Growing Together: Participatory Approaches in Urban Agriculture Extension

Urban agriculture offers a compelling set of benefits to urban residents, but also faces unique socio-ecological challenges because of its urban setting (e.g., urban soil contamination, city zoning, etc.). Increasing Land-Grant University Extension services for urban farms and gardens is one strategy for supporting these producers and their contributions to the urban environment. Notably, the growth of urban agriculture programming within US Extension systems has paralleled a push for more participatory and inclusive community engagement approaches within Extension, particularly in the area of developing local, community, and regional food systems. As a programmatic area, urban agriculture offers opportunities for Extension to engage new audiences, collaborate through new partnerships, and address issues of social equity in the food system. In this chapter, we review participatory extension approaches and show how they have been applied to urban agriculture through five US Extension case studies. A nationwide survey of Extension personnel working on local, community, and regional food systems conducted in 2015 informed the selection of case studies. These examples demonstrate how urban agroecological knowledge and networks are being developed and applied, and suggest directions for future Extension work.