Welcome to the 'Agrihood': Homes Built Around Working Farms

ABC News ^ | 09 February 2016 | Dean Fosdick

[Lorianne]

Gated communities with houses clustered around golf courses, swimming pools, party rooms and fitness centers are common in many suburban areas. But homes built adjacent to functioning farms?

Welcome to "agrihoods" — pastoral ventures with healthier foods as their focus.

This farm-to-table residential model has been sprouting up everywhere from Atlanta to Shanghai. It involves homes built within strolling distance of small working farms, where produce matures under the hungry gaze of residents, where people can venture out and pick greens for their salads.

"Real estate developers are looking for the next big thing to set them apart," said Ed McMahon, senior resident fellow with the Urban Land Institute in Washington. "That gives them a competitive advantage."

There are many variations of the agrihood, McMahon said. "Some developers rent acreage to farmers," he said. "Some set up non-profit C.S.A. (community-supported agriculture) programs. Some have the residents doing it (the growing) themselves."

Agrihoods frequently include farmer's markets, inns and restaurants sited in communal hubs where the edibles are processed or sold.

[DoughtyOne]

[Farmer Dean]

Once you’ve eaten farm fresh veggies you come to loath the junk in the supermarket.

[ClearCase_guy]

Of course I wouldn't want some government bureaucrat to mandate anything like this, but -- for me -- this is just ideal. To have a home, with a couple of acres to garden/farm with perhaps a pasture in the neighborhood for cows/horses ...

I think it's how people were meant to live.

But, of course, many folks would choose differently.

[Fiddlstix]

Great Idea!

[gubamyster]

Agrihood? Really? I grew up in a town or 2,500 in Central Illinois. Most people lived on “working” farms. We called it home. A novel concept, I know.

[John S Mosby]

The “communal” part makes this unworkable. Why not a central castle (or “condo community”) surrounded by peasant farmers?

The conversion of golf courses to farmland is rather interesting- in that the irrigation infrastructure could be re-worked.

Long ago— Paul Harvey proposed a special tax break for converting failed urban sprawl “development/ghettoes” back into the farmland they sprawled out over, and recognized how hard this would be to get a legislature to do. Not so hard, if there was money to be made.

In the South, we just call these... family farms who sell in local markets (who are supported by State sponsored, Dept. of Agriculture promotional programs— very low cost). The food’s origin is known (like appellation controllee in wine regions of France).

[spintreebob]

The farms south of Seattle I worked as a kid in the 50s had rustic cabins where many friends lived. Then summers in the early 60s I did Vacation Bible School with kids who lived in rustic cabins in the cherry orchards of Northern Wisconsin.

We didnt know how hip it was back then.

[MarchonDC09122009]

City slickers near working farms, what could go wrong?

Developers and towns have tried that already.
Newcomer suburbanites usually start complaining about unavoidable agri-nusiances that farmers are “guilty” of:
Manure smell, abundance of flies, noise (roosters & after hour tractors), and water pollution.

What’s old is new again.

[BenLurkin]

Why not a central castle...surrounded by peasant farmers?

That is the end game. Gotta ease into it.

[Argus]

The Romans called them Latifundia, the Spanish, Haciendas.

[laplata]

Once you’ve eaten farm fresh veggies you come to loath the junk in the supermarket.

---

Oh, yes! And the same goes for fruit.

[John S Mosby]

Had forgotten the Latifundia... thanks, and the derivational hacienda system.

Have read many times how the “local” food movement could only fail (except if petro-fuel comes back to every higher price for delivery and continuing problems with “free” world markets with oranges from brazil and grapes from chile...etc.)

The concept is one that supports national security, in that say a catastrophic EMP attack— places organized this way stand a better chance of surviving (and, uh, also of being attacked by the zombies from areas that don’t have this).

Pull up the drawbridge and man the battlements.

[Repeal The 17th]

Sounds like my ancestors ... back then they were called share-croppers.

[ottbmare]

Call me suspicious. It sounds lovely, but in my long experience, suburbanites who move to the country in general have some pretty unrealistic ideas about country living and often aren't happy there. They don't like farm machinery slowing them down during their morning commute, they don't like gravel from the roads dinging the Lexus, they don't like the stink of fertilizer applied to the fields, and they certainly don't like the animals defecating, mooing, copulating, and being an attractive nuisance to their delicate children. Like some of my neighbors who recently moved to the country, they find that they don't like driving 15 miles to get a gallon of milk. They hate and fear the gunfire. They're horrified by the coyotes who eat their kitties, the turkeys who leave presents on their lawns, and the bears who throw garbage around. Pretty soon they start agitating for more suburban amenities and less gunfire. It's not long before people with these suburban sensibilities drive the farmers and country people away.

It's an ugly process I've seen many times. It's starting to happen near me. Suburban people should stay where they are instead of moving to the boonies and trying to change those of us who are already here.

[SgtHooper]

This will pull in the buyers, but will ultimately be a disaster. It will be like the HOA. Certain ppl “in charge” will dictate what the others can/cannot do, spray, plant, and so on. But, it will be entertaining! Cue up the reality shows.

[vpintheak]

The Ukrainians have been doing this for years in the interior of Alaska. They don’t want anyone to mess with then and they don’t mess with anyone. And they do love their freedom to live their lives as they see fit.

[pilgrim]

Well, think we have a BIG ONE in progress!!!

They (not sure who ‘they’ is but think ‘they’ are close kin to ‘them’) call it the 2016 ELECTION!

:)

[posterchild]

It also happens in urban areas. People move into urban areas to be near ‘amenities’ like airports and then complain about the noise of planes flying in and out late in the evening and early in the morning.

[anymouse]

Wait until it’s the end of the season and it’s time to plow under or burn the spoilage. Not everything is ideal on a farm.