Rural America has long been the exclusive domain of commercial agriculture. The fertile soil and waterways were the raw materials for the food, fiber and fuel industries. In recent times, the trickle of city folks moving to the country has become a torrent as vinyl village housing developments grew in what were once fertile farm fields. Now the countryside is having its revenge as agriculture is invading suburbia. Prompted by shrinking incomes and higher food prices, some city folks are turning to agriculture to make ends meet. These entrepreneurs are not selling it all and moving back to the land; they are keeping their day jobs and plowing up the yards of their McMansions to plant tomatoes, bok choy, garlic, and a wide variety of vegetables and fruit. It has been called agriburbia, and it is catching on all over the nation.

Kelly Spors recently wrote in the Wall Street Journal, “These entrepreneurially-minded folks are meeting the demand for locally-grown organic food from neighbors and restauranteurs. And some are even finding neighbors glad to lend their yards to the cause – in exchange for fresh produce.” The article told the story of Kipp Nash of Boulder, Colo., who grossed $6,000 from his yard farms last year. He’s expanding his venture and planting farms in eight neighbors’ yards and expects to churn $15,000 next year.

“Agriculture is becoming more and more suburban,” says Roxanne Christensen, publisher of Spin-Farming LLC, a Philadelphia company started in 2005 that sells guides and holds seminars teaching a small-scale farming technique that involves selecting high-profit vegetables like kale, carrots, and tomatoes to grow, and then quickly replacing crops to reap the most from plots smaller than an acre.

Do a little web searching and you will find dozens of blogs and websites by people farming in suburbia. Lots of these folks talk about how much money they make; but, if you dig down a little, you will find out they are learning some hard lessons that rural farmers have known for years.

Like farmers throughout time, these new tillers of the soil have learned that an early frost, a hail storm, or a month without rain can erase all those anticipated profits and add red ink to the bottom line very quickly. Suburban farming also presents some unique threats from wildlife. Deer and coyotes are not as common in the city, but neighborhood dogs and children can pose a serious threat to a crop – and you can not shoot or trap them.

Then there is the issue of the neighbors. Farmers in rural areas know all too well what a nuisance non-farm neighbors can be. Suburban farmers are finding out they too have neighbor problems. For the neighbors, the new face of farming can have a decidedly ugly side. The sight of vegetable gardens – and the occasional whiffs of manure from front-yard minifarms – is not their idea of proper suburban living. Many homeowners’ associations ban growing food in the yard, believing it damages a neighborhood’s appearance and may lower property values. Kris Rickert, 39, who lives with her husband and four-year-old son about a block from three of Mr. Nash’s front-yard farms, says she particularly doesn’t like looking at the farms when nothing is in bloom. “In the winter, it looks pretty yucky,” she says.

Spors says, aesthetics aside, this new trend of suburban farming has a positive side, “Environmentalists embrace the practice because it cuts the distance – and the carbon dioxide – needed to get food from farm to consumer. It also means less grass to water and fertilize and fewer purely ornamental plants. The Environmental Protection Agency estimates that nearly a third of all residential water use goes to landscaping. Why not use it to grow food instead?”

Gee, that sounds like what some farmers have said to local planning commissions who will allow a housing development on farmland one month and block the expansion of a livestock operation the next.

If this trend continues there is no telling where it would lead. The Extension service might start putting ag educators back in metro county offices; VoAg classes could be introduced at suburban high schools; there might be an influx of vegetable projects at the county fair; and the hardware store might start selling more tillers than lawnmowers. Just imagine a group of guys in business suits sitting around a table at Starbucks, sipping lattes and discussing soil fertility and nitrogen fertilizer.

The views and opinions expressed in this column are those of the author and not necessarily those of Farm World. Readers with questions or comments for Gary Truitt may write to him in care of this publication.