Suburban Agriculture: Fulfilling Spaces, Creating Places - The Agricultural Potential of a Neighborhood

Abstract

This project is a continuation of an earlier project which began in 2018 with the purpose of quantifying potential agricultural land in suburban neighborhoods. This project now expands on the previous work with the understanding that not only is there a significant potential for urban agriculture in suburban residential lots, but also a considerable lack of attention to suburbs in the literature surrounding urban agriculture. Despite urban agriculture’s recent growth as a widely explored topic in academia, surprisingly little work has been done regarding the use of suburban lawns for producing food. We predicted that the agricultural potential of suburbs was being greatly overlooked, and our case-study of eight sites in Eau Claire, WI attempts to address this.