Great Lakes Urban Agriculture


Project Director: Margaret Rivera — The Ohio State University

Urban agriculture enterprises, particularly within the North Central region, have established themselves as viable niche business ventures at a time of shrinking Extension budgets and limited staff resources in urban centers. Often people engaged in urban agriculture enterprises are new and beginning farmers, non-English speakers, or are from historically underserved populations. These operators/workers are often coming to the field without baseline experience with specialty crop production and/or pest management issues.

Extension personnel have noted that most urban farmers and community gardeners do not depend on conventional pest management and need to be exposed to appropriate research-based information targeted to very small-scale operations in order to minimize risk and ensure sustainability. In order to provide scale-appropriate resources, the Great Lakes Urban Agriculture IPM Working Group was formed. An organization of members from multiple Midwestern states, the working group seeks to make efforts to connect with Extension personnel in agriculture and transfer these connections to their goals. Current objectives include organizing a networking meeting, executing a survey for urban growers to identify their needs related to IPM, and two YouTube videos dedicated to harnessing attention from younger populations related to environmental considerations.

Achievements