Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development Seeks Article Submissions

February 3rd, 2010 by Ashley DeForest

Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development Seeks Article Submissions

The Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Development (JAFSCD) is an online, international, peer-reviewed publication focused on the practice and applied research interests of agriculture and food systems development professionals. The Journal emphasizes best practices and tools related to the planning, community economic development, and the ecological protection of local and regional agriculture and food systems, and strives to bridge the interests of practitioners and academics and encourage cooperation among local stakeholders. Articles are published online as they are approved, but are gathered into quarterly issues for indexing purposes. Whole issues and individual articles of the Journal are also available through print-on-demand.

As the journal focuses on the practice of agriculture and food system development, empirical and methodological content are emphasized over the theoretical. To be included in JAFSCD Vol. 1 Issue 2, the deadline for submission is June 5, 2010

Submission Guidelines

JAFSCD welcomes research or policy briefs, and case studies (up to 2,500 words) and full articles (up to 8,500 words) on best community-development practices related to:

Urban livestock management and regulation
Urban market gardening and backyard gardening
Marketing and value-adding
Waste management and reuse
Urban farming by immigrant or other special populations
Farming on the fringe

Briefs, case studies, and articles should focus on illustrative programs or projects, survey results, literature reviews, and public policy related — but not limited to — land-use planning and regulation, health ordinances or their implementation, training and educational programs, marketing systems or value chains, partnership development, systems approaches, issues of scale, and farm-neighbor relations. We are particularly interested in holistic approaches that combine community and economic development with environmental protection. Examples of applied research questions include:

Poultry, rabbit, swine, and small ruminant production versus community health: can a balance of interests be found?
Where and why are urban live animal markets flourishing? What are the SWOTs?
Where and why have some conventional family farmers been able to successfully adapt to urbanization, and what are winning programming strategies to support them?
What are key programmatic ingredients in helping older immigrants with a background and interest in farming gain access to agricultural opportunities in and around cities?
What are the trends in growth of urban and peri-urban farming, and what hinders or encourages urban or peri-urban agriculture?
What architecture or landscape designs are successfully accommodating urban or peri-urban agriculture?
Where are urban farming policies working or showing promise? Why?
What are viable approaches to market analysis and modeling for urban food production and sales outlets?
There is a rich literature on urban agriculture in the Global South. Can that literature inform approaches that can be taken in the North?

Issue Background

The Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) of the United Nations has defined urban agriculture as “an industry that produces, processes and markets food and fuel, largely in response to the daily demand of consumers within a town, city, or metropolis, on land and water dispersed throughout the urban and peri-urban area, applying intensive production methods, using and reusing natural resources and urban wastes to yield a diversity of crops and livestock.” The findings of national censuses, household surveys, and research projects suggest that up to two-thirds of urban and peri-urban households around the world are involved in agriculture. Much of the food produced is for their own consumption, with occasional surpluses sold to local markets ().

Urban and peri-urban agriculture appears to be on the rise in industrial countries, especially among ethnic immigrant groups in North America and Europe. This may be fueled by people’s economic situations as well as by growing interest in greening cities, localizing food production, and promoting food sovereignty These trends in urban and peri-urban agriculture are also accompanied by debates on related issues like land use, public health, sanitation, and economic viability. Our intent for this special-topic call for papers is to fill the significant deficit in the applied literature on trends and programming activities.

Submission Details

Please submit an abstract or concept piece directly to JAFSCD publisher Duncan Hilchey for initial screening and feedback: duncan@NewLeafNet.com. For additional details on this call for papers and submission guidelines, visit www.AgDevJournal.com.

The Journal of Agriculture, Food Systems, and Community Development is published by New Leaf Publishing and Consulting.

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