The AMHC is a member controlled food cooperative trusted with urban food security for the AMHC membership and guest individuals of the Northside of Pittsburgh. The AMHC shall provide a local food network and sustain a high impact food culture business which serves its needs while serving the Northside community.

AMHC welcomes local supply enterprises, provides education, endorses and initiates initiatives which benefit the Brighton business corridor.

External Reference: The ideals written for a rural farm community can be applied to an urban neighborhood. Several European and Asian case studies and articles will be listed on this page and will act as guidance for the AMHC.

Connecting Agriculture, Community Planning, & Economic Development
Agriculture has a substantial economic impact in many communities. Local farms provide livelihoods for farm families and jobs for farm and agribusiness employees. Farmers purchase inputs and services from other local businesses. They provide raw product for food processing firms. Local farms often produce a large “economic multiplier effect” by re-circulating dollars in local economy. In addition to these direct economic impacts, local farms have many benefits that indirectly enhance the local economy. As independent small businesses, they contribute to a strong middle class and a healthy civil society. They preserve open space and beautify the landscape, maintaining rural character and making communities more attractive to tourists and to employers. They benefit the environment by protecting watersheds, enhancing wildlife habitat and bio-diversity. They contribute to community quality of life, and provide fresh, wholesome foods with superior taste and nutrition.
For all of these reasons, communities are recognizing that they need to include agriculture in their plans for the future. They see that agriculture needs the same access to economic development resources, such as grants, tax incentives and loans that other sectors of the local economy enjoy. One of the most basic agriculture development strategies, then, is to ensure that agriculture is fully integrated into the community’s general planning and economic development efforts.

Benefits and Challenges
Experience in several Northeast communities points to significant benefits for agriculture when it is effectively integrated with local planning and development processes. Agriculture gains an established “seat at the table.” It is always “on the radar screen” in decision-making. Community leaders gain knowledge about agriculture, its importance and its needs. Local policies and programs become taken into account. The agriculture community develops more effective leadership, building its capacity for directing its future. Agriculture gains access to financial resources including tax and financing incentives, loans and grants. Quite often, the local community increases its own investments in agriculture development.
On the other hand, trying to forge connections between agriculture, community planning, and economic development also presents some challenges. The usual measures of success in economic development, such as number of jobs created, may not apply very well to agriculture development. Economic development agencies often want to finance only very large projects, which is not necessarily what the agriculture community needs most. And local agricultural agencies and organizations may balk if they perceive other agencies as taking the lead in agriculture development.