Introduction

Are you interested in commercial farming in the city? Or are you an urban planner or urban agriculture advocate who wants to create better support for urban farms in your city? The courses in this series, titled The Promise of Urban Agriculture, are designed to help you understand the practices and policies that support commercial urban farming. We use the term 'commercial' to include any farm that sells products to support some or all of the farm's activities.

These courses are based on findings from a study, also titled The Promise of Urban Agriculture, conducted by the Cornell Small Farms Program in partnership with the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) Agricultural Marketing Service. That study interviewed urban growers, planners, and other experts across the United States to investigate, among other things, what conditions must be present for commercial urban agriculture to thrive.

We hope that these courses will support your understanding of the issues and the environment of urban farming.