Farm Stores in agriburbia: The roles of agricultural retail on the rural-urban fringe

Authors

  • Lenore Newman University of the Fraser Valley, Department of Geography and the Environment
  • Lisa Jordan Powell UBC Faculty of Land and Food Systems
  • Jennifer Nickel University of the Fraser Valley, Department of Geography and the Environment
  • Dylan Anderson University of the Fraser Valley, Department of Geography and the Environment
  • Lea Jovanovic University of the Fraser Valley, Department of Geography and the Environment
  • Eileen Mendez University of the Fraser Valley, Department of Geography and the Environment
  • Barbara Mitchell University of the Fraser Valley, Department of Geography and the Environment
  • Kathryn Kelly-Freiberg University of the Fraser Valley, Department of Geography and the Environment

DOI:

https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v4i1.211

Keywords:

Rural/urban fringe farm retail, agritourism, multifunctionality, local food

Abstract

This investigation highlights the role of on-farm stores on the rural/urban fringe near Vancouver, Canada. Operators achieve higher economic return by targeting populations interested in local food and in agritourism, including customers from towns in the fringe and from the larger nearby urban center. The farm stores catered to a rural idyll that reflects cultural conceptions of farm life. We suggest the multifunctional landscape of the farm store provides economic and cultural benefits, and should be considered as sustaining agriculture. The study revealed that farm store operators in particular share the rural idyll of urban consumers, though agritourism operators are more consciously including rural elements in their operations.

Author Biography

Lenore Newman, University of the Fraser Valley, Department of Geography and the Environment

Lenore Newman's love affair with food began on her family's fishing boats, where she gained an early introduction into the world of direct marketing of local products. She holds a Canada Research Chair in Food Security and Environment at the University of the Fraser Valley, where she is an associate professor in the department of Geography and the Environment. She runs a research program focused on Canadian regional cuisines, local food sovereignty, culturally preferred foods, and agricultural land use. Dr. Newman is a member of the Royal Society of Canada's New College, and she is also director of the Agriburban Research Centre at UFV, which studies the presence of agriculture on the rural/urban fringe at the landscape level, as well as agricultural tourism and place branding in such areas. She holds a PhD in Environmental Studies from York University. She has written extensively on the resurgence of farmers' markets in Canada, and is a strong advocate for fresh, local food. Her first book is Speaking in Cod Tongues: A Canadian Culinary Journey.
photograph of urban graffiti on a city wall showing a thought bubble saying "I love cheese" in graphic elements

Downloads

Additional Files

Published

2017-05-26

How to Cite

Newman, L., Powell, L. J., Nickel, J., Anderson, D., Jovanovic, L., Mendez, E., … Kelly-Freiberg, K. (2017). Farm Stores in agriburbia: The roles of agricultural retail on the rural-urban fringe. Canadian Food Studies La Revue Canadienne Des études Sur l’alimentation, 4(1), 4–23. https://doi.org/10.15353/cfs-rcea.v4i1.211

Issue

Vol. 4 No. 1 (2017): Changing food status and perception

Section

Research Articles

License

Authors who publish with this journal agree to the following terms: Authors retain copyright and grant the journal right of first publication with the work simultaneously licensed under a Creative Commons License that allows others to share the work with an acknowledgement of the work's authorship and initial publication in this journal. Work published in CFS/RCÉA prior to and including Vol. 8, No. 3 (2021) is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY license. Work published in Vol. 8, No. 4 (2021) and after is licensed under the Creative Commons CC BY-SA license. Authors are able to enter into separate, additional contractual arrangements for the non-exclusive distribution of the journal's published version of the work (e.g., post it to an institutional repository or publish it in a book), with an acknowledgement of its initial publication in this journal. Authors are permitted and encouraged to post their work online (e.g., in institutional repositories or on their website) prior to and during the submission process, as it can lead to productive exchanges, as well as earlier and greater citation of published work. (See more on Open Access.)