A case study based exploration of Seattle Urban Agriculture Projects

Productive Neighborhoods

By Magdalena Celinska, Intern
In collaboration with Jason Henry & Rachael Meyer
The Berger Partnership
Summer Internship 2011
Seattle, WA
(Must see report. Mike)

Introduction:

Currently there are 103 urban food production sites in Seattle. These include urban farms, P-Patches, community gardens, and school gardens. From the 103 sites, however, only 10 are functioning as Urban Farms. While P-Patches, community gardens, and school gardens are an important component of Seattle’s food system, urban farms have the potential to make a large impact on the local food supply system. Within this report we focus on existing urban farming case studies to better understand how these farms function.

As designers, we seek to support these functions in our projects because we know the environmental and social values that they can bring to build healthy cities and communities. Through the exploration of these case studies we observed a number of factors that prevent urban farmers from being able to turn a profit despite the large return on community benefit. In order for the urban farming movement to continue to progress it must become more accessible and economically viable for urban farmers.

See the report here.