Cultivating dreams: examining community involvement and satisfaction in Fayetteville farms

Agriculture has a great, often untapped potential to be integrated in to the urban landscape as part of a green infrastructure and food production network. Urban agriculture is often piecemeal and opportunistic, rarely part of a city-wide master plan or with a comprehensive site plan. Because of this, farms are less likely to be considered as public space like parks and plazas or be studied as part of the human environment. This study utilizes data triangulation from site analysis, policy analysis and surveys to attempt to determine how urban farms might be improved in specific categories such as visibility and worker comfort. The survey questions what workers and volunteers value in urban farms and will be compared with site drawings, photographs and other research. From connections formed through these comparisons, the research develops a series of general physical and procedural templates that farms may use as a starting point for improving relationships with both their workers and their surrounding communities.