Motivations and Barriers to Stakeholder Participation in Local Food Value Chains in Phoenix, Arizona

www.ruaf.org Maricopa County in Arizona, which includes the city of Phoenix and the surrounding suburban areas, is currently the fourth most populous county in the country and among the fastest growing(1). Rapid urbanisation has put a great deal of pressure on agriculture, which has historically been very important in the county. According to the 2007 agricultural census, total farmland declined by 35 per cent from 1997-2007 and accounted for 11 per cent of total land in the county in 2007. The Groundwater Management Act passed in 1980, following concerns about groundwater overdraft in this arid region, prohibits the establishment of new irrigated lands in the county. This has implied that as farmland in the urban core gets out-competed, no new farms can be established in the outlying desert regions. This has led to a very different spatial distribution of farmland in the county compared to other metropolitan regions where expanding urbanisation pushes farms to the periphery.