This page points to reporting and research on urban agriculture, local food and circular food systems rather than reproducing it - follow the links to read coverage at its original source.
Policy coverage
Cincinnati's urban agriculture zoning ordinance, which took effect in 2019, received coverage from local outlets and planning publications discussing how it changed rules for community gardens and small-scale farming citywide; see urban agriculture policy and zoning in Cincinnati for a summary and further links.
Research on food access programs
"Food is medicine" and produce-prescription programs have drawn growing academic and journalistic attention, including a Tufts University-led pooled analysis of nine U.S. programs reporting improvements in food security, blood pressure and other health markers among participants - alongside caution from researchers that more rigorous, randomized studies are still needed. See food as medicine for a fuller look at this evidence.
USDA's own Economic Research Service has published the working definition of a food desert that much of this reporting relies on: a low-income census tract where a large share of residents live more than 1 mile from a supermarket, or 10 miles in a rural tract. A 2021 Congressional Research Service brief applying that definition to 2019 data put the number of people living in these low-income, low-access areas at roughly 19 million nationally. See food deserts and urban farming for how that definition plays out locally.
Indoor and vertical farming coverage
Ohio-based indoor farming projects, including 80 Acres Farms' automated facility in Hamilton, have been covered by trade and regional business press since the project's 2018 groundbreaking. See vertical farming in Ohio and the U.S. for context.
Coverage of the broader indoor-farming sector has turned considerably more critical since 2023. Kentucky-based AppHarvest filed for Chapter 11 bankruptcy protection in 2023 after facing Nasdaq delisting notices, according to reporting at the time. New York-based Bowery Farming, once one of the best-funded companies in the sector, ceased operations in November 2024, according to TechCrunch, after what the outlet described as months of financial strain and an inability to secure new funding. AeroFarms, by contrast, filed for bankruptcy in 2023 but exited protection the same year after restructuring, according to Food Dive's reporting. This is reporting on named companies, not a judgment on indoor farming generally; see hydroponics vs. soil for the underlying trade-offs at the scale of an individual urban farm rather than a venture-funded company.
A note on reading coverage critically
Trade press and company announcements are useful for understanding what a project intends to do, but they are not independent verification of outcomes. Where this site cites a company's own announcement, it says so, and treats operational and financial claims with the same caution recommended throughout this guide.