Interrelation between Local Food Systems and Urban Farmland Conservation: An Analysis of the Interrelation between On-Farm Stores and Productive Green Land in the Kanto Region of Japan

Abstract

In this study, I seek to clarify the interrelation between on-farm stores and Productive Green Land (PGL), an urban farmland conservation system. This clarification was achieved by analyzing the numbers of on-farm vegetable stores per city in the Kanto region of Japan and by studying the questionnaire and interview survey of farmers in Kawasaki City, Kanagawa, in the same region. The following are the results of the analysis. First, PGL positively affects the establishment of on-farm vegetable stores in Urbanization Promotion Areas (UPA). Second, on-farm stores are important marketing channels for relatively large vegetable farmers setting up on-farm stores in UPA. Third, customers of on-farm stores include neighborhoods within walking distance.