Commercial urban agriculture in Florida: a qualitative needs assessment

Abstract The global trend of urbanization coupled with an increasing awareness the importance food systems resilience, has led to interest in urban agriculture sustainably feed rapidly growing population and mitigate against supply chain disruptions. While home community gardens have been long studied, there relatively little empirical research focused specifically on commercial (CUA) operations. purpose this study was characterize farms, identify their primary barriers business development expansion, perceptions future opportunities, specific informational needs. Because CUA received less attention previous research, a qualitative approach used for needs assessment collect rich, contextualized information help differentiate barriers, opportunities operations as opposed rural counterparts. We conducted semi-structured interviews ( n = 29) producers Florida. These revealed that face many same are common establishing small additional due local government regulations tensions associated farming land is not traditionally agriculture. Despite these difficulties, operators believe location key benefit operation they see variety market expansion.