Farmers' views of the prospects for agriculture in a metropolitan area

Abstract

To determine how farmers view their future in agriculture under metropolitan development pressures, we interviewed 52 dairy and fruit/vegetable farmers in the suburbs of Worcester, Massachusetts, a metropolitan area in the heavily urbanized northeast region of the US. Three measures were used for whether the farmers are building up their farms or are anticipating having to leave agriculture: actions taken in the past five years, actions planned for the next five years and expectations of the future status of the land. The farmers were more positive and optimistic than would be expected from the ‘impermanence syndrome’ thought to cause the decline of agriculture near cities. Their answers varied more with personal and household characteristics than characteristics of the farm or of the surrounding area. This contradicts the belief that farmers' response to metropolitan pressures mainly is a consequence of land-use competition and the presence of a non-farming population.