Agricultural productivity has trebled in Australia over the last 50 years, suggesting that all is well in the heartland of agriculture - the inland rural communities around which much of our production is based. None the less in this chapter I sound a note of warning, arguing that an over-reliance on economic parameters as the only indicator of success will inevitably compromise the industry. Social sustainability is critically important to an industry that relies so heavily on farm families. Yet access to education, employment, health and welfare service and transport and telecommunications infrastructure is reducing the attractiveness of rural areas. Sustaining families and attracting young people into the industry are vital to its survival. In this chapter I introduce the notion of multifunctionality, a concept in favour outside Australia, as a way of valuing rural areas beyond their productive capacity. Thus when we assess the amenity, heritage and cultural value of rural areas we move beyond the notion of economics as determinant. The concept opens up the need for wider investment in human, institutional, environmental and social capital as ways of revitalizing rural communities and of ultimately ensuring the future viability of agriculture.

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The opportunities and challenges associated with public food forest initiatives in small municipalities are understudied compared with large metropolitan counterparts. Research in small population centers is needed to identify and understand factors affecting the growth of public food forests where resources more commonly available in cities often are lacking. To study these factors, we surveyed mayors in Virginia, United States, serving communities with populations under 25,000. Out of 176 mayors who received a paper survey through the mail, 68 (39%) responded. Mayors perceived long-term maintenance as the greatest barrier to public food forests and education, recreation, and spiritual experience as the most desirable benefits. Nearly 70% noted that their town has some form of food production on public land but only one-fifth include food-producing trees and shrubs. Most municipalities (78%) do not have food-producing trees and shrubs land use codes. Summated variables representing mayoral ratings of public support and physical space for food forests in their municipalities were used in a k-means cluster analysis to group towns into four types: (a) ambivalent and resource-poor, (b) optimistic and capable, (c) doubtful and unsupported, and (d) unsure with potential. Each community has unique challenges and opportunities, but mayors stressed that providing sociocultural programs and education rather than food access is the most compelling aspect of a public food forest.This is an open access article under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution License, which permits use, distribution and reproduction in any medium, provided the original work is properly cited.