Who are urban farmers? A typology of goals, motivations, and reasons for urban farming

Abstract

There is an increasing interest in urban agriculture to support community development, food system resilience, and food security. The purpose of this study was to gain a deeper understanding of the reasons that people become commercial urban farmers, what motivates them to farm, and the goals they hope their farms will achieve. Because there is such great variation in urban agriculture activities, this study sought to identify salient characteristics of commercial urban farmers to create a typology. To gain rich data that could provide a deep understanding of farmers’ perspectives, a qualitative approach was used for this study. We conducted semi-structured interviews (n = 29) of commercial urban farmers in Florida. While all interviewees were commercial farmers, they all expressed a variety of goals beyond profit-making, including, notably, goals related to environmental sustainability, improving food security, and community resource development. A hierarchical cluster analysis revealed three primary groups of farmers: Newcomer Idealist Environmentalists, Ethical Civic Stewards, and Business-minded Community Builders. This understanding of urban farmers’ goals, motivations, and reasons for farming, coupled with the understanding of these three distinct clusters provides the foundation to develop targeted educational tools and resources. Understanding the goals that farmers seek to achieve for their farms can help local governments and nonprofits identify ways to partner with and support urban farms to achieve mutually supported goals in their communities.