Where To Go From Here? Understanding and Highlighting Examples of Economically Viable Urban Agriculture

Commodities

Practices

• Education and Training: farmer to farmer, participatory research, workshop
• Sustainable Communities: urban agriculture

Urban areas are unique growing places- both dense and expensive to live in making economically viable production models more difficult than their rural counterparts. What examples exist of successful, economically viable urban ag? How can we learn from and use these examples to further create economically viable urban ag? What other questions should we  be asking as we plan our cities to host urban agriculture and to meet the needs of the communities they reside in? By conducting interviews with individuals and organizations involved in urban ag, we will seek to understand these questions and highlight successful models that can be replicated or used to further increase the capacity of our cities to have thriving and economically viable agriculture. We will also seek to create a broader framework from which to discuss urban ag. We will create a summary of our findings for publication. We will also hold a symposium to bring people together from across disciplines- producers, policy makers, city planners, developers, and others involved in urban agriculture. At the symposium we will share our findings and discuss strategic plans for sustainable, economically viable urban agriculture. As the population of our urban centers increase, it is more important than ever to plan for climate resilience in the city. Urban ag is essential to this mission but we must have economically viable systems in place to sustain it.

Interview 35 urban farmers and business owners who have proven to be economically successful (for profit and nonprofit) and other stakeholders involved in urban agriculture. After each interview we will summarize the findings in a story format that is easily readable. From these interviews and summaries we will create a working hypothesis on best practices for the economic viability of urban farms for the long haul. We will conduct follow up interviews to share thoughts on the summaries and questions about the hypothesis. The information and stories collected from follow up interviews will be added to the summaries and will inform the working hypothesis. 

This research will lead to a symposium type event to disseminate the information gathered, and to discuss the hypothesis bringing together multiple stakeholders from across disciplines.