Ostrom, M.

Marcy Ostrom

Participatory On-Farm Agroecological Education: Assessing the Effectiveness of a 14 year Farmer-University Partnership

Recent decades have seen a growing recognition that diverse, small, organic, and sustainable farms have been underserved by standard public agricultural research and extension paradigms (FAO 2011, IAASTD 2009, IPES 2016). Following the publication of the seminal USDA report “A Time to Act” (1998), a state legislative initiative established a Small Farms Program (SFP) at […]

Agroecological Assessment of Farming in the Rural-Urban Interface: Building Resiliency in Regional Food Systems

Farmland in urban-influenced regions produces the majority of vegetables and fruits grown in the U.S., yet rural-urban interface (RUI) farms are threatened by development pressure, climate change, economic conditions, and infrastructure loss (American Farmland Trust, 2007). Developing innovative marketing relationships and strategic policy alliances with urban consumers can potentially enhance RUI farm viability. Community-led food […]