WORKS

Urban agriculture is quickly growing in cities around the world. As urban agriculture continues to grow, innovations and entrepreneurial ideas are needed to make it a competitive option in global agriculture markets. The IRES program is committed to creating the necessary entrepreneurial ideas and innovations through business development and research. Our projects focus in the following areas:

• business idea generation through the lean canvas model with the long term goal of establishing companies to improve the economic feasibility of urban agriculture in Salk Lake City and more cities in the future

• research on the role of urban agriculture in the circular economy and the need to integrate social considerations into the circular economy

• development of business ideas to provide technological solutions to common issues found in urban agriculture

 

We are currently working hard to develop these ideas and more. Please continue to check in often to see the new findings and progress that we have made! For the work that has already been completed on entrepreneurship and economics, see the "Works" section below.

Researchers:

• Dana Tran (Cohort 1)

• Jacob Beakas (Cohort 2)

Works

University of Utah students in cohort 1 completed a lean canvas workshop to learn the technical knowledge of entrepreneurship and to develop business ideas in the area of urban agriculture. After the 7 week workshop, several business ideas were conceived and are explained in more detail in the link below. The business ideas were solutions to these three key issues in urban agriculture:

1. An inability to reach customers on mass scales

2. A lack of access to the technology available to many large farms

3. A difficult learning curve leading to high failure rates

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In Cohort 2, work is being done to understand the role of urban agriculture in the circular economy.  The work is ongoing, but the most recent presentation can be found below.

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