Urban farmer training survey
If you are interested in participating, please use this link:Further survey information
Dear TUG member,
I am inviting you to participate in a research survey that Dr. West Suhanic of Seneca College is conducting in collaboration with Greenest City and Toronto Urban Growers and X University. Briefly, they are surveying the urban agriculture community to identify topics that will allow Seneca College to design effective and well targeted training programs in urban agriculture.
If you live in the GTHA, are at least 18 years old, and are currently participating in or are interested in participating in urban agriculture, they are inviting you to complete the survey to contribute to the development of these training programs. If you agree to this, please click on the survey link below, indicate your consent to participate and then complete the rest of the survey. Please note, this study has been reviewed and received clearance through Seneca College’s Research Ethics Board ( REB Clearance Letter – File#21-20: Urban Agriculture Enterprise Support Program).
They are hoping to recruit as many urban agriculture enthusiasts, growers and business people as possible, so that they have a dataset representative of the Greater Toronto Area to understand which topics are most needed to support the continued development of a vibrant local agricultural economy! Those who agree to participate in the study and share their email will be offered a copy of the technical report developed from this survey.
There are benefits and risks associated with participation in this survey.
POTENTIAL BENEFITS:
Urban agriculture brings food production closer to the table, decreasing emissions associated with long-distance transportation, local economic development and providing communities with a greater appreciation for where food comes from. We hope that findings from this study will generate specific recommendations around what training is currently needed to support a growing urban agriculture industry. We also hope that findings will guide the creation of standardized and easy-to-understand training program for other urban populations in Canada. This allows for more informed and knowledgeable citizens on the topic of urban agriculture. We cannot guarantee, however, that you will receive any direct benefits from participating in this study.
POTENTIAL RISKS TO YOU AS A PARTICIPANT:
There is minimal risk of discomfort or harm as a result of participation in this study. Risks and procedures in place to minimize them are as follows.
Reveal of personal identity risk: You may choose to provide an email address where we can forward subsequent reports from this survey. If you provide your email, there may be identifying details within the email address that allow for your identification.
This risk is mitigated by giving you the opportunity to not include your email for future communications.
Economic risk: You will be providing a few details about your current or future business strategy. It is very unlikely but knowledge of your business may create economic competition. To minimize risk of economic competition, your data will be coded and de-identified.
Please note that the organization who is sending you this email will not be informed about your participation in this survey as the research team does not know which organization a survey recipient/participant belongs to.
If you would like more information on this study, please contact the researcher at the contact information given below. If you would like to participate in this study, please click on
to access the letter of information, consent form, and survey link.
Dr. West Suhanic
School of Accounting and Financial Services, Seneca College
west.suhanic@senecacollege.ca
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