Photo Credit: Michael Levenston
1978 – Backyard in Strathcona neighbourhood, Vancouver.

By Jac Smit
See ‘From The Desk of Jac Smit’ here.

There are 110 million Small-Scale Vegetable Growers in the USA in 2008: 95 million of them are urban and peri-urban.

The National Gardening Association [NGA], with inputs from a Roper survey and the USDA, finds that 40 percent of America’s 275 million households are growing vegetables and culinary herbs, approximately 110 million households. The US Census tells us that the country is 80 percent urban. In rural communities the share raising veggies is about 2 of 3 and in urban neighborhoods, from Boston to Fargo, it’s about 1 in 3. Arithmetic says 15 rural and 95 million urban healthy food producers.

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