Evaluating the Benefits of Peri-Urban Agriculture

Abstract

By uniting literature from farmland preservation, growth management, food systems, economics, bioengineering, and environmental studies, this article provides an overview and valuation of the services that farms provide for urban areas. This article first analyzes the mission statements of 130 nationally accredited land trusts to ascertain the criteria used in preserving farmland. Land trusts present uniform preference for parcels that provide ecosystem services, wildlife habitat, viewsheds, local heritage, and agricultural productivity. The list of benefits provided by land trusts was compared to a literature review drawing from farmland amenity, agritourism, farmland preservation, and ecosystems studies to reveal the range of market values for the various benefits of farmland. The market value of farmland services varies from −$37,541 to 124,000 per acre depending on the method of analysis and location of the farm. This research has strong implications for land-use planning, economic opportunities, and ecosystems infrastructure in peri-urban areas.

Comparison of Farm Structures, Success Factors, Obstacles, Clients’ Expectations and Policy Wishes of Urban Farming’s Main Business Models in North Rhine-Westphalia, Germany

“…The most important one is the nearby consumer market, which offers favorable preconditions for food marketing and service provision inside urban boundaries. Urban farming considers the whole value-added chain of cultivation, processing, and marketing in the place of quantitative and qualitative demand [12,34]. This is, on the one hand, relevant for common products and marketing channels, but also offers pathways for new linkages to urban demands and markets [35].…”

“…It is first and foremost economically motivated and is operated by professionals with medium to large distribution pathways from direct marketing up to global value chains" [5]. Urban gardening is small-scaled, while urban farming covers and cultivates considerably larger areas [1,8,9,12]. Urban farms are located mainly at the fringe (peri-urban), but also to some extent within (intra-urban) agglomerations [7,13,14].…”

Challenges for the revitalisation of peri-urban agriculture in Spain: Territorial analysis of the Madrid and Oviedo metropolitan areas

“…Peri-urban agriculture provides a wide range of services to urban areas, beyond food provision, services that are related to cultural identity, recreation, education or the regulation of natural cycles, and that have been quantified and assessed in recent studies (Willemen et al, 2010;Brinkley, 2012;Simón et al, 2014). The public policy approach to multifunctionality in these areas is usually focused on environmental issues that are more likely to be included in planning tools, and perceived as important by local authorities, although social actors also recognise and value other economic and social issues (Vandermeulen et al, 2006;Ives and Kendal, 2013;Marraccini et al, 2013;Olsson et al, 2016).…”

Business models in urban farming: A comparative analysis of case studies from Spain, Italy and Germany

“…This is due, with few exceptions, to urban limitations not the business case for urban farms. The complexity of urban influences on farms and farming results in heterogeneous strategies and farm activities both at the city and agglomeration level, which is more pronounced than in rather rural areas (Brinkley, 2012;Busck et al, 2006;Gardner, 1994;Mougeot, 1999;Zasada, 2011;Zasada et al, 2011). Urban farming "has been identified as being more diversified, polarised and multifaceted than elsewhere" (Zasada, 2011, p. 640).…”

“…Urban farming consists of commercial farming activities in metropolitan areas and is part of the wider urban agriculture umbrella, which includes -apart from professional urban farmingalso mushrooming non-profit oriented urban gardening initiatives of citizens (Lohrberg and Timpe, 2011;Lovell, 2010). Urban farming cultivates considerably large areas within agglomerations (Brinkley, 2012;Lohrberg, 2010;Lohrberg, 2011;Zasada, 2011). It is located in (intra-urban) and at the fringe (peri-urban) of cities, but the peri-urban transition zone is of the highest relevance (Lovell, 2010;Mougeot, 1999;Piorr et al, 2011;Opitz et al, 2016).…”