Urban Agriculture in Rural Places

The cultural divide between city folk and country folk has been the basis of stories – from literature to sitcoms – throughout our country's history. It seems like rural and urban communities (and people from them) are as different as night and day, but wanting good food is something we all have in common. Farmers in these communities are finding out that they can learn a lot from each other, and by working together, they are learning to feed their communities more efficiently.

What is “rural”?

The definition of “rural” varies widely depending on whether you consult the US Census, USDA's Economic Research Service, research institutions, or community members. One way to define “rural” is by defining what it isn't: it isn't metropolitan or suburban and it isn't part of a center of population or commerce where transportation and other resources may be accessible but land is at a premium. Even though residents of rural communities are surrounded by different kinds of agriculture, they must often travel tens of miles to buy their food, which was produced hundreds or thousands of miles away.

Why are we talking about rural communities in an urban agriculture blog? Urban agriculture is increasingly recognized as an important contributor to food security and sovereignty, opportunities for healthy nutrition and activity, and social cohesion, as well as being the foundation for neighborhood micro-enterprises at farmers markets and elsewhere. The same can be said about the community gardens, the small farms taking up fractions of an acre, and the intensive yard-scale food production in the many tiny towns that dot our state. Any successful small farmer anywhere has close ties to their community and has well-developed relationships with their customers. Farmers in cities of 500,000 or isolated towns of 500 have important things in common, and they have a lot to teach each other.

What's it like to farm or garden in rural communities?

While a farmer in a rural neighborhood may not receive many complaints about their roosters crowing, small-scale farmers in rural communities have as many challenges as their urban counterparts. 

A foremost concern is access to markets: while urban farmers in cities may have access to tens of thousands of potential customers within a few miles, rural areas are sparsely populated, so keeping food fresh and safe and bringing it to the folks who would love to buy it can involve lots of coordination and logistics. Many small-scale rural farmers sell through multiple channels: farm stands, Community Supported Agriculture (CSA's), farmers markets, and food hubs reach consumers directly, and institutions like schools have the capacity and motivation to purchase fresh local food in quantities that allow rural farmers to reach profitability. Increasing numbers of rural farmers are shoring up their incomes and reducing waste by developing value-added products like seasoning mixes and freeze-dried fruit which can be stored and transported (or mailed) and provide important off-season income.

An urban farmer in a city who starts growing on a new piece of land may have to think about industrial chemicals or waste in the soil, access to affordable, good-quality water, and the shadows of nearby buildings interfering with their crops. These concerns are not typically foremost in a rural small farmer's mind; rather, they may think about the encroachment of hungry wildlife (deer, birds, rabbits, squirrels, grasshoppers, and more). The methods a rural farmer must employ to protect their crops may include tall fences, scarecrows, motion-sensitive sprinklers, netting, and electrified barriers - many of these are adaptations from time-honored strategies on large-scale rural farms.

Rural farmers, because they are typically surrounded by more natural landscapes and fewer human-made features like freeways and buildings, may be more directly affected by climate change-driven conditions like weather extremes, new pest pressure, wildfires, and less predictable seasonal patterns like first frost. Many rural small-scale farmers spend time thinking about mitigation of these new challenges and have developed local strategies for adapting to them, like developing and using drought-tolerant crops, integrating agroforestry practices, or relying on high tunnel greenhouses for crop protection from cold, heat, wind, and pests.

Making difference a strength

Farmers are great at building local professional networks. Whether they are meeting for coffee at the local volunteer fire department or gathering at the neighborhood community center, farmers know the value of sharing knowledge, practices, and experiences that can help improve their livelihoods, increase their sustainability, and build personal and community resilience. Urban and rural small farmers can learn a great deal from each other by expanding these networks to include their colleagues with vastly different perspectives and challenges, whose creative solutions may find applications in their own operations. 

Some examples of this “cross pollination” may include “country-to-city” knowledge transfers like cover cropping and soil health strategies, community-based cooperatives and innovative product and marketing strategies; “city-to-country” transfers like extreme space and water efficiency, the benefits of on-farm gatherings and events, and digital tools like online sales platforms, farm management apps, and effective use of social media. Many small-scale urban agriculture projects in cities include public and professional training and education in their mission, and rural farmers can access these and become inspired to develop their own programs like workshops, educational resources, and production-related events or celebrations.  

Perhaps the greatest benefit of bridging the urban-rural divide in the small-scale farming community is the development of an appreciation for each other's work, and the transfer of that appreciation to their local communities. Jason Mark wrote in his essay “What's Growing On” in Gastronomica over ten years ago: “Spend a few months taking a broccoli from seed to harvest, and you'll soon have a much deeper appreciation for the natural systems on which we depend. Our connection to the earth becomes gobsmackingly obvious when you watch the crops grow (or fail). The garden produces a harvest of teachable moments about what it means to live in an environment.”  Not everyone can grow their own broccoli, but maybe knowing a neighborhood farmer and their farm, seeing the work they put in and the progress of their food from seed to table, can be almost as important for all of us: urban, rural, or in-between.

 

 

A few references from this post:

UC Agriculture and Natural Resources Urban Agriculture in California,  https://youtu.be/Q1pwSAEJ-bI

Santo, Raychel & Palmer, Anne & Kim, Brent. (2016). Vacant lots to vibrant plots: A review of the benefits and limitations of urban agriculture. 10.13140/RG.2.2.25283.91682. 

Jason Mark, What's Growing on, Gastronomica (2013) 13 (2): 73–76.