A Call for New Ruralism: Reinvestment in Metro-Region Agriculture Is Integral to Metro-Region Sustainability
Project Partners: Smart Growth Network’s National Conversation on the Future of Our Communities Compendium
Publication Date: February 2013
Sibella Kraus’ “A Call for New Ruralism” was selected by the national Smart Growth Network as one of 20 papers included in the National Conversation on the Future of Our Communities Compendium.
“New Ruralism” is the preservation and enhancement of urban edge, rural agricultural areas as places that are indispensible to the economic, environmental, social, and cultural vitality of cities and metropolitan regions. New Ruralism is a framework for creating a bridge between sustainable agriculture and smart growth. Sustainable agriculture can help bring cities down to earth, to a deeper commitment to the ecology and economy of the surrounding countryside on which they depend. This paper proposes the concept of “New Ruralism” the preservation and enhancement of urban edge, rural agricultural areas as places that are indispensable to the economic, environmental, social, and cultural vitality of cities and metropolitan regionsas a framework for creating a bridge between sustainable agriculture and smart growth. New Ruralism embraces the power of place-making that can help American agriculture move from an artificially narrow focus on production to a wider focus on resource conservation. As a place-based and systems-based framework, New Ruralism nurtures the symbiotic relationship between urban and rural areas.
