Community farming in Northern Ireland: definitions and impacts

This paper explores the extent to which commu­nity farming can be a component of a community-based circular food system. Community farming is part of a broader pattern of civic agriculture, whereby more localized food production and con­sumption are linked to a wider, and sometimes global, set of economic, social and environmental factors. However, although aspects of community farming, notably community supported agriculture (CSA) and care (or social) farming have been well defined and studied, community farming as a broader process of civic agriculture has not. Fur­thermore, there is a limited number of published studies on the social, economic, and environmental impacts of the varied components of community farming. In this study, a focus group was used to generate the following definition of community farming: a process of collaborative transformation at the intersection of land, community, and enter­prise; and a definition of a community farm: a place of collaborative transformation at the inter­section of land, community and enterprise. This study also presents data from nine diverse commu­nity farming projects in Northern Ireland that are part of the Cultivating Community Farming (CCF) project. Over a two-year period, social return on investment (SROI) methodology was used to quan­tify their cumulative impacts, employing 12 met­rics: 11 monetized and one nonmonetized. The overall SROI ratio for the nine projects was 3.52:1, with 90% of this value being social, followed by 8% environmental and 2% economic. This study provides valuable insights into some of the value generated by community farming, notably social, as well as an operational definition that can catalyse further research, practice, and advocacy among stakeholders. It also articulates community farming as a continuum or umbrella term which can incor­porate more multifunctional approaches such as care and social farming, and more food production-oriented practices such as CSA.