Sponsor
Portland State University. School of Urban and Public Affairs
First Advisor
Sheldon Edner
Term of Graduation
Summer 1984
Date of Publication
Summer 6-29-1984
Document Type
Dissertation
Degree Name
Doctor of Philosophy (Ph.D.) in Urban Studies
Department
Urban Studies
Language
English
Subjects
Agriculture -- Washing (State), Food supply -- Washington (State), Agriculture, Food supply, Washington (State)
Physical Description
1 online resource; (xv, 298 pages)
Abstract
Historically, agricultural policy has been developed at the national level, while land use decisions have been made at the municipal or county level. In primarily rural areas, the policy objectives of these domains are largely consistent: agricultural development. In urban areas, however, the food production objectives of national policy and the planning objectives of local government may be incongruent. This research uses the European construct of "peri-urban agriculture" as a framework in which to address the issues confronting both farm producers and metropolitan areas.
The principal hypothesis to be tested in this research is that farmer characteristics differ between peri-urban and other areas. Hence, public policies to be effective must reflect these differences. However, traditional agricultural policy, while historically effective in encouraging or discouraging farm production, has changed little from its inception in the early 1930s. For the most part, it is well suited to the incentive system which motivates commercial farmers. However, if our hypothesis is confirmed, these policies will not be the most effective (and may be counter productive) to a metropolitan objective of increasing food production.
This study (1) reviews the characteristics of farmer types in the peri-urban area, (2) verifies the difference between rural and peri-urban farmer characteristics, (3) analyzes incentives necessary to increase production by the part-time peri-urban farmer, (4) catalogues recent local food policy initiatives, and (5) reviews the proposed policy alternatives for conformance with farmer perception of production obstacles.
This investigation has demonstrated that agricultural producers in the peri-urban area are a heterogeneous group, comprised of a small group of larger, commercial (residual) farmers, and a larger group of part-time farmers. The latter group conform to the production and enterprise characteristics noted in the European based literature on peri-urban agriculture and the personal and family characteristics documented in the U.S. rural sociology literature on small scale and part-time farmers.
A model originally developed by Tinbergen (1952) and later adapted by Madden (1981) to the needs of small scale farmers was found to approximate the decision-making processes of peri-urban farmers. Survey data confirmed that this farming subgroup places higher value on quality of life factors and less on profit maximization than other farmers in the sample. The dominance of quality of life variables suggests that these farmers are less likely to be motivated by the traditional price and income policies that have served as the foundation of U.S. agricultural policy for the past 50 years.
The survey results also revealed that land use concerns (property taxes, land availability, and urban sprawl), as obstacles to production, were identified more frequently by the peri-urban farmer than traditional, commercial farmers. Over 30 local initiative policies were reviewed for congruence with the findings of the western Washington farmer survey. Agricultural land preservation was the only specific objective central to a majority of the policies reviewed that was congruent with the expressed concerns of peri-urban farmer respondents.
The research concludes that this greater sensitivity to land issues and a decision approach that includes variables beyond profit maximization, may be key factors in the development of food policies designed to affect production in the peri-urban area.
Rights
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Persistent Identifier
https://archives.pdx.edu/ds/psu/43171
Recommended Citation
Gray, William H., "Peri-Urban Agriculture in Western Washington: An Identification of Factors of Potential Influence to the Development of Metropolitan Food Policy" (1984). Dissertations and Theses. Paper 6760.
Comments
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