The University of the District of Columbia’s (UDC) College of Agriculture, Urban Sustainability, and Environmental Sciences (CAUSES) is merging agriculture with state-of-the-art technology to improve nutrition, health, and environmental challenges across the city’s most underserved communities.
During a Nov. 8, ribbon-cutting at UDC’s Firebird Research Farm, located in Beltsville, Maryland, university officials unveiled the new “agro-tech” classrooms, combining artificial intelligence with sustainable agriculture. In the classrooms, students will receive hands-on education to learn the importance of sustainability and nutrition.
“We have so much potential in D.C. to really grow a lot more food than we’re growing in urban spaces,” Che Axum, agronomist and director of Urban Agriculture for UDC, told The Informer. “The goal of this program is for them to come here and [to learn] how to grow. [After growing] here for a while, eventually they go back into the city to teach other people how to grow. Each one teaches one type of concept.”
The agro-tech classroom is divided into three specialized pods, with the first consisting of a production space with three-dimensional printers and agricultural architecture, specifically crafted for hands-on design and engineering.
Pod two is a designated training and conference room equipped for broadcasting lessons provided digitally with a citywide and national reach.
The third pod hosts a “technologically focused spaced with virtual reality, enabling immersive and interactive learning experiences,” explained Jason Campbell, a UDC program associate.
Largely run by solar energy, the 143-acre Firebird Research Farm features a three-dimensional production system in the land, including a solar powered well, allowing access to groundwater, and will provide opportunities to distribute water, grow food under the panels, and harvest energy.
UDC stands in a unique position as an urban “land-grant” institution focused on urban agricultural problems. Today, the institution is the only urban university holding this status in the country.
“The new agro-technology classrooms align with the UDC land grant mission to educate, train, and prepare students for impactful careers while improving the quality of life and economic opportunities within the city,” Campbell said.
Bolstering Health Outcomes Across the District
Practicing agriculture in urban areas poses a variety of challenges, varying from environmental pollutants common to city landscape (vehicle emissions, excessive artificial light, and noise pollution) to limited availability and zoning regulations against agricultural use.
“Urban agriculture is increasingly valued as a strategy for improving quality of life in cities, but urban growers face challenges and often lack coordinated support from governments and the agricultural industry,” according to a study published by the National Institute of Health (NIH), that included research from 394 survey respondents, who were mostly white (non-Hispanic) and younger than 45 years old.
Much of the urban agriculture observed in the study was “dominated by relatively small nonprofit organizations and home and community gardens were the most common types of organizations,” with most reporting challenges “related to availability of land and long-term access in urban areas.”
In an effort to dissolve urban agriculture barriers, William Hare, associate dean for Land-Grant Programs, has worked diligently to develop UDC’s Firebird Farm. Hare has high hopes for the farm, hoping to empower local farmers of color and help improve food and nutrition security in the District, particularly vulnerable communities east of the Anacostia River.
“Most of the food desert communities are predominantly Black communities, and so that’s the reason why this is so important that we train people from their community to give back to the community by growing food,” Hare said.
While most farming across the District is operated through nonprofit organizations, UDC’s CAUSES program trains people to become farmers.
Agricultural workers can only benefit from USDA subsidies when they are reported as a farmer, meaning they have to report their sales of $1,000 or more to the IRS and register with USDA for access to build farms in the District and food desert communities.
“We’re giving them a minimum of a 10th-of-an-acre that they can then utilize,” said Hare. “This is giving them an incubator to make them successful and support them so when they register, they will not be denied.”
The Nov. 8 ribbon cutting, open to the community, also showcased trained farmers who are successful graduates of UDC’s urban farming programs, as a highlight of “Small Farmers Appreciation Day,” enabling patrons to pick fresh veggies for just $1 per pound.
Portions of the farmer’s personally grown produce supports UDC’s four food hubs, serving food desert neighborhoods across the city.
UDC-trained farmers, like native Washingtonian Chauna Price, value the life-changing experience through the university’s farmer program.
Price now grows her own food, which has not only benefited her community, but helped in her personal healing after previously facing health challenges.
“I’ve been able to eat and sell fresh produce that I am growing right here [in the greenhouse]. When I started eating the food I was growing, I got better. The healing is in the food,” Price said.
The UDC faculty feels the excitement of contributing a valuable resource to strengthen the District’s agricultural ecosystem.
“When you conceptualize and you build a reality, it is extremely gratifying,” Hare told The Informer. “This is an incredible training opportunity that we’re really excited about, and I think it closes the loop in the future of farming and how we integrate technology into farming.”
Great story. I’d like to pick fresh fruits and vegetables. Please let me know the details about how, when and where I can do that.