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Cities Developing Urban Agriculture Codes

Urban agriculture has become increasingly popular in recent years as a way to deal with vacant properties, revitalize neighborhoods, and provide job skills and nutrition to local residents struggling with poverty and a lack of access to fresh produce.

In Austin, Texas, a working group of the Sustainable Food Policy Board is meeting to clarify and update city code related to urban farms, livestock, size of farm, employees and dwellings, according to the Austin Chronicle.

The working group has been holding public sessions to gather input from urban farmers and community members about pending updates to the urban farm ordinance.

In April 2013, the Flint Farmers' Market reported that the Detroit City Council adopted the city's first urban agriculture zoning ordinance recognizing agriculture as a legitimate land use and setting standards for it.

Other cities working to update or create urban agriculture codes include Boston, Massachusetts;
Fort Collins, Colorado; and Portland, Oregon.

For more information, see USDA's National Ag Library webpage on Urban Agriculture.

Home » Markets & Industries » Food » E-Commerce

Photo courtesy of U.S. Census Bureau, Public Information Office.

AgMRC-Developed Materials

Wine on the Web - Rapid Appraisal of Web sites by Wineries and Wine Merchants from Australia, California and Germany, University of California, 2003.

Other Information

Business to Business (B2B) Agricultural E-Commerce Primer and E-Commerce Guidance for Niche Marketing Endeavors, Carl German, University of Delaware, 2008 - This PowerPoint presentation shows growers how to use the Internet to market and promote their business and to use e-commerce to sell their products. The presentation defines fundamental terms and concepts related to e-commerce, describes the evolution of e-commerce in agriculture and explains topics pertinent to selling and marketing on the Internet.
Computers and the Internet, Federal Trade Commission - This lists FTC consumer publications on computer and Internet topics.
E-Commerce/Information Technology, Food Industry Center, University of Minnesota - This site lists working papers on e-commerce topics.
E-Stats, U.S. Census Bureau - This is the official government site for measuring the electronic economy. It covers approximately 77 percent of economic activity. Agriculture is excluded.
Internet Retailer - This web portal to e-commerce intelligence has sections on marketing, technology, trends and news.
Online Product Research, Pew Research Center, 2010.
Online Shopping, Pew Research Center, 2008.
National E-Commerce Extension Initiative, Southern Rural Development Center - This site has a database of e-commerce educational products from land-grant institutions. Previous conference proceedings are listed under previous trainings.
Thoughts for Food: Key Ingredients for Selling Food Online, ECommerce-Guide, 2005.

Links checked November 2012.

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