Development of Small-Scale Vegetable and Fruit Producers for an Expanding Urban Market in Las Vegas, Nevada R.L. Morris and H. Gatzke University of Nevada Cooperative Extension Las Vegas, Nevada USA K.R. Curtis Department of Resource Economics University of Nevada Reno, Nevada USA Keywords: local food, tourism, fine dining, rural producers, gourmet restaurants Abstract Southern Nevada, located along the eastern edge of the Mojave Desert, contains the rapidly growing city of Las Vegas, home to nearly two million people and attracting 40 million visitors each year. Las Vegas has one of the largest food service industries in North America and has emerged as a restaurant destination for tourists due to the growth in quantity and quality of gourmet restaurants. Many of these gourmet restaurants were opened by chefs who have a history of using locally grown fresh fruits and vegetables. These chefs have been known to pay as much as US$ 16 per kg of fresh vegetables shipped overnight from markets in California, Arizona, Utah and the Midwestern U.S. Virtually all of the food imported into Las Vegas comes from distances greater than 250 miles with more than 99% of it coming from another state. Every dollar spent on imported food is one dollar lost from the local economy. The Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association estimate that if every family in Maine spent $ 10 dollars a week on local food, it would put $ 104 million into their local economy. Southern Nevada has little history of production agriculture because of its reliance on tourism and subsequent large service industry, the lack of a land grant (agricultural) university, and the region’s geographic isolation and harsh, desert climate. Although prices and local acceptance by chefs for locally produced fresh fruits and vegetables potentially make production in southern Nevada economically feasible, two primary barriers have yet to be surmounted: local production of sufficient quantities of high quality food by inexperienced growers and adequate marketing or distribution channels. A research and demonstration program area of the University of Nevada has aimed at stimulating local production of fresh food by rural producers in close proximity to Las Vegas and assisting these producers in developing marketing channels for their fresh, high value products into Las Vegas. INTRODUCTION Las Vegas (36°10'N;115°10'W) is Nevada's largest city, with a 2006 population estimate of 552,539 residents (U.S. Census Bureau, 2006). Las Vegas is part of Clark County, a portion of which lies in the Las Vegas Valley of southern Nevada. The southern portion of Nevada is considered part of the arid desert of the Southwest, and is the driest part of the driest state in the United States. The Las Vegas Valley is situated on the eastern edge of the Mojave Desert, located at the southern fringe of the Great Basin of Nevada and Utah, and receives 10 cm of precipitation annually. The valley’s eastern edge is about 8.1 km west of Lake Mead, a water reservoir created after the construction of Hoover Dam on the Colorado River, the predominant source of water for Las Vegas residents. Las Vegas Valley stretches 24.2 km to the west, covering an area of approximately 155,000 ha. The valley is surrounded by mountain ranges and hills reaching a maximum elevation of 3,632.6 m above sea level. Snowmelt from these mountains feed groundwater that supplies water to the basin. Until the 1960’s, artesian springs were common in the valley and were responsible for the Spanish name ‘Las Vegas’ given to the valley. The valley floor slopes downward to the southeast, culminating in a desert wash that has drained the basin of surface water into the Colorado River intermittently for centuries (Morris et al., 269 Proc. XVI th IS on Hort. Econ. & Manag. Ed.: P.P. Oppenheim Acta Hort. 831, ISHS 2009