Progress 11/15/04 to 03/31/09
Outputs
OUTPUTS: Project activities: There were four central activities of the project, each of which required unique data collection and analysis. These activites included: 1) Analysis of organization and analysis of agricultural census and census of population data; 2) field research in eight case study sites in six different states (Georgia, Maryland, Kentucky, Michigan, Oregon, and Utah). A survey of landowners in each of these eight study locations; and 4) a survey of over key informants located in 620 U.S. rural-urban interface counties regarding their views of agricultural economic development and land-use policy in the county. Events of the project including attendance at national and international meetings of academics, policy-makers, and community leaders. The information has been shared with members of the Rural Sociological Society, Association of American Geographers, USDA Agricultural Outlook Forum, the international Transitions in Urban Agriculture conference, the TransAtlantic Land-Use Conference, the International Science Conference on the Human Dimensions of Global Environmental Change. Products of the project include a database and publicly available website containing new knowledge created by the project as well as guidance regarding policy implications and policy opportunities identified by the research. See: http://exurban.osu.edu/index.htm. Two Ph.D. dissertations and one master's thesis have been produced by the project. The findings of this research have also contributed to the development of a community food assessment for economic development purposes protocol that has been successfully applied to analysis of food system development opportunities in Knox County, Ohio. This protocol has attracted the interest of Ohio Department of Agriculture for future usage. PARTICIPANTS: (1) principal investigator(s)/project director(s) (PIs/PDs); and (2) each person who has worked at least one person month per year on the project during the reporting period and received salary, wages, a stipend, or other support from the agency (a person month equals approximately 160 hours of effort). Include any that have been added to the project since initiation of the project or activity. The principal investigators for the project included Jeff S. Sharp, Doug Jackson-Smith, Elene Irwin and Larry Libby. Dr. Sharp and Jackson-Smith provide the leadership for the project, guiding the various research activities and development of the research and outreach materials. The project also included Shoshanah Inwood as a graduate student, Jill Clark as a project research scientist, both at Ohio State University. Lori Peracca was additionally employed as a graduate research associate on the project on the project. Leah Smith was a master's student who was not directly employed by the project but wrote a Master's thesis based on data from the project. Lazarus Adua and Molly Bean Smith, a graduate student and a program staff, provided were consulted during some phases of the research at Ohio State University. TARGET AUDIENCES: The target audience for this work include: state government staff and officials associated with economic development and agriculture, local government staff responsible for community economic development and land-use, and federal staff working on agricultural issues. Farm organizations, food policy councils, sustainable agriculture organizations, food system industry groups, and farmland preservation organizations are also a target audience of this work. Academic and applied researchers in the fields of rural sociology, sociology, geography, city and regional planning, agricultural economics, and community economic development are also a target for this wrok. PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
The knowledge gains from this project have been a timely contribution to emerging discussions about how to support agricultural economic development. In the state of Ohio, this research has had a substantial impact on the thinking of the Ohio Department of Agriculture's office of Sustainable Agriculture, with numerous applications of this information in policy formulation and outreach to grassroots and community organizations. At the national level, the Rural Sociologist policy brief has circulated widely and the findings have been integrated into and inform other agriculture economic development efforts in other states. As the policy environment has evolved to recognize the opportunities of urban agriculture, this research has become increasingly salient. For instance, published research on the intergenerational succession challenges of farming at the interface as well as the importance of health care availability to on-farm decisions has been noted in numerous policy and information outlets in the last year and will likely continue to do so over the next several years, resulting in changes in action. The disciplinary impacts of this work are on-going, including a more nuanced understanding of issues of agricultural and community change in disciplines such as geography, rural sociology, agricultural economics, and city and regional planning. The recognition and documentation that there is substantial agriculture occurring in relatively urban environments and the underlying factors associated with the structure of this agriculture has advanced and refined disciplinary knowledge.
Publications
- Jackson-Smith, Douglas and Jeff Sharp. 2008. Farming in the Urban Shadow: Designing Strategies to Support Agriculture at the Rural-Urban Interface. Rural Realities. The Quarterly Information Series of the Rural Sociological Society. Volume 2, Issue 4.
- Sharp, J. S., and Clark, J. K. 2008. Between the Country and the Concrete: Rediscovering the Rural-Urban Fringe. City & Community. 7(1):61-79.
- Clark, Jill K., Shoshanah Inwood, Jeff S. Sharp, Douglas Jackson-Smith. Community-level Influences on Agricultural Trajectories: Seven Cases across the Exurban U.S. 2010. In Agriculture, Environment and Rural Change: Perspectives from North America, the British Isles and Australia. Edited by Richard G. Winchell, Doug Ramsey, Rhonda Koster, and Guy M. Robinson. Spokane, Washington: Eastern Washington University Press.
- Partridge, M., Sharp, J. S., and Clark, J. K. 2007. Growth and Change: Population Change in Ohio and its Rural-Urban Interface. The Exurban Change Project and Swank Program in Rural-Urban Policy Summary Report, Available at: www.aede.osu.edu/programs/Swank. 22 pages.
- Smith, Leah. 2009. Food System Makers: Community Organizations and Local Food System Development at the Rural-Urban Interface. Masters thesis. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
- Inwood, Shoshanah M. 2008. Sustaining the Family Farm at the Rural Urban Interface - A Comparison of the Farm Reproduction Processes among Commodity and Alternative Food and Agricultural Enterprises. Ph.D. Dissertation. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
- Clark, Jill K. 2009. The Repositioning of Farming in Newly Restructured, Consumptive Spaces: The Relational Geography of US Peri-Urban Agriculture. Ph.D. Dissertation. The Ohio State University, Columbus, OH.
- Inwood, Shoshanah M., Jeff S. Sharp, Doug Jackson-Smith, Jill Clark. 2009. The Persistence of Agriculture at the Rural-Urban Interface (RUI): Does the Cost of Health Insurance Make a Difference. Social Responsibility Initiative Topical Report Series. Columbus, OH, USA. (Report No. 09-05).
- Inwood, Shoshanah M. and Jeff S. Sharp. 2009. Succession and Enterprise Adaptation at the Rural-Urban Interface. Social Responsibility Initiative Topical Report Series. Columbus, OH. (Report No. 09-03).
|
Progress 11/15/06 to 11/14/07
Outputs
OUTPUTS: The project is on-going with outputs being primarily data collection activities, including ongoing case study work in sites in Kentucky and Utah. Also a landowner survey was initiated and in progress in the seven case study sites across the country. Presentations to policy-makers, including presentations in Ohio to appropriate policy-makers such as the Annual Farmland Presentation summit. Presentations to international research and policy communities, including presentation at the TransAtlantic Land Use Conference. PARTICIPANTS: Jeff S. Sharp, principal investigator. Directed two case study field research studies, assisted with landowner survey instrument development, assisted with research and outreach output development. Doug Jackson-Smith, principal investigator. Directed case study field research studies in 3 sites, directed landowner survey instrument development and landowner survey data collection, assisted with research and outreach output development. Shoshanah Inwood, graduate research associated. Assisted with field research and data analysis and interpretation. Jill Clark, research associate, Conducted GIS and secondary data analysis associated with the project. Assisted with field research in two sites. Assisted with development of research and outreach materials. TARGET AUDIENCES: Target audience includes local government officials, economic development professionals, land-use planners and related parties, conventional and alternative agricultural organizations, local food system development leaders and concerned citizens, government agency personel (including FSA, NRCS, etc.). PROJECT MODIFICATIONS: Nothing significant to report during this reporting period.
Impacts
During this time period, outcomes/impacts are primarily centered on impacting the academic/policy oriented research community with an interest in issues of agricultural change at the interface. Presentation to professional audiences and increasing communication of expertise and findings to appropriate policy-makers is garnering attention and beginning to influence understanding of opportunities at the Rural-urban interface. The information has been most relevant to the emerging discussions in the planning community and government and economic development professionals seeking to identify ways to further development local agriculture, preserve farmland, and create new economic opportunities in rural-urban locales across the U.S. Presentations to a variety of state and national audiences have occurred or are scheduled in which relevant decision-makers are present to adopt the information to local efforts. The most significant change in actions that can be identified is the contribution of this research to shifting state and national dialogue about how best to address questions of farmland preservation and agricultural viability at the rural-urban interface, with the key element of this research being support for efforts that enhance agricultural viability.
Publications
- Sharp, J.S., Jackson-Smith, D. Inwood, S.M. and Clark, J.K. 2007. Agricultural Change at the Rural-Urban Interface: Policy, Social Infrastructure and Adaptation in 7 U.S. Counties. 13th International Symposium on Society and Resource Management. Park City, UT.
- Jackson-Smith. D., Sharp, J.S., Clark, J.K., Inwood, S.M. and Porreca, L. 2007. The impact of Local Land Use policy and social infrastructure on Agricultural Transitions in Urbanizing Areas. Paper presented at the 70th Annual Meeting of the Rural Sociological Society. Santa Clara, CA.
|
Progress 11/15/05 to 11/15/06
Outputs
Activities in 2006 included completion of phase 1 tasks and execution of phase 2 tasks, including field research in seven counties in five metro regions. Research occurred in Frederick County, MD, Kent County, MI, Forsythe and Hall Counties, GA, Shelby and Spencer Counties, KY, and Yamhill County, OR. Field research focused on discerning the type of agricultural change occurring in the study sites as well as assess the relative importance of community land-use and economic development policy as well as community social infrastructure on the trajectory of change. In late 2006, results from the field research were being analyzed and work was beginning on phase 3, a survey of landowners in each field study site as well as a key informant survey of knowledgeables in the 600+ counties located at the rural-urban interface and having substantial agricultural production.
Impacts
The data to be collected and analyzed by this project will inform local land-use and development policy that seeks to improve the viability of local agriculture in addition to preservation of farmland. Further, an improved understanding of the decision-making of local farmers will be acquired that might assist in programming aimed at improving farm viability and competitiveness at the rural-urban interface.
Publications
- No publications reported this period
|