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City farm
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
City farms are community-run projects in urban areas, which involve people working with animals and plants. They aim to improve community relationships and offer an awareness of horticulture and farming to people who live in built-up areas.
They vary in size from small plots on housing estates to larger farms that occupy a number of acres. It is estimated that more than three million people visit city farms each year and around half a million people work on them as volunteers.[citation needed] Although some city farms have paid employees, most rely heavily on volunteer labour, and some are run by volunteers alone. Others operate as partnerships with local authories. In London the city farms now have a show at an agricultural college called Capel manor every September.
City farm also refers to "City Farm," a three quarter acre bio-intensive farm on the Southside of Providence, Rhode Island.
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City farms can allow urban dwellers to interact with farm animals and crops. For some people who may never visit a rural farm this provides a chance to see how farm animals are raised and to make the link between 'agriculture' and 'food'. They provide a focus for educational, environmental and conservation activities.
During the 1960s a number of community gardens were established in the United Kingdom, influenced by the community garden movement in the United States. The first city farm was set up in 1972 in Kentish Town, London. It combined farm animals with gardening space, an addition inspired by children's farms in the Netherlands. Other city farms followed across London and there are now over sixty city farms in the United Kingdom.
There are also around a thousand community gardens and seventy-five school farms in the UK. Together with city farms they are represented by The Federation of City Farms and Community Gardens. The Access to Farms scheme is a project to enable educational access to working farms. Allotments also provide agricultural space for individuals and groups within urban areas.