Urban Agriculture Could Transform Baltimore’s Blighted Neighborhoods
Urban Agriculture Could Transform Baltimore’s Blighted Neighborhoods
Linked by Michael Levenston
City-Hydro, an urban farm that grows microgreens for local restaurants, is piloting an onsite growing program for restaurants. (Kenneth K. Lam)
Today, there are more than 100 community and school gardens in Baltimore, as well as more than 20 urban farms and several organizations working to support urban producers.
By Brent Flickinger
Baltimore Sun
May 30, 2018
Excerpt:
Successful examples abound. The Black Church Food Security Network supports growing food on church-owned properties. Another local example is the highly successful “hoop house” greenhouse project at Civic Works in Clifton Park, now operating for eight years. Such hoop houses are popular all over the world; in England, 90 percent of strawberries are grown in these, and use of toxic pesticides and herbicides is avoided. Further, the recent outbreak of E. Coli in lettuce grown in Arizona ought to provide further motivation to get fresh, clean, local food.
Neighborhood-based agriculture builds community spirit and self-confidence as people work together in positive relationships to do the work of farming. In addition, worker co-ops and entrepreneurship lead to more money circulating in the neighborhoods and, for some, healthier eating and less dependence on a job elsewhere.