NORTHAMPTON - Volunteers are taking a comprehensive look at how food is produced, distributed, sold and purchased in the city, with the aim of strengthening local agriculture.

This month they'll be surveying city residents randomly at various locations and events to find out where they get the food they eat, and how they feel about it.

"We want to have an accurate, data-based set of information about the local food system," said Frances Volkmann, a former city councilor and Smith College professor who is leading the project, called Keep Farming. "We're looking for ways we can be more supportive of our farmers."

Smith College students will help conduct the survey. The groups Community Involved in Sustaining Agriculture and Grow Food Northampton are also involved in the project.

Mari Gottdiener, another Keep Farming volunteer, said there seems to be increased interest in local food, given the growing number of farmers markets in the city. The Saturday market on Gothic Street and the Wednesday market in Florence have been around for years, and have been joined in recent years by the Tuesday market behind Thornes Marketplace, a market on Jackson Street and a winter market inside Thornes.

"Agriculture is definitely something we could see as a strong economic driver in this area, if there's a demand and the farmers know what people want," Gottdiener said.

The group is wrapping up the first phase of the project, where they identified farmland in the city and surveyed farmers about what they grow and where they sell it.

So far, 20 of 26 farmers returned the six-page questionnaires, said volunteer Nola Reinhardt. Results will be presented at the Oct. 12 meeting of the Northampton Agricultural Commission, Reinhardt said.

Based on land records, Reinhardt said there are about 4,500 acres of agricultural land in Northampton, or about 18 percent of the city's total land area. Of that 18 percent, 12 percent is cultivated land and 6 percent is managed forest.

Close to half of the agricultural land is concentrated in the Meadows, with the rest scattered through Leeds, Florence and Northampton, most notably on the campus of Smith Vocational and Agricultural High School.

Reinhardt said the survey shows the most prevalent uses for the land are hay, feed corn and pasture. "We were very gratified to see how significant farming still is as far as productive use of land in the city," she said.

Later phases of the project include surveying food retailers and distributors in the city, including supermarkets, restaurants and schools to see where their food comes from. Gottdiener said the final step is to prepare an economic profile and local agriculture and an action plan for how to support it.

Volunteers worked with the Chatham, N.Y.-based nonprofit Glynwood Institute, which created a template for gathering and analyzing information about community agriculture and consumption. The organization recently facilitated a similar project in Great Barrington.

James F. Lowe can be reached at jlowe@gazettenet.com.