Urban Farms
Urban farms grow and produce food in a city or heavily populated town or municipality. The terms
urban farms, urban farming and urban agriculture are related though may have slightly different applications. For some, urban farms and community gardens are similar, and some community gardens may be urban farms. The primary distinction is that urban farms(ing) have a commercial side – growing products to be sold (plant-based & livestock). Urban farms have seen a dramatic increase in numbers in the last decade (Palmer, 2018), and can take any number of forms including gardens at private residential properties, CSAs, hydroponic greenhouses, indoor vertical farms, rooftop/park/school and community gardens. Each urban farm has particular goals, and may include education, environmental stewardship, sustainable practices, food access/food literacy/food security/food advocacy, along with food production and a physical location used as a community gathering spot. COVID-19 has revealed some developments re urban farms, food security, home gardening and health benefits. (Refer to section H4H- subcategory Pandemic Gardening.)
Refer to category Landscapes for Health: Designed Landscapes subset community gardens, and category Food, Nutrition, and Food Action for related resources
urban farms, urban farming and urban agriculture are related though may have slightly different applications. For some, urban farms and community gardens are similar, and some community gardens may be urban farms. The primary distinction is that urban farms(ing) have a commercial side – growing products to be sold (plant-based & livestock). Urban farms have seen a dramatic increase in numbers in the last decade (Palmer, 2018), and can take any number of forms including gardens at private residential properties, CSAs, hydroponic greenhouses, indoor vertical farms, rooftop/park/school and community gardens. Each urban farm has particular goals, and may include education, environmental stewardship, sustainable practices, food access/food literacy/food security/food advocacy, along with food production and a physical location used as a community gathering spot. COVID-19 has revealed some developments re urban farms, food security, home gardening and health benefits. (Refer to section H4H- subcategory Pandemic Gardening.)
Refer to category Landscapes for Health: Designed Landscapes subset community gardens, and category Food, Nutrition, and Food Action for related resources
> Key Organizations
USDA Alternative Farming Systems (Information)
Cooperative Extension offices: USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (local)
Community Supported Agriculture CSA listing by USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (local)
Urban Farming (global)
Cooperative Extension offices: USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (local)
Community Supported Agriculture CSA listing by USDA Agricultural Marketing Service (local)
Urban Farming (global)
> Books, journals & E-publications on urban farms
Blue-Green Systems journal
Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension
Kellogg, Scott T., et al. (2008). Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A Do-It-Ourselves Guide. South End Press.
Local zoning bylaws
Urban Agriculture Tool Kit
Urban Farm Business Plan Handbook
Urban Agriculture State Legislation National: Conference of State Legislatures
U.S. Farm Bill
Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension
Kellogg, Scott T., et al. (2008). Toolbox for Sustainable City Living: A Do-It-Ourselves Guide. South End Press.
Local zoning bylaws
Urban Agriculture Tool Kit
Urban Farm Business Plan Handbook
Urban Agriculture State Legislation National: Conference of State Legislatures
U.S. Farm Bill
> RESEARCH & ARTICLES ON urban Farms
Recently published selected research & articles:
Arnold, J.E. (2022). On-farm spatial composition, management practices and estimated productivity of urban farms in the San Francisco Bay Area. Processes, 10(3), 558.
Audate, P.P., Fernandez, M.A., Cloutier, G. & Lebel, A.S. (2019). Scoping review of the impacts of urban agriculture on the determinants of health. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 672. doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-6885-z
Burke, E. (2018). Expanding the social performance of food production landscapes: Measuring health and well-being benefits. Landscape Research, 43(5), 587-599.
Carolan, M. (2020). “Urban farming Is going high tech” digital urban agriculture's links to gentrification and land use. Journal of the American Planning Association, 86(1), 47-59.
Cimino, O., Vassallo, M., Henke, R. & Vanni, F. (2021). Income diversification strategies of Italian peri-urban farms: A structural equation modeling approach. Land, 10(8), 790.
Companion, M. (2016). Lessons from “The Bucket Brigade:” The role of urban gardening in Native American cultural continuance. In Dawson & Morales (Eds.) Cities of Farmers: Urban Agricultural Practices and Processes. University of Iowa Press. pp. 126–140.
Dimitri, C., Oberholtzer, L. & Pressman, A. (2016). Urban agriculture: Connecting producers with consumers. Br. Food J. 118, 603–617. doi: 10.1108/BFJ-06-2015-0200
Dobbins, C.E., Cox, C.K., Edgar, L.D., Graham, D.L. & Philyaw Perez, A.G. (2020). Developing a local definition of urban agriculture: Context and implications for a rural state. The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, 26(4), 351-364. doi: org/10.1080/1389224X.2020.1726779
George, D.R. (2013). Harvesting the biopsychosocial benefits of community gardens. Am J Public Health, 103(8), e6. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2013.301435
Grebitus. C., Chenarides, L., Muenich, R. & Mahalov, A. (2020). Consumer perception of urban farming – An exploratory study. Front. Sustain. Food Syst., 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.00079
Harada, K., Hino, K., Iida, A., Yamazaki, T., Usui, H., Asami, Y. & Yokohari, M. (2021). How does urban farming benefit participants’ health? A case study of allotments and experience farms in Tokyo. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(2), 542.
Hunold, C., Sorunmu, Y., Lindy, R., Spatari, S. & Gurian, P. (2017). Is urban agriculture financially sustainable? An exploratory study of small-scale market farming in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. J. Agric. Food Syst. Commun. Dev., 7, 51–67. doi: 10.5304/jafscd.2017.072.012
Kwon, C.T., Heo, J., Lemmon, Z.H., Capua, Y., Hutton, S.F., Van Eck, J., Park, S.J. & Lippman, Z.B. (2020). Rapid customization of Solanaceae fruit crops for urban agriculture. Nat Biotechnol., 38(2), 182-188. doi: 10.1038/s41587-019-0361-2
Low, B. (2019). Building sustainable urban farms with government support in Singapore. Field Actions Science Reports. The Journal of Field Actions, (Special Issue 20), 98-103.
Lupolt, S.N., Santo, R.E., Kim, B.F., Green, C., Codling, E., Rule, A.M., ... & Nachman, K.E. (2021). The safe urban harvests study: A community-driven cross-sectional assessment of metals in soil, irrigation water, and produce from urban farms and gardens in Baltimore, Maryland. Environmental Health Perspectives, 129(11), 117004.
Martin, M. & Molin, E. (2019). Environmental assessment of an urban vertical hydroponic farming system in Sweden. Sustainability, 11(15), 4124.
McDougall, R., Kristiansen, P. & Rader, R. (2019). Small-scale urban agriculture results in high yields but requires judicious management of inputs to achieve sustainability. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA., 116(1), 129-134. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1809707115
Mulier, M.H., Van de Ven, F.H.M. & Kirshen, P. (2022). Quantification of the local water energy nutrient food nexus for three urban farms in Amsterdam & Boston. Energy Nexus, 6, 100078.
Nowysz, A., Mazur, Ł., Vaverková, M.D., Koda, E. & Winkler, J. (2022). Urban agriculture as an alternative source of food and water security in today's sustainable cities. Int J Environ Res Public Health., 19(23), 15597. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192315597
Nowysz, A. (2021). Modernist projects of community-based urban farms in residential areas—A review of agrarian cooperatives in the context of contemporary urban development. Buildings, 11(8), 369.
Palmer, L. (2018). Urban agriculture growth in US cities. Nature Sustainability, 1, 5-7. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-017-0014-8
Podder, A.K., Al Bukhari, A., Islam, S., Mia, S., Mohammed, M.A., Kumar, N.M., ... & Abdulkareem, K. H. (2021). IoT based smart agrotech system for verification of urban farming parameters. Microprocessors and Microsystems, 82, 104025.
Popović, V. & Mihailović, B.M. (2020). Business models for urban farming in and around urban protected areas: EkoPark Belgrade Case Study. In Handbook of Research on Agricultural Policy, Rural Development, and Entrepreneurship in Contemporary Economies (pp. 89-107). IGI Global.
Schram-Bijkerk, D., Otte, P., Dirven, L. & Breure, A.M. (2018). Indicators to support healthy urban gardening in urban management. Sci Total Environ., 621, 863-871. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.11.160
Siegner, A., Sowerwine, J. & Acey, C. (2018). Does urban agriculture improve food security? Examining the nexus of food access and distribution of urban produced foods in the United States: A systematic review. Sustainability, 10, 2988.
Stoltz, J. & Schaffer, C. (2018). Salutogenic affordances and sustainability: Multiple benefits with edible forest gardens in urban green spaces. Front Psychol., 9, 2344. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02344
Strunk, C. & Richardson, M. (2019). Cultivating belonging: Refugees, urban gardens, and placemaking in the Midwest, USA. Social & Cultural Geography, 20(6), 826-848.
Surls, R., Feenstra, G., Golden, S., Galt, R., Hardesty, S., Napawan, C., et al. (2015). Gearing up to support urban farming in California: preliminary results of a needs assessment. Renew. Agric. Food Syst., 30, 33–42. doi: 10.1017/S1742170514000052
Ugarte, C.M. & Taylor, J.R. (2020). Chemical and biological indicators of soil health in Chicago urban gardens and farms. Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems, 5(1), e20004.
Valley, W. & Wittman, H. (2019). Beyond feeding the city: The multifunctionality of urban farming in Vancouver, BC. City, Culture and Society, 16, 36-44.
Wielemaker, R., Oenema, O., Zeeman, G. & Weijma, J. (2019). Fertile cities: Nutrient management practices in urban agriculture. Sci. Total Environ., 668, 1277–1288. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.424
Wilke, A.B., Carvajal, A., Vasquez, C., Petrie, W.D. & Beier, J.C. (2020). Urban farms in Miami-Dade county, Florida have favorable environments for vector mosquitoes. PloS one, 15(4), e0230825.
Yusoff, N.H., Hussain, M.R.M. & Tukiman, I. (2017). Roles of community towards urban farming activities. Planning Malaysia, 15.
Xi, L., Shang, M., Zhng, L. Lew, T.T.S. & Lam, Y.M. (2022). Novel materials for urban farming. Advanced Materials, 34(25), 2105009.
- (2019). The rise of urban farming. Medium.com. https://medium.com/@Miigle/the-rise-of-urban-farming-cf894db51784
Arnold, J.E. (2022). On-farm spatial composition, management practices and estimated productivity of urban farms in the San Francisco Bay Area. Processes, 10(3), 558.
Audate, P.P., Fernandez, M.A., Cloutier, G. & Lebel, A.S. (2019). Scoping review of the impacts of urban agriculture on the determinants of health. BMC Public Health, 19(1), 672. doi: 10.1186/s12889-019-6885-z
Burke, E. (2018). Expanding the social performance of food production landscapes: Measuring health and well-being benefits. Landscape Research, 43(5), 587-599.
Carolan, M. (2020). “Urban farming Is going high tech” digital urban agriculture's links to gentrification and land use. Journal of the American Planning Association, 86(1), 47-59.
Cimino, O., Vassallo, M., Henke, R. & Vanni, F. (2021). Income diversification strategies of Italian peri-urban farms: A structural equation modeling approach. Land, 10(8), 790.
Companion, M. (2016). Lessons from “The Bucket Brigade:” The role of urban gardening in Native American cultural continuance. In Dawson & Morales (Eds.) Cities of Farmers: Urban Agricultural Practices and Processes. University of Iowa Press. pp. 126–140.
Dimitri, C., Oberholtzer, L. & Pressman, A. (2016). Urban agriculture: Connecting producers with consumers. Br. Food J. 118, 603–617. doi: 10.1108/BFJ-06-2015-0200
Dobbins, C.E., Cox, C.K., Edgar, L.D., Graham, D.L. & Philyaw Perez, A.G. (2020). Developing a local definition of urban agriculture: Context and implications for a rural state. The Journal of Agricultural Education and Extension, 26(4), 351-364. doi: org/10.1080/1389224X.2020.1726779
George, D.R. (2013). Harvesting the biopsychosocial benefits of community gardens. Am J Public Health, 103(8), e6. doi: 10.2105/AJPH.2013.301435
Grebitus. C., Chenarides, L., Muenich, R. & Mahalov, A. (2020). Consumer perception of urban farming – An exploratory study. Front. Sustain. Food Syst., 12. https://doi.org/10.3389/fsufs.2020.00079
Harada, K., Hino, K., Iida, A., Yamazaki, T., Usui, H., Asami, Y. & Yokohari, M. (2021). How does urban farming benefit participants’ health? A case study of allotments and experience farms in Tokyo. International Journal of Environmental Research and Public Health, 18(2), 542.
Hunold, C., Sorunmu, Y., Lindy, R., Spatari, S. & Gurian, P. (2017). Is urban agriculture financially sustainable? An exploratory study of small-scale market farming in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania. J. Agric. Food Syst. Commun. Dev., 7, 51–67. doi: 10.5304/jafscd.2017.072.012
Kwon, C.T., Heo, J., Lemmon, Z.H., Capua, Y., Hutton, S.F., Van Eck, J., Park, S.J. & Lippman, Z.B. (2020). Rapid customization of Solanaceae fruit crops for urban agriculture. Nat Biotechnol., 38(2), 182-188. doi: 10.1038/s41587-019-0361-2
Low, B. (2019). Building sustainable urban farms with government support in Singapore. Field Actions Science Reports. The Journal of Field Actions, (Special Issue 20), 98-103.
Lupolt, S.N., Santo, R.E., Kim, B.F., Green, C., Codling, E., Rule, A.M., ... & Nachman, K.E. (2021). The safe urban harvests study: A community-driven cross-sectional assessment of metals in soil, irrigation water, and produce from urban farms and gardens in Baltimore, Maryland. Environmental Health Perspectives, 129(11), 117004.
Martin, M. & Molin, E. (2019). Environmental assessment of an urban vertical hydroponic farming system in Sweden. Sustainability, 11(15), 4124.
McDougall, R., Kristiansen, P. & Rader, R. (2019). Small-scale urban agriculture results in high yields but requires judicious management of inputs to achieve sustainability. Proc Natl Acad Sci USA., 116(1), 129-134. doi: 10.1073/pnas.1809707115
Mulier, M.H., Van de Ven, F.H.M. & Kirshen, P. (2022). Quantification of the local water energy nutrient food nexus for three urban farms in Amsterdam & Boston. Energy Nexus, 6, 100078.
Nowysz, A., Mazur, Ł., Vaverková, M.D., Koda, E. & Winkler, J. (2022). Urban agriculture as an alternative source of food and water security in today's sustainable cities. Int J Environ Res Public Health., 19(23), 15597. doi: 10.3390/ijerph192315597
Nowysz, A. (2021). Modernist projects of community-based urban farms in residential areas—A review of agrarian cooperatives in the context of contemporary urban development. Buildings, 11(8), 369.
Palmer, L. (2018). Urban agriculture growth in US cities. Nature Sustainability, 1, 5-7. https://doi.org/10.1038/s41893-017-0014-8
Podder, A.K., Al Bukhari, A., Islam, S., Mia, S., Mohammed, M.A., Kumar, N.M., ... & Abdulkareem, K. H. (2021). IoT based smart agrotech system for verification of urban farming parameters. Microprocessors and Microsystems, 82, 104025.
Popović, V. & Mihailović, B.M. (2020). Business models for urban farming in and around urban protected areas: EkoPark Belgrade Case Study. In Handbook of Research on Agricultural Policy, Rural Development, and Entrepreneurship in Contemporary Economies (pp. 89-107). IGI Global.
Schram-Bijkerk, D., Otte, P., Dirven, L. & Breure, A.M. (2018). Indicators to support healthy urban gardening in urban management. Sci Total Environ., 621, 863-871. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2017.11.160
Siegner, A., Sowerwine, J. & Acey, C. (2018). Does urban agriculture improve food security? Examining the nexus of food access and distribution of urban produced foods in the United States: A systematic review. Sustainability, 10, 2988.
Stoltz, J. & Schaffer, C. (2018). Salutogenic affordances and sustainability: Multiple benefits with edible forest gardens in urban green spaces. Front Psychol., 9, 2344. doi: 10.3389/fpsyg.2018.02344
Strunk, C. & Richardson, M. (2019). Cultivating belonging: Refugees, urban gardens, and placemaking in the Midwest, USA. Social & Cultural Geography, 20(6), 826-848.
Surls, R., Feenstra, G., Golden, S., Galt, R., Hardesty, S., Napawan, C., et al. (2015). Gearing up to support urban farming in California: preliminary results of a needs assessment. Renew. Agric. Food Syst., 30, 33–42. doi: 10.1017/S1742170514000052
Ugarte, C.M. & Taylor, J.R. (2020). Chemical and biological indicators of soil health in Chicago urban gardens and farms. Urban Agriculture & Regional Food Systems, 5(1), e20004.
Valley, W. & Wittman, H. (2019). Beyond feeding the city: The multifunctionality of urban farming in Vancouver, BC. City, Culture and Society, 16, 36-44.
Wielemaker, R., Oenema, O., Zeeman, G. & Weijma, J. (2019). Fertile cities: Nutrient management practices in urban agriculture. Sci. Total Environ., 668, 1277–1288. doi: 10.1016/j.scitotenv.2019.02.424
Wilke, A.B., Carvajal, A., Vasquez, C., Petrie, W.D. & Beier, J.C. (2020). Urban farms in Miami-Dade county, Florida have favorable environments for vector mosquitoes. PloS one, 15(4), e0230825.
Yusoff, N.H., Hussain, M.R.M. & Tukiman, I. (2017). Roles of community towards urban farming activities. Planning Malaysia, 15.
Xi, L., Shang, M., Zhng, L. Lew, T.T.S. & Lam, Y.M. (2022). Novel materials for urban farming. Advanced Materials, 34(25), 2105009.
- (2019). The rise of urban farming. Medium.com. https://medium.com/@Miigle/the-rise-of-urban-farming-cf894db51784
> Examples of urban farms
Acta Non Verba Youth Urban Farm Project (ANV) Oakland CA is a safe outdoor space for children, youth and families focused on nutrition, food production and healthy living, founded & led mainly by women of color.
Boston Medical Center’s rooftop farm provides local produce for the hospital, Demonstration Kitchen, Preventative Food Pantry, with a commitment to go green.
Cerasee Farm and Urban GreenWorks in Miami, FL. See also Cerasee Farm: Horticultural Therapy in the Inner City.
Common Roots Bi-Hi urban farm in Halifax, NS began as a partnership with the local/provincial health agency with a mission of combating food insecurity, provision of community gardening space & therapeutic services with a horticulture theme.
Detroit Dirt’s mission is zero-waste throughout the community.
Infinite Zion Farms Urban Farmers Alliance is located in a food desert in Apopka Fl.
Whitelock Community Farm in Baltimore, Maryland promotes gardening, composting & community activity.
Windy City Harvest Program, Chicago IL. is a soil-based rooftop garden on top of McCormick Place, the largest convention center in North America. Chicago Botanic Garden maintains the site.
Boston Medical Center’s rooftop farm provides local produce for the hospital, Demonstration Kitchen, Preventative Food Pantry, with a commitment to go green.
Cerasee Farm and Urban GreenWorks in Miami, FL. See also Cerasee Farm: Horticultural Therapy in the Inner City.
Common Roots Bi-Hi urban farm in Halifax, NS began as a partnership with the local/provincial health agency with a mission of combating food insecurity, provision of community gardening space & therapeutic services with a horticulture theme.
Detroit Dirt’s mission is zero-waste throughout the community.
Infinite Zion Farms Urban Farmers Alliance is located in a food desert in Apopka Fl.
Whitelock Community Farm in Baltimore, Maryland promotes gardening, composting & community activity.
Windy City Harvest Program, Chicago IL. is a soil-based rooftop garden on top of McCormick Place, the largest convention center in North America. Chicago Botanic Garden maintains the site.
> Videos, webinars & websites on urban farms
Community Supported Agriculture listing from Florida Department of Agriculture
Green Matters website informs audiences about wide-ranging topics focused on green & sustainable practices including food, nutrition, urban farming.
The Garden 2008 Documentary.
USDA Urban Agriculture resources on urban agriculture toolkit, urban soil issues, CSAs, urban farm business plan handbook.
USDA Community Supported Agriculture resources on CSAs, Farm to School, Food Circles.
You Can Dig This Movie
Green Matters website informs audiences about wide-ranging topics focused on green & sustainable practices including food, nutrition, urban farming.
The Garden 2008 Documentary.
USDA Urban Agriculture resources on urban agriculture toolkit, urban soil issues, CSAs, urban farm business plan handbook.
USDA Community Supported Agriculture resources on CSAs, Farm to School, Food Circles.
You Can Dig This Movie
> Related organizations
EcoWatch
Greensgrow
Local farmers’ markets
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Greensgrow
Local farmers’ markets
The Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations
Written & compiled by Lesley Fleming, Daniela Perez Lugones Nov 2021; revised Jan 2023 by Lesley Fleming