Missouri: Urban Agriculture — Best Practices and Possibilities

Report developed for the Urban Sustainability Directors in the cities of Columbia, Kansas City and St. Louis, Missouri, through the financial assistance of the Urban Sustainability Directors Network

By Mary K. Hendrickson and Mark Porth
Division of Applied Social Sciences
Univ of Missouri Extension
June 2012

At the request of the cities of Kansas City, Columbia and St. Louis, we seek to provide research-based guidance that can help these cities to realize the potential of regional food systems as an entrepreneurial strategy for urban economic development, paying special attention to urban agriculture. In particular, these cities were interested in seeing how regional food systems can be developed to bring together the interests of municipalities, advocates and practitioners.

Our specific objective was to assess and compile best practices and policies to promote urban agriculture, working with members of the Urban Sustainability Directors Network (USDN) and urban agriculture advocates and practitioners in the cities of Kansas City, Columbia and St. Louis. This report joins several other major guides and assessments that have been published recently in the constantly changing eld of urban agriculture. The results of this project are presented in several different formats. First, this written report helps to de ne and describe urban agriculture and local food system efforts within Missouri’s metropolitan areas and other cities across the nation. A report is a static document that is good only at the time of writing.

Thus, a second output of this project is a dedicated web page created within University of Missouri Extension’s website to provide information and resources on urban agriculture as part of larger food system efforts. The third output, a searchable database housed on the website, contains links to existing resources that cities can use to support and encourage urban agriculture and local food system strategies. This database also affords access to existing ordinances concerning urban agriculture as well as educational and promotional efforts made by cities to help advocates and practitioners of urban agriculture. This database is meant to be a dynamic tool that can help cities share information and resources with each other and the general public in the rapidly emerging eld of urban agriculture.

Report here.