Planning for Equitable Urban Agriculture in the United States

Samina Raja is a professor of food systems planning and the founder and director of the Food Systems Planning and Healthy Communities Lab (UB Food Lab) at the University at Buffalo. An alum of UW-Madison where she had the good fortune of training with Jerry Kaufman, Raja’s scholarship, teaching, and practice focuses on the role of people-led policy and planning on promoting food and health equity. A recent project includes Growing Food Policy from the Ground Up, a federally funded project co-produced by an interdisciplinary team of scholars and practitioners to build capacity of urban growers of color to shape and engage in local government planning ad policy in Minneapolis and Buffalo, NY. Raja also co-directs Growing Food Connections, a national initiative to use planning as a tool to communities’ local food systems.

Marcia Caton Campbell is Executive Director of Rooted, a Madison (WI) urban agriculture and food systems organization. She is coauthor of Urban Agriculture: Growing Healthy, Sustainable Communities, PAS Report No. 563 (American Planning Association, 2011), with Kimberley Hodgson and Martin Bailkey. A Past Chair of the American Planning Association’s FOOD Division, Caton Campbell was previously a faculty member in the Department of Urban and Regional Planning at the University of Wisconsin-Madison. She holds an MCRP and a PhD in city planning from The Ohio State University.

Branden Born, Associate Professor in the Department of Urban Design and Planning at the University of Washington, studies the intersection of planning processes and social justice. He graduated from the University of Wisconsin (2003) as one of Jerry Kaufman’s last PhD students. Born’s work examines community governance, land use planning, and food systems. Branden directs the Center for Livable Communities for the Department of Urban Design and Planning, and co-directs the UW's Livable City Year program, a university-wide community partnership effort that pairs university classes with city staff to complete research and design projects in service to community needs.

Alfonso Morales (PhD Sociology Northwestern) is Vilas Distinguished Achievement Professor in the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture at the University of Wisconsin – Madison. He is also Chair of the Department of Planning and Landscape Architecture. Originally from rural New Mexico with roots in family farming, there and in west Texas, he is a researcher, advocate, and practitioner/consultant on food systems and public markets. He has been invited to speak on these topics nationally and internationally. He cofounded farm2facts.org, used in farmers markets around the country, co-created the USDA Local Food Economics toolkit, among other scholarly and public-facing activities.