Abstract
On a vacant lot in southeast Washington, D.C., just across the street from the Capitol Heights metro station, you can find the city’s newest and largest urban farm. The 1.2 hectare East Capitol Urban Farm hosts research plots, a farmer’s market, a mobile kitchen, a community garden, walking trails, and a playground, and soon it will produce fresh fish and vegetables in a high-tunnel aquaponics system. The farm is the first in a network of urban food hubs planned through a broad coalition of partnerships led by the University of the District of Columbia’s College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences (CAUSES).
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Notes
- 1.
University of the District of Columbia (UDC), College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability and Environmental Sciences (CAUSES), “East Capitol Urban Farm,” www.udc.edu/college_of_urban_agriculture_and_environmental_studies/east_capitol_urban_farm.
- 2.
Dwane Jones, Director, Center for Sustainable Development, UDC CAUSES, personal communication with author, September 28, 2016.
- 3.
Johan Rockström et al., “Planetary Boundaries: Exploring the Safe Operating Space for Humanity,” Ecology and Society 14, no. 2 (2009): 32; Pete Smith et al., “Agriculture, Forestry and Other Land Use (AFOLU),” in Ottmar Edenhofer et al., eds., Climate Change 2014: Mitigation of Climate Change. Contribution of Working Group III to the Fifth Assessment Report of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (Cambridge, U.K. and New York, NY: Cambridge University Press, 2014); Polly Erickson, Hans-Georg Bohle, and Beth Stewart, “Vulnerability and Resilience in Food Systems,” in John Ingram, Polly Erickson, and Diana Liverman, eds., Food Security and Global Environmental Change (Washington, DC: Earthscan, 2010), 203–11; Beverly D. McIntyre et al., eds., Agriculture at a Crossroads: International Assessment of Agricultural Knowledge, Science and Technology for Development, Synthesis Report (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2009). See, for example: Millennium Ecosystem Assessment, Ecosystems and Human Well-being: Synthesis (Washington, DC: Island Press, 2005); National Research Council, Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2009). Note: Although no simple typology or set of categories can capture the complexity of farming systems, we use the term sustainable to refer to farming systems that emphasize the use of natural processes within the farming system, often called “ecological” or “ecosystem” strategies, which build efficiency (and ideally resilience) through complementarities and synergies within fields, on the entire farm, and at larger scales across the landscape and community. Such farming systems represent a major departure from the key features which characterize industrial agriculture: large size combined with a high degree of specialization, reliance on off-farm and synthetic inputs, and the production of commodities under contract to food processors and handlers. A food system is the complex set of actors, activities, and institutions that link food production to food consumption. Food systems differ from farming systems in that the primary focus is beyond the farm gate. See the following: National Research Council, “A Pivotal Time in US Agriculture,” in Toward Sustainable Agricultural Systems in the 21st Century (Washington, DC: The National Academies Press, 2010); Daniele Giovannucci et al., Food and Agriculture: The Future of Sustainability. A Strategic Input to the Sustainable Development in the 21st Century (SD21) Project (New York: United Nations Department of Economic and Social Affairs, Division for Sustainable Development, 2012); International Panel of Experts on Sustainable Food Systems (IPES-Food), From Uniformity to Diversity: A Paradigm Shift from Industrial Agriculture to Diversified Agroecological Systems (Louvain-la-Neuve, Belgium: 2016); Johan Rockström et al., “Sustainable Intensification of Agriculture for Human Prosperity and Global Sustainability,” Ambio (2016): 1–14.
- 4.
Ray V. Herren and M. Craig Edwards, “Whence We Came: The Land-Grant Tradition—Origin, Evolution, and Implications for the 21st Century,” Journal of Agriculture Education 43, no. 4 (2002): 88–98; McIntyre et al., eds., Agriculture at a Crossroads.
- 5.
National Research Council (NRC), Agricultural Education and the Undergraduate (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2003); NRC, Colleges of Agriculture at the Land Grant Universities (Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 1996); NRC, Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World. For examples around the world, see the following: Arjen Wals and Richard Bawden, Integrating Sustainability into Agricultural Education: Dealing with Complexity, Uncertainty, and Diverging World Views (Ghent, Belgium: Interuniversity Conference for Agricultural and Related Sciences in Europe, AFANet, 2000); Francisco Carlos T. Leite and Rama B. Radhakrishna, “Profile of Agricultural Education and Extension: Challenges from a Changing Brazilian Rural Milieu,” Journal of International Agricultural & Extension Education 11, no. 3 (2004): 13–21; Liu Yonggong and Zhang Jingzun, A Reform of Higher Agricultural Education Institutions in China (Rome: United Nations Food and Agriculture Organization (FAO) and International Institute for Educational Planning, 2004); David Atchoarena and Keith Holmes, “The Role of Agricultural Colleges and Universities in Rural Development and Life-long Learning in Asia,” Asian Journal of Agricultural Development 2, nos. 1–2 (2004): 15–24); Tiffany J. Freer, Modernizing the Agricultural Education and Training Curriculum (Blacksburg, VA: U.S. Agency for International Development’s InnovATE Program, 2015).
- 6.
NRC, Agricultural Education and the Undergraduate; NRC, Colleges of Agriculture at the Land Grant Universities; Damian M. Parr et al., “Designing Sustainable Agriculture Education: Academics’ Suggestions for an Undergraduate Curriculum at a Land Grant University,” Agriculture and Human Values 24, no. 4 (2007): 523–33; IPES-Food, From Uniformity to Diversity; Mark Balschweid, Neil A. Knobloch, and Bryan J. Hains, “Teaching Introductory Life Science Courses in Colleges of Agriculture: Faculty Experiences,” Journal of Agricultural Education 55, no. 4 (2014): 162–75.
- 7.
Laura Sayre, “The Student Farm Movement in Context,” in Laura Sayre and Sean Clark, eds., Fields of Learning: The Student Farm Movement in North America (Lexington, KY: University of Kentucky Press, 2011). For examples of nonprofits, see the following: Practical Farmers of Iowa website, www.practicalfarmers.org; Land Stewardship Association’s Farm Beginnings Collaborative, http://landstewardshipproject.org/morefarmers/fbotherregions/thecollaborative; Ecology Action’s Grow Biointensive Program, www.growbiointensive.org/grow_main.html; The Savory Institute, http://savory.global/institute. Box 21-1 from the following sources: FAO, “Pistachios, FAOSTAT Production/Crops,” http://faostat3.fao.org/browse/Q/QC/E, viewed September 7, 2016; I. Açar, ed., Proceedings of the Panel Pistachio Production and Consumption: From Problems to Solutions (Istanbul: TEMA, 2014); Nestlé, “Sustainable Pistachio Production. Country: Turkey,” September 18, 2012, www.nestle.com/csv/case-studies/allcasestudies/sustainable-pistachio-production-turkey.
- 8.
See, for example: Miguel A. Altieri and Charles A. Francis, “Incorporating Agroecology into the Conventional Agricultural Curriculum,” American Journal of Alternative Agriculture 7, nos. 1–2 (1992): 89–93; Charles Francis et al., “Impact of Sustainable Agriculture Programs on U.S. Landgrant Universities,” Journal of Sustainable Agriculture 5, no. 4 (1995): 19–33; Geir Lieblein et al., “Future Education in Ecological Agriculture and Food Systems: A Student-Faculty Evaluation and Planning Process,” Journal of Sustainable Agriculture 16, no. 4 (2000): 49–69; “Facilitating Sustainable Agriculture: A Participatory National Conference on Postsecondary Education,” Asilomar Conference Grounds, Pacific Grove, California, January 24–25, 2006, Executive Summary; Center for Agroecology & Sustainable Food Systems, University of California–Santa Cruz, http://casfs.ucsc.edu; Cary J. Trexler, Damian M. Parr, and Navina Khanna, “A Delphi Study of Agricultural Practitioners’ Opinions: Necessary Experiences for Inclusion in an Undergraduate Sustainable Agriculture Major,” Journal of Agricultural Education 47, no. 4 (2006): 15–25; Parr et al., “Designing Sustainable Agriculture Education”; John M. Gerber, Communiversities: Beyond the Land Grant (Amherst, MA: University of Amherst, 2011); N. Jordan et al., “New Curricula for Undergraduate Food-Systems Education: A Sustainable Agriculture Education Perspective,” NACTA Journal 58, no. 4 (2014): 302–10; Kathleen Hilimire, “Theory and Practice of an Interdisciplinary Food Systems Curriculum,” NACTA Journal 60, no. 2 (2016): 227–33; Charles Francis et al., “Agroecologist Education for Sustainable Farming and Food Systems,” Agronomy Journal, in press 2016.
- 9.
Thomas F. Patterson, Jr., “The Rise and Fall of Innovative Education: An Australian University Case Study,” Innovations in Higher Education 32, no. 2 (2007): 71–84; Richard Bawden, “Systemic Development at Hawkesbury: Some Personal Lessons from Experience,” Systems Research and Behavioral Science 22, no. 2 (2005): 151–64.
- 10.
Julie Cotton, Chair, Sustainable Agriculture Education Association Steering Council, personal communication with author, September 29, 2016.
- 11.
Charles Francis et al., “Phenomenon-Based Learning in Agroecology: A Prerequisite for Transdisciplinarity and Responsible Action,” Agroecology and Sustainable Food Systems 37, no. 1 (2013): 60–75; Charles Francis et al., “Innovative Education in Agroecology: Experiential Learning for a Sustainable Agriculture,” Critical Reviews in Plant Sciences 30, no. 1–2 (2011): 226–37; Charles Francis, personal communication with author, September 27, 2016.
- 12.
Francis et al., “Agroecologist Education for Sustainable Farming and Food Systems.” Box 21-2 from the following sources: Laura Lengnick, Resilient Agriculture: Cultivating Food Systems for a Changing Climate (Gabriola Island, BC: New Society Press, 2015). For examples of resilience curricula in sustainable food systems programs, see: Montana State University, “Sustainable Food and Bioenergy Systems,” http://sfbs.montana.edu; Kansas Wesleyan University, “Ecospheric Studies and Community Resilience B.S.,” www.kwu.edu/academics/academic-departments/department-of-biology/ecospheric-studies-and-community-resilience; University of Wisconsin Steven’s Point, “Sustainable and Resilient Food Systems–Master of Science Degree,” www.uwsp.edu/HPHD/Pages/graduateDegrees/srfsDegree/default.aspx. For examples of resilience curricula in environmental studies programs, see the following: Marianne E. Krasny, Keith G. Tidball, and Nadarajah Sriskandarajah, “Education and Resilience: Social and Situated Learning Among University and Secondary Students,” Ecology and Society 14, no. 2 (2009): 38; Ioan Fazey, “Resilience and Higher Order Thinking,” Ecology and Society 15, no. 3 (2010): 9; Monique R. Myers, “A Student and Teacher Watershed and Wetland Education Program: Extension to Promote Social-ecological Resilience,” Journal of Extension 50, no. 4 (2012). For examples of resilience curricula in community-based education programs, see the following: Rob Hopkins, Transition Handbook: From Oil Dependency to Local Resilience (Cambridge, U.K.: UIT Cambridge Ltd., 2008); Bryce Dubois and Marianne E. Krasny, “Educating with Resilience in Mind: Addressing Climate Change in Post-Sandy New York City,” Journal of Environmental Education 47, no. 4 (2013): 255–70; Laura Lengnick et al., An Energy Descent Plan for Warren Wilson College (Swannanoa, NC: 2009), Executive Summary.
- 13.
Francis, personal communication; NRC, Transforming Agricultural Education for a Changing World.
- 14.
See, for example: Martha W. Gilliland and Amelia A. Tynan, “Transforming Higher Education: Overcoming the Barriers to Better Education,” Solutions 1, no. 6 (2010): 56–61; Arjen E. J. Wals et al., “Education for Integrated Rural Development: Transformative Learning in a Complex and Uncertain World,” Journal of Agricultural Education & Extension 10, no. 2 (2004): 89–100; Cotton, personal communication.
- 15.
Jones, personal communication.
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Lengnick, L. (2017). New Times, New Tools: Agricultural Education for the Twenty-First Century. In: EarthEd. State of the World. Island Press, Washington, DC. https://doi.org/10.5822/978-1-61091-843-5_21
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