Old MacDonald had an organic TND?

“Agriculture is the new golf,” observes Andres Duany.

An organic farm has been created at New Town at St. Charles, Missouri, a large traditional neighborhood development outside St. Louis. Developer Whittaker Builders is conducting a nationwide search for an operator who would live in a new Victorian-style farmhouse, which comes with a detached five-bay garage for farm implements and machinery.

New urbanists have dreamed of integrating farming and urbanism for two decades, but until recently the idea has remained mostly theory. New Town is one of the first to implement a farming program in a new urban community. The site — adjacent to residential neighborhoods on two sides and within a few blocks of the town center — treats farming as another mixed use that adds vitality to the community.

Agriculture “is looming large for new urbanists,” Miami architect Andres Duany told a Civic By Design Forum Nov. 5 in Charlotte, North Carolina. “Agriculture is the new golf,” Duany quipped, alluding to a study in Loudoun County, Virginia, that found that a view of farm land is as valuable as a view of a golf course. “Food is quite good-looking,” he remarked.

Across North America, there is increasing demand for fresh

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