BELTSVILLE, Md. — The University of the District of Columbia is aiming to tackle a number of urban environmental and health challenges through agriculture education targeting for small city spaces.
Industrial scale farming, food packaging, refrigeration and transportation all come with big environmental impacts. Urban farming is one solution, according to William Hare, an associate dean at UDC.
Hare welcomed visitors to UDC's Firebird Farm, a research facility in Beltsville to cut the ribbon on a suite of new agro-technology classrooms.
Faculty and staff from UDC's College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability & Environmental Sciences ( known as (CAUSES) introduced seven new professionally trained small farmers, who have come through its program.
The farmers grow produce, some of which helps support UDC's 4 food hubs, which serve food desert neighborhoods in the District where fresh foods are too expensive for most residents to purchase from the few stores that carry them.
UDC was founded in 1862 as a "Land Grant" institution making it the only such urban university with that status in the nation, Hare said.
Firebird Farm aims to create innovations in urban farming that allow even more food to be grown sustainably in small urban spaces while training a new generation of urban farmers in both production and marketing of their products.
Many UDC trained farmers are now regular suppliers at many of the region's most popular farmer's markets, according to graduate Shauna Price who recently produced more than 1,500 pounds of vegetables from less than 1 acre of plots in Prince George's County.