Edible Landscape Resources through the Libraries
Locate basic demographics and other community profiles information from the Met Council
- Scott County Profile
- Compare with metro area counties and cities
Research and professional journal articles.
- Does Urban Agriculture Improve Food Security? Examining the Nexus of Food Access and Distribution of Urban Produced Foods in the United States: A Systematic Review
- Creating healthy and just bioregions
- Food Forest Movement Finds Fertile Ground in the Midwest
- Examining the Business Case and Models for Sustainable Multifunctional Edible Landscaping Enterprises in the Phoenix Metro Area
- Producing edible landscapes in Seattle's urban forest
Search these indexes for more articles - conduct further searches with suggested keywords: "edible landscapes" ; "food forests"; "food insecurity"
Books in the UMN Library collection. Use Library Search to find additional titles of interest.
Carrot City by ISBN: 9781580933117Publication Date: 2011-09-20Carrot City is a collection of ideas, both conceptual and realized, that use design to enable sustainable food production, helping to reintroduce urban agriculture to our cities. Focusing on the need and desire to grow food within the city to supply food from local sources, the contributions of architecture, landscape design, and urban design are explored. Forty projects demonstrate how the production of food can lead to visually striking and artistically interesting solutions that create community and provide inhabitants with immediate access to fresh, healthful ingredients. The authors show how city planning and architecture that considers food production as a fundamental requirement of design result in more community gardens, greenhouses tucked under raised highways, edible landscapes in front yards in place of resource-devouring lawns, living walls that bring greenery into dense city blocks, and productive green roofs on schools and large apartment blocks that can be tended and harvested by students and residents alike.
Edible LandscapeISBN: 9781610586641As the fresh food revolution sweeps the nation, more and more people are seeking out delicious offerings from local growers. We have had our fill of tasteless, woody tomatoes from the far reaches of the globe and have begun tasting again thanks to farmers markets and co-ops the real flavors we remember from childhood. Inspired by these events, people have started growing food in the most unlikely places, including rooftops, abandoned parking lots, and tiny balconies and backyards on average city streets.
Policy & Legal Sources.
Use these to find policy reports, data visualizations, current laws and municipal codes related to edible landscapes and society.
PolicyMap - is a web-based online data and mapping application that provides access to over 15,000 indicators related to demographics, housing, crime, mortgages, health, jobs and more. Data is available at all common geographies (address, block group, census tract, zip code, county, city, state, MSA) as well as unique geographies like school districts and political boundaries. Data comes from both public and proprietary sources.
Here is an example of child food insecurity data for Scott County, MN. The map may be modified with a wide variety of variables.
The following example looks at free & reduced lunch rates in Scott County.
National Conference of State Legislatures - bipartisan organization providing states support, ideas, connections and a strong voice on Capitol Hill.
- Report and State-by-State legislative activity to address Increasing Access to Farmer's Markets
- "Coinciding with a rise in farmers market, cities and states are seeking to utilize urban areas by transforming small parcels of land or vacant lots into areas of agricultural production." Read about Urban Agriculture State Legislation, published in August 2019.
Proquest Congressional provides access to congressional information, from hearings and bills to laws and reports. While terms like "food forest" and "edible landscapes" have limited results, searching phrases like "urban agriculture" and "support for local food systems" provide better results:
- Reports such as 2018 Farm Bill Primer: Support for Local Food Systems, CRS In Focus provide details on new departments and programs, including grants, in the USDA.
- Placing urban agriculture in the framework of USDA, short reports such as 2018 Farm Bill Primer: Support for Urban Agriculture, CRS In Focus can be most helpful.
Turning now to local municipal codes. These can be easily searched from city websites. Searching multiple cities at once is more problematic, but a source that does make searching easier is the MuniCode website. For example, here you can find the Minnesota cities.
News Articles
- Atlanta’s Food Forest Will Provide Fresh Fruit, Nuts, and Herbs to Forage
- How Atlanta and Other Cities Can Become More Edible
The Libraries have sources of national and local news sources.
- Access World News - limit this source to Minnesota - or extend to other geographies of interest to look for edible landscape cases across the country.
- American City Business Journals - search this collection to locate news related to business in your geography.
- NextCity.org - find articles about urban landscapes.
Advocacy Organizations
Using the Leadership Connect, GuideStar or Foundation Directory Online resources to location organizations advocating in some way for edible landscapes. Then search the organization's website for more details about resources of potential interest. A few sample organizations:
- Beacon Food Forest - an example of an active food forest organization based in Seattle, WA.
- Community Food Forests - check out this website, paying attention to the map of locations as well as the resources section.
- Wilder Research Health Food Access website. Find data and reports on their activities, including partnering organizations.