Research and Extension Project

In New York City, various NGOs, farms, communities, and schools involve students in urban agriculture education. Among other goals, urban agriculture educators are helping youth become empowered, contributing, and civically engaged members of their communities.

In this project, Cornell University and NYC partners are exploring how urban agriculture education influences youth civic engagement in NYC. We also facilitate an exchange of civic engagement ideas among urban agriculture educators.

Team

• Participating organizations in NYC
• Advisors

Project PI: Alex Kudryavtsev ([email protected]) Civic Ecology Lab, Cornell University

Webinar for educators (February 2022)

https://youtu.be/u6XgJATwwuI

Research & Extension

Research Question

How does urban agriculture education influence youth civic engagement?

Extension

We aim to help educators use urban agriculture education to empower youth by:

1. Exchanging teaching ideas among urban agriculture educators,
2. Linking practice with useful social justice frameworks and relevant research.

Civic engagement means improving the life of your community or addressing broader public issues beyond your self-interests.

Our Publications

1. Urban agriculture education and youth civic engagement in the U.S.: A scoping review. In: Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
2. Urban agriculture education in parks: Fostering civic engagement. In: The Transformative Power of Parks. (In-press, 2022)
3. Urban agriculture education programs fostering civic engagement in New York City. World Environmental Education Congress, March 2022.

What We Read

• Ackerman, K. (2021). The potential for urban agriculture in NYC. PDF
• Ekman, J., & Amnå, E. (2012). Political participation and civic engagement: Towards a new typology. Human affairs, 22. PDF
• GrowNYC and NWF (2020). Outdoor learning. PDF
• Reynolds, K., and Cohen, N. (2016). Beyond the kale: Urban agriculture and social justice activism in New York City. LINK
• NYC DOE. Civics for All. LINK
• USBG (n.d.). Building capacity for urban agriculture programs. PDF

Read More

Inspiration

• Unique urban space. Urban agriculture education has the potential to strengthen civil society. Few urban spaces can compare to urban agriculture sites in their ability to bring different people together; they can discuss and mitigate local social and environmental problems.
• Civic engagement precursors. We learned from research publications that urban agriculture educators can foster precursors of civic engagement among youth: (1) civic skills, (2) civic knowledge, (3) civic dispositions, (4) civic networks, and (5) civic action.
• Case studies. NYC urban agriculture educators can enrich our understanding of how urban agriculture education fosters youth civic engagement. Here are two such case studies: from the Red Hook Farms, and New York Sun Works:

https://youtu.be/voD6NVTUTW8

https://youtu.be/CL4eBi5x-30

https://youtu.be/nsAtU4rw7AE

https://youtu.be/KwRc9-i314Y

Useful Links

Acknowledgment

Funding This project is supported by the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture, Hatch project number 1021530. This project is approved by the Cornell University Institutional Review Board for Human Participants on October 10, 2019, protocol ID 1909009057. Principal Investigators: Alex Kudryavtsev ([email protected]). The photos above are taken at: Randall's Island Urban Farm, Battery Urban Farm, Science Barge, and Harlem Grown.

Land Acknowledgement Cornell University: https://cals.cornell.edu/american-indian-indigenous-studies/about/land-acknowledgment New York City: https://www1.nyc.gov/site/cchr/about/cchr-land-acknowledgment.page