The Farm in the City in the Recent Past: Thoughts on a More Inclusive Urban Historiography

Urban Farm DB summary

Scholarly literature often treats urban agriculture as a new phenomenon, but it is a neglected dimension of urban history, with some U.S. cities, especially in the Northeast, having food-raising and processing practices until the recent past. This piece explores urban development, agricultural, and immigrant history, which have largely omitted discussions of city food production, using evidence from a study of Waterbury, Connecticut. Local food production in Waterbury adapted to the growing city's needs, and the city government both supported and undermined agriculture, offering insights for urban history and current urban agriculture policy.