Hi All,

Casey Hoy and Jason Parker have done an awesome job in pulling the "People" objective together.   It is very complete and comprehensive.  I hope you all had a chance to look at the posted materials. 

Now, I would like both Profit and Planet objectives teams to take a similar comprehensive approach to develop the descriptions.  Do not worry about the length, we can lump/cut the verbage later. 

I have pasted below brief description of the "Profit" (currently labelled as production) objective provided by Peter Ling and Matt Kleinhenz.     

January 2010 USDA-SCRI Urban Agriculture Proposal “Production” Component

Draft Statement of Goals and Objectives

P. Ling and M. Kleinhenz, 12/12/09

Assumptions:

1) the text below is preceded by: a) a short preamble that incorporates and references all three major components of the project team: production, distribution/marketing/processing, consumption and b) a section heading

2) specialty crop production includes non-food items (e.g., transplants/seedlings, floriculture crops)

Urban citizens tend to rely heavily on imported specialty crops originating with and distributed through mainstream channels. This model is effective based on some metrics but very inadequate according to modern ones derived from principles of sustainability. Most agree that fresh, high quality specialty crop items are rare or absent in many urban areas, that urban specialty crop production can enhance the quality of life of nearby residents and that urban systems will be significantly enhanced through the alignment of intellectual and material resources. We recognize that this alignment must occur along the entire specialty crop production-marketing-processing/distribution-use chain to be maximally beneficial. We also recognize that food production is an appropriate focus but that the value chains of other specialty crops hold significant potential for urban and other citizens. As a major step in the purposeful, stakeholder-supported alignment of private and public resources, we aim to focus the full capacity of our team on increasing the short- and long-term vitality of urban systems, in part through raising their specialty crop production capacity. We are an experienced, integrated, multi-disciplinary, multi-institution and outcome-oriented team. We aim to increase urban specialty crop production capacity through a tightly coordinated education (training) and research (development, discovery) effort that takes advantage of urban built and human capital while recognizing and helping to offset their respective limitations.

            Urban settings tend to possess an ample built infrastructure and a concentrated supply of diverse human capital, especially technical, educational and manufacturing in orientation. Moreover, all urban dwellers represent potential specialty crop buyers, a distinct nearby bonus for urban specialty crop growers, processors, marketers and distributors. These are major assets of urban systems. At the same time, the built infrastructure and dense population of urban settings also currently constrain specialty crop production systems. Land parcels tend to be small and ringed by non-crop production oriented neighbors. Potential urban production sites also possess variable microclimates and may lack soil, open access to sunlight, and a clear owner. Also, in temperate zones, seasonal fluctuations in temperature, moisture, light and other factors can be more extreme in urban settings. In addition, most urbanites lack direct experience with plant growth, whether for business, pleasure or personal sustenance, and some regard it as a rural issue or activity. Making the most efficient use of urban assets in a manner compatible with their unique setting is key to the sustainability of urban systems and, by association, those that surround them. As a step in this process, we propose to offer a suite of coordinated, readily-accessible, hands-on and classroom-style educational programs and companion digital and print products specifically designed to increase the success of urban specialty crop growers. The lengthening list of current and prospective urban specialty crop growers in the southern Great Lakes region will be the primary audience for this educational effort but our effort is likely to assist specialty crop growers elsewhere. Likewise, our educational effort will bridge not-for-profit and for-profit specialty crop production and integrate technical information and expertise specific to each motive. Our data suggest that many for-profit urban specialty crop enterprises begin as not-for-profit ones and that for-profit operators may initially lack agri-business experience. The data also suggest that gardens and farms share certain technical requirements, opportunities for meaningful innovation and benefits to urban citizens. Therefore, we aim to include gardeners and farmers as expert teachers in each others’ education. Training programs and products that wed Master Gardeners and new urban specialty crop farmers is one example of the resource efficiency and synergy we plan to achieve in this education (training) objective.

            We also propose to demonstrate and test examples of urban built/material infrastructure integration that exploit “reuse, recycle, reduce” principles. Our second objective is to capture and redirect excess urban resources into urban specialty crop systems, thereby increasing their efficiency. Several resources are of particular interest in this objective.

            1. Land. Currently, there is an abundance of vacant or underutilized urban lots throughout the project region. The exact number and location of the lots that are suitable for urban specialty crop production are unknown but thought to be high and uniformly distributed. Nevertheless, at this time, city planners and others cannot efficiently identify or inventory these parcels or direct prospective users to them. We will develop a tool used to rapidly assess the suitability of urban lots for specialty crop production. The tool will rely on reliably scored or measured physico-chemical characteristics such as size, dimensions, slope, exposure (e.g., to sun and wind), drainage, soil quality, and proximity to water and power. In this way, we will contribute to the development of a stakeholder-accepted, widely-applied mechanism for matching urban land and other material resources with their proposed use in specialty crop production. This mechanism and its application will also have significant educational and research value when site characteristics and productivity are co-mapped with potential product distribution hubs and population centers.

            2. Energy. Temperature manipulation is commonplace but potentially costly in specialty crop production. Excess heat and cold are common in urban settings. We will document the performance of localized systems designed to shuttle excess temperature energy between common urban sites (e.g., manufacturing facilities, bakeries, laundromats, dry cleaners, high-density housing units) and specialty crop growth sites. We will also document the performance of microclimate modification tools (e.g., high tunnels) within urban specialty crop systems.

            3. Water. Specialty crops require consistent supplies of water and urban areas tend to devote a significant amount of resources to water management (e.g., sewer and stormwater infrastructure). We will document the performance of localized systems designed to redirect excess water to specialty crop growth sites and companion naturalized zones.

            4. Soil. The abundance and quality of urban soil is in question but most presume that neither will support widespread, large-scale urban specialty crop production. We will test this hypothesis through accepted sample collection and analysis procedures. We will also document the performance of soil/plant rooting media built through composting or processing urban solid and liquid waste streams.

            Through this research (development, discovery) objective, we aim to demonstrate and test models (comprised of tools and processes) for urban resource capture and redirection, particularly as they apply to specialty crop systems. These models will be established in real-life urban settings and on units associated with our respective academic institutions in order to capitalize on and integrate their strengths. Companion private and public sites will also facilitate the integration of research and education, including the education of project investigators and their teams. Collectively, these models will serve as an example approach to enhancing specialty crop-based sources of revenue, sustenance, well-being and education.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~