Niche and Direct Marketing in the Rural-Urban Fringe: A Study of the Agricultural Economy

Competition between agriculture and urban land uses is common worldwide. In a classic von Thünen (1826) model of land rent, land decreases in value in concentric circles around a city, with rents higher for locations closer to the city and/or those with greater fertility. This model is complicated by many factors (trade, increasing urbanization, technological changes, transportation corridors, etc.) that increase the value of developed land relative to that of agriculture. As a result, productive farmland near cities has been converted to urban uses at an alarming rate, thus adversely affecting the provision of public goods and other non-market amenities that citizens desire, including open space, landscape views, protection of air and water quality, and wildlife habitat. Disregard of these non-market values leads to ineffi-ciencies and the under-supply of agricultural land near cities. Although a variety of public policies has been implemented to protect farmland, it is increasingly difficult for farmers to survive in the rural-urban fringe (ruf). The main challenge facing agricultural producers in th