The buzz about urban farms

If the buzz about urban farms can be believed, they are growing significantly even as rural farms and ranches decline in number. Nationally, there are no reliable statistics on the number of urban farms. The Census of Agriculture doesn’t count them, at least not yet.

In Chicago, by one count there are more than 230 community gardens and 60 urban farms. But that’s small potatoes (pardon the pun) compared to the 75,000 farms located throughout the state.

Earlier this year the Agriculture Department jumped on the urban farm bandwagon by releasing its “Urban Agriculture Toolkit” for urban farmers and agri-business entrepreneurs. “From neighborhood gardens grown on repurposed lots, to innovative mobile markets and intensive hydroponic and aquaculture operations, urban food production is rapidly growing into a mature business sector in cities across the country,” said the news release.

Urban agriculture may be growing rapidly but calling it a mature business sector is a stretch. “I never see urban farms being more than 1 to 5 percent of domestic fruit and vegetable production,” said Sam Wortman, assistant professor of agronomy and horticulture at the University of Nebraska.

Read more at The Voice of Agriculture