Urban farming is the practice of cultivating, processing, and distributing food in or around urban and suburban areas. It encompasses an enormous range of operations: a half-acre market garden on a vacant urban lot, a rooftop greenhouse producing tomatoes for city restaurants, a network of community garden plots maintained by neighborhood residents, a hydroponic vertical farm in a converted warehouse, and a backyard homesteader keeping chickens and growing a serious kitchen garden.

What urban farms share is location — inside or adjacent to cities — and a connection to the communities around them. Unlike rural farms that ship food into cities through distribution networks, urban farms produce within the city itself, often selling direct to neighbors, restaurants, and local institutions with minimal supply chain in between.

The urban farm movement has grown substantially since 2008 and accelerated again after 2020. It's driven by interest in local food, food justice concerns about access in low-income urban neighborhoods, land available through urban blight, and the combination of controlled environment agriculture technologies that make indoor production viable at small scale.

Why It Matters

Food access and food deserts. Many low-income urban neighborhoods — often called "food deserts" — lack access to fresh, affordable produce within a reasonable distance. Urban farms and community gardens address this directly by producing food in the neighborhoods that need it most. Community gardens in particular have been shown in multiple studies to improve fresh food access, diet quality, and food security in underserved urban communities.

Proximity eliminates supply chain. An urban farm selling to restaurants within 5 miles of its production site has zero cold chain, zero long-haul shipping, and delivery measured in minutes rather than days. For chefs sourcing the freshest possible product, proximity is irreplaceable.

Community and education. Urban farms are visible food production in neighborhoods where most residents have no other context for how food is grown. Community gardens give participants direct experience with growing, planting, and harvesting. School farms and youth agricultural programs create connections between young people and food systems that last into adulthood.

Economic development. Urban farms create jobs, often in neighborhoods that need them. They can anchor neighborhood development in ways that reinforce rather than displace existing community fabric. Some urban farms operate as social enterprises, employing and training residents from underserved communities in horticultural and business skills.

Land use and environmental benefits. Converting vacant lots to productive green space reduces urban heat island effects, improves air quality, manages stormwater, and provides habitat for pollinators and beneficial insects. The environmental co-benefits of urban agriculture extend well beyond food production.

What to Look For

Types of urban farming operations:

Community gardens. Plots maintained by individual gardeners within a shared space. Typically managed by a nonprofit, city agency, or community organization. Members pay a small annual fee or provide labor in exchange for growing space. Produce is for personal use rather than sale. The most widespread form of urban farming.

Market gardens on urban land. Commercial or quasi-commercial vegetable production on urban or peri-urban land — vacant lots, church properties, institutional land, donated parcels. These operations sell at farmers markets, to restaurants, or through CSAs. Often small-scale but genuinely local.

Rooftop farms. Growing on building rooftops, either in containers, raised beds, or greenhouse structures. Rooftop farms make productive use of space that otherwise generates no food. New York City's Brooklyn Grange and Chicago's Gotham Greens are well-known examples. Load capacity, irrigation access, and structural considerations limit which rooftops are viable.

Indoor/controlled environment. Hydroponic and vertical farming operations inside repurposed buildings. See the Hydroponics and Vertical Farming articles for more detail on these specific systems.

Food forests and edible landscapes. Planting fruit trees, berry shrubs, and perennial food plants in public or semi-public urban spaces. Urban food forests in Seattle, Atlanta, and many other cities provide community-accessible perennial food production.

Peri-urban farms. Farms located just outside city limits — in the suburban ring — but oriented toward urban markets. Often the most commercially viable form of urban food production, with access to land at lower cost than urban core while maintaining proximity to the market.

Common Questions

Can urban farms actually produce significant food for a city?

At current scale, urban agriculture contributes a small percentage of urban food supply — estimates range from 1-10% of fresh vegetables in cities with active urban farming programs. The limiting factors are land, light (buildings shade land), and the high cost of urban land relative to its agricultural productive value. Urban farming's contribution is real but supplementary; it can meaningfully increase local food access for specific crops and specific communities without replacing rural farm supply.

How do I find urban farms and community gardens in my city?

Many cities have urban agriculture offices or programs within their parks or planning departments that maintain directories. Local food policy councils often compile resources. The American Community Gardening Association has a national database. For market-scale urban farms selling direct, the same channels as rural farms apply — local farmers markets, CSA listings, and restaurant sourcing networks often feature urban producers.

Find urban farms and local food producers near you on the U.S. Farm Trail map.