community Gardens To Fight Urban Youth Crime And Stabilize Neighborhoods, Art Mccabe

Education Faculty Publications

Chronic poor health within inner cities is usually the result of prolonged exposure to a multitude of health disparities. These disparities, are exacerbated by poverty, high unemployment, crime and youth violence. In many cases, these factors increase neighborhood instability and civic disengagement. Community garden programs can strengthen civic engagement and foster neighborhood stability, while simultaneously cutting down on youth violence. Community garden programs address the accumulation of health challenges in many ways and provide curative building blocks to deal with poor nutrition, obesity, diabetes, psychological disorders, and deficient growth of infants, substance abuse, civic detachment and suicide rate. Urban agriculture …

A Survey Of Urban Agriculture Organizations And Businesses In The Us And Canada: Preliminary Results, Nathan Mcclintock, Mike Simpson

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This report summarizes the results of an online survey, conducted during February and March 2013, of 251 groups involved with urban agriculture (UA) projects in approximately 84 cities in the US and Canada. This is only a preliminary report. As such, we present descriptive statistics rather than a interpretive analysis of the survey responses. Furthermore, it is important to recognize that these results are not necessarily representative of all urban agriculture businesses and organizations across North America. Nevertheless, these results point to certain trends and patterns that offer rich opportunities for further inquiry.

Our preliminary results reveal that the UA …

Cultivating Portlandia: A Mixed-Method Study Of Residential Urban Agriculture In Portland, Oregon, Nathan Mcclintock, Mike Simpson, Dillon Mahmoudi, Jacinto Pereira Santos

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Research Question:

• What is the scale and scope of residential urban agriculture (UA) in metro Portland?
• How does the practice of UA vary spatially?
• How do gardeners' motivations and practices vary along socioeconomic lines?

Urban Livestock Ownership, Management, And Regulation In The United States: An Exploratory Survey And Research Agenda, Nathan Mcclintock, Esperanza Pallana, Heather Wooten

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

As interest in urban agriculture sweeps the country, municipalities are struggling to update, code to meet public demands. The proliferation of urban livestock—especially chickens, rabbits, bees, and goats—has posed particular regulatory challenges. Scant planning scholarship on urban livestock focuses mostly on how cities regulate animals, but few studies attempt to characterize urban livestock, ownership and management practices in the US in relation to these regulations. Our study addresses this gap. Using a web-based survey distributed via a snowball technique, we received responses from 134 livestock owners in 48 US cities, revealing the following: why they keep livestock; what kind of, …

Baltimore And The Cherry Hill Urban Garden: Tearing Down And Building Up The Physical And Imaginative Spaces Of Post-Industrial Urban Food Systems, Rebecca L. Croog

Student Publications

The tide is changing in food research and food movements. Both academic thought and grassroots mobilization have demonstrated a shift beyond merely the problems of industrial food, and toward an emphasis on issues of justice and equity within food systems (Sloccum, 2006; Alkon & Agyeman, 2011; Sbicca, 2012; Agyeman & McEntee, 2013). In examining the contemporary case of the Farm Alliance of Baltimore City, which is “a network of producers working to increase the viability of urban farming and improve access to urban grown foods, united by practices and principles that are socially, economically, and environmentally just” (Farm Alliance website, …

Growing Food To Grow Cities? The Potential Of Agriculture For Economic And Community Development In The Urban United State, Laura Wolf-Powers

Laura Wolf-Powers

Cultivating An Opportunity: Access And Inclusion In Seattle's Community Gardens, Alice K. Opalka

Scripps Senior Theses

This thesis explores the social dynamics of community gardens and their participation within them in the contemporary food justice movement in Seattle, Washington. Community gardens are seen as solutions to myriad urban and environmental problems, such as food deserts, community empowerment, urban greening, environmental education and sustainability of the food system. Three case studies of Seattle organizations, the P-Patch Program, Lettuce Link and Alleycat Acres, provide a basis for analysis of the purported benefit of community empowerment as a function of organizational structure, history and policies. City government support, flexibility, and a critical outlook towards the processes of inclusion and …

Cultivating The Commons An Assessment Of The Potential For Urban Agriculture On Oakland’S Public Land, Nathan Mcclintock, Jenny Cooper

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

This is an inventory of open space with potential for agricultural production on land both owned by public agencies and within the city limits of Oakland, California. The inventory was conducted between the summer of 2008 and spring of 2009 and is part of an ongoing movement to develop a more resilient, sustainable, and just food system in Oakland. This project aims to locate Oakland’s "commons"—land that is owned by public agencies and therefore a public resource—and assess the potential for urban agriculture (UA) on this land. We hope that this assessment can be used 1) to inform policy decisions …

Why Farm The City? Theorizing Urban Agriculture Through A Lens Of Metabolic Rift, Nathan Mcclintock

Urban Studies and Planning Faculty Publications and Presentations

Urban agriculture (UA) is spreading across vacant and marginal land worldwide, embraced by government and civil society as source of food, ecosystems services and jobs, particularly in times of economic crisis. ‘Metabolic rift' is an effective framework for differentiating UA's multiple origins and functions across the Global North and South. I examine how UA arises from three interrelated dimensions of metabolic rift—ecological, social and individual. By rescaling production, reclaiming vacant land and ‘de-alienating’ urban dwellers from their food, UA also attempts to overcome these forms of rift. Considering all three dimensions is valuable both for theory and practice.

Strengthening Capacity For Sustainable Livelihoods And Food Security Through Urban Agriculture Among Hiv And Aids Affected Households In Nakuru, Kenya, Nancy Karanja, Fiona Yeudall, Mary Njenga, Samwel Mbugua, Gordon Prain, Donald Cole, Aimee Webb, Jennier Levy, Christopher Gore, Daniel Sellen

Christopher D Gore

The promotion and support of urban agriculture (UA) has the potential to contribute to efforts to address pressing challenges of poverty, under nutrition and sustainability among vulnerable populations in the growing cities of sub-Saharan Africa (SSA). This may be especially relevant for HIV/AIDS-affected individuals in SSA whose agricultural livelihoods are severely disrupted by the devastating effects of the disease on physical productivity and nutritional well-being. This paper outlines the process involved in the conception, design and implementation of a project to strengthen technical, environmental, financial and social capacity for UA among HIV-affected households in Nakuru, Kenya. Key lessons learned are …