Study to examine trends in urban agriculture

UNIVERSITY PARK, Pa. Farming in the city is a hot topic in some circles, but an exact picture of urban agriculture has not yet been painted. Researchers in Penn State's College of Agricultural Sciences, along with faculty from New York University, will soon begin a study of urban agriculture in the United States. "The State of Urban Farming in the United States: Enhancing the Viability of Small and Medium-Sized Commercial Urban Farms" is funded by a $453,000 grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture's National Institute of Food and Agriculture. Urban agriculture - also known as urban farming - includes enterprises located in urban or urban-edge areas that most often grow high-value crops and sell their products in urban areas to restaurants, farmers' markets or through community-supported agriculture efforts, often called CSAs. Urban agriculture also is diverse in production methods. For example, crops may be grown in vacant lots, on rooftops, by hydroponic methods - without soil - or in high tunnels, among others.