Title

The Importance of Preserving Farmland in the Treasure Valley

Document Type

Student Presentation

Presentation Date

4-17-2017

Faculty Sponsor

Beau Hansen

Abstract

Farming in the Treasure valley has changed significantly due to urban sprawl. Development of once productive farmland has changed Idaho’s local food markets to be reduced in scale, with little food being kept in state. Food security for the Treasure Valley is a concern because farmers provide a rich culture and urban sprawl is effecting Idaho’s ability to be self-sufficient in terms of local food production. Without farmland preservation there could be unforeseen consequences on food prices and an interruption in supplies. We worked with the Boise Food Coalition to understand the importance of farmland preservation between two separate demographic groups, people who regularly attend the local farmers market and students at BSU. This survey gave us a base knowledge on what values different groups place on local food in the Treasure Valley. Through interviews with local farmers we got more insight on the struggle to keep farmland and farmers motivated not to sell to urban development. Through our survey we found the farmer’s market group was highly motivated to participate and strongly felt that eating local is important. The students to our surprise also felt eating local was important and about half said they eat local often which was higher than we hypothesized. We concluded that the ones who feel food security is a threat is those that benefit from the farmers markets/ local food the most. Food security repercussions can effect a large majority of the Treasure Valley population. Our project will serve as a great base knowledge for the Boise Food Coalition to continue with their research.

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