February 20, 2012
‘Taking Root in the City’
‘Federal Foodies’ explores farm-to-table living in the early 1800s in Baltimore. Photo: Will Kirk/Homewoodphoto.jhu.edu
The university’s Homewood Museum, in partnership with the Center for a Livable Future at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health, will present a conversation on urban agriculture and local sustainability at 2 p.m. on Sunday, Feb. 26, in Room 101 of the Mattin Center’s F. Ross Jones Building on the Homewood campus.
The concept of urban farming has gained traction nationally over the past decade, and several farms have sprouted on empty plots across Baltimore in recent years. The panelists will discuss urban farming initiatives in Baltimore and how they can positively impact employment, community development, the environment and food access in the city.
Joining the discussion, titled Urban Agriculture: Taking Root in the City, will be Denzell Mitchell Jr., founder of Five Seeds Farm and Apiary; Billy Thomas, a member of the Baltimore Free Farm collective; Katie Dix, coordinator of the Community Greening Resource Network at the Parks and People Foundation; Maya Kosok, a community fellow at the Open Society Institute–Baltimore, who is working to create an urban farming cooperative; and Abby Cocke, an environmental planner in the Baltimore Office of Sustainability. The conversation will be moderated by Amanda Behrens, research program manager at the Center for a Livable Future.
The program is presented in conjunction with Homewood Museum’s current exhibition, Federal Foodies: From Farm to Table in Early Baltimore, on view through Sunday, April 29.
Built in 1801 by Charles Carroll Jr., Homewood once stood on a 130-acre working farm, which later became the Johns Hopkins campus. The exhibition, organized by students in last fall’s Introduction to Material Culture course offered by the Krieger School’s Museums and Society Program, explores farm-to-table living in the early 1800s, from farming and gardening practices to how foods were preserved, prepared and presented.
Admission to the panel discussion is free and open to the public. Guests are invited to visit the Federal Foodies exhibition before or after the program.
For more information, go to www.museums.jhu.edu or call 410-516-5589.