Baltimore's Redefining "Seedy"

Baltimore is highlighted in the Grist's Feeding the City series. Christine Shenot reports:

"For many Americans, any mention of Baltimore conjures up images from two popular TV dramas set in the city: NBC's Homicide: Life on the Street and HBO's The Wire. For nearly two decades, those glimpses of Baltimore's drug trade and violent crime helped define the city.
But that era is fading. In some circles, there's now a lot more talk of sustainability and green living than of the murder rate, and it's an agenda that goes beyond the traditional focus on parks, transit, affordable housing, and other longstanding goals.

Likewise, the hand-wringing over Baltimore's unimpressive high-school graduation rates -- about half those of its suburbs in recent years -- is starting to give way to ambitious planning around workforce training and job opportunities in what some tout as a promising new economic niche for the city's youth.

The common denominator is farming. Baltimore's urban agriculture movement has quietly taken off in the past couple of years, with the twin forces of sustainability and economic benefits providing the boost. Under the eyes of hundreds of visiting school kids, two new multi-acre farms are flourishing at the hands of teenagers who come back to tend seedlings, turn compost, and harvest produce to sell at farm stands. The city also has seen a growing cadre of entrepreneurs launch smaller-scale projects, from container gardens on restaurant rooftops to earthworm-fueled composting, with residents discovering the benefits of worm castings as a nutrient-rich fertilizer that can turn a small garden patch into a prolific source of fresh fruits and vegetables."

(DEFINITELY) Read entire article here.

more on urban farming

In a basement deep below Tokyo's financial district, an experiment in urban underground farming has not only generated employment, but it has piqued interest in new methods of farming and local pesticide-free crops.

In a region largely dependent on imports for food, LEDs, RGB LEDs, high frequency flourescent lamps, hydroponics, metal halide lamps and high pressure sodium vapor lamps cultivate herbs, flowers, shelf rice, fruits, vegetables and to germinate seedlings. Of course Tokyo and the Pasona Group aren't the only ones active in this practice. UrbanFarming.org traces it's principles and roots back to WWII when 20 million Americans planted victory gardens that in turn grew 40% of this nations food supply. As environmental concerns become a larger and larger part of our daily lives, urban farming techniques continue to evolve. Definitely an industry, so to speak, worth following.