Urban Agriculture: Now and Future Forward
Urban farms are miniature traditional farms that cultivate, process, and distribute crops, agricultural goods, and livestock in a city environment. Globally, urban farming market sales for 2024 and 2032 are projected at $160 and $290 billion respectively. Producing food in smaller spaces takes creativity such as rooftop, vertical, communal farming, and farm-to-table operations.

Career options are vast and include greenhouse and community garden operations, food and soil science research, and entrepreneurship. The Chicago Urban Agriculture Mapping Project identified over 900 urban agriculture businesses in the greater Chicago area.

The key to an Urban Agriculture career is having a creative approach to producing food and plant material in smaller spaces. Learners master the specific skills of urban food production, marketing, distribution, post-harvest processing, and storage applications.

Some of the current and future Urban Agriculture career opportunities for which learners would prepare include:

• Agricultural Technician
• Agriculture/Greenhouse Manager
• Agronomist
• Farm Manager
• Food Engineer
• Geneticist
• Landscaper/Groundskeeper
• Soil and Plant Scientist
• Materials Engineer
• Robotics Technician
• Welder