A Feasibility Study for Urban Edge Agricultural Parks - SAGE

elements of sharecropping. This type of arrangement has recently gained greaterprominence in many rural communities across the U.S. as a way for limitedresource and immigrant farmers to obtain access to agricultural land.Businesses known as agricultural brokers, grower/shippers, or simply investors,provide for a modern day version of sharecropping, in which many inputs andfactors of production, including land, water, seeds, plants, fertilizers, pesticides,markets, distribution channels, among others, are supplied or dictated to thefarmer by the broker, grower/shipper or investor. This type of arrangementattempts to reduce the risks inherent in farming by streamlining the process ofproduction and sale, while at the same time, reducing the degree to which thefarmer participates in decision making.Given the preliminary results of the Land Access Needs Survey, some derivation ofcommunal or collective access and management of agricultural land appears to bean attractive alternative for limited resource, small and aspiring farmers to obtainaccess to land. This alternative is being considered in the current context ofastronomical real estate prices, the need to protect agricultural and natural lands,buffer urban growth boundaries, strengthen food security and sovereignty of localcommunities, meet consumer demand for local, sustainably produced food, andprovide land access opportunities for established and aspiring farmers.DRAFT 1.6.05 12