ECO City Farms
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Port Towns
ECO City Farms (a.k.a. Engaged Community Offshoots, Inc.) (ECO), an educational nonprofit organization designed to serve as a prototype for sustainable local farming, has perfected the practice of urban agriculture in the Developed Tier of Prince George’s County. Its goal is to proliferate urban farming in foodinsecure areas to meet the demand for healthy food, while improving the local economy by creating meaningful jobs in food production and distribution. Its motto is: We grow great food, farms, and farmers.
Photo by Gül Güleryüz.
Urban farms in the Developed Tier
Although it is called the Developed Tier, agricultural activity exists throughout the entire area inside the Beltway and in a small area outside it. Prince George’s County’s first “urban farm” (ECO City Farms) was recently built inside the Beltway, not far from Washington, D.C. A second urban farm is on the way. This development shows that agriculture is no longer a land use for rural areas only. Farms can grow, along with buildings, even in the most developed areas. The county is fortunate to have agricultural enterprises in the old established neighborhoods, where affordable, healthy food is scarce. Urban farms provide local residents with healthy food and jobs.
ECO, founded in 2009, received funding from Kaiser Permanente to start a farm in the Port Towns, which is a designated Wellness Opportunity Zone.60 Since there was no private land where agriculture was permitted in the Port Towns, ECO approached the M-NCPPC Department of Parks and Recreation for parkland to use as their farm. Unused parkland in Edmonston was selected as a farm site. 59
Information obtained from interview with Margaret Morgan-Hubbard, CEO of ECO, farm visits, and the ECO City Farms web site, www.ecocityfarms.org 60 A Wellness Opportunity Zone is a designated district where permitted land uses are developed in a way to benefit the overall health and wellness of the community.
Urban Agriculture
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