Sharashkin, Leonid. The socioeconomic and cultural significance of

Research objectives and methods
While the primary focus of this study is to assess the current economic, natural resource,
social and cultural importance of food gardening in the Vladimir region of Russia, by way
of introduction we need to first look, in this chapter, at the national level (especially since
much of the previously available statistics and research dealt with the national, rather than
regional, level). Providing an overview of food gardening in Russia as a whole will put
the results of our study of the Vladimir region into a wider context, and will offer partial
answers to the following two sets of questions:
1) The economic question: Is food gardening in Russia an important part of the
national and regional agriculture and economy? Is food gardening a viable and
efficient means of long-term sustainable (including natural resources use and
environmental sustainability) food production under the conditions of the Russian
economy?
2) The cultural question: Can the food gardening phenomenon be explained as only a
temporary response to poverty, economic hardships, and food insecurity? Or should
it be viewed as an important part of Russian culture and a continuation of a long
tradition of self-reliant, land-based lifestyle?
To answer these questions, I will draw upon the available literature on food gardening,
on the extensive statistical sources, including the statistics annually gathered and published
by Goskomstat/Rosstat, Russia’s Federal Statistical Service, as well as the preliminary results
of the comprehensive Russia’s 2006 Census of Agriculture.
Based on the background presented in this chapter, in the next chapter we shall focus on
one of the regions of Central European Russia — the Vladimir oblast — to examine in fine
detail the food gardening practice. Based on the results of our own large survey conducted
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