Hoop houses- The beginning of an Urban Agricultural Revival

Juxtaposed to the its urban surrounding sits the Lake Clifton campus with century old dilapidated buildings, a 70s style high school campus and much under utilized green space. Erect three slightly opaque structures lye in parallel. Greenhouses created by 'Civic Works' (http://www.civicworks.com/) and 'Real Food Farm' (http://www.real-food-farm.org/) with a partnership with the school or as their proprietor Tyler calls them hoophouses. Inside the ambient temperature rises about 15 degrees warmer then the thick foreign particle saturated Baltimore city air outside of the thin plastic film that covers the skeleton of a series of semi circles linked by a spine of overhead irrigation. These greenhouses are experiments for sustainable urban farming, hands on learning and filling the nutritional voids in the surrounding community and the school. The next step 6 acres of agricultural space that will be harvested to serve as an oasis for the city of Baltimore's many food deserts.

The farm is to be economically viable asset for the city and the community. To accomplish this the plan is grow and reap hardy crops that can be sold on a mobile platforms (i.e. a ice truck like vehicle, community markets, etc.) to fill nutritional voids and high-end produce like herbs, heirloom tomatoes and specialty vegetables to be sold to restaurants in order to make the space sustainable and eventually profitable.

Food, nutrition, green space, hands on learning, natural environment are integral pieces of community and sparked my interests in science when I was a child. To observe not only the growth and harvesting of food but to see the ecosystem that exists in concert with the growth of this vegetation and in the earth where the roots find their sustenance we find this thriving ecosystem that is interdependent where each component is critical to the success of the next and too much of one can throw the ecosystem into degradation. Much like the importance of human community each person, organization and component are necessary for the success and growth of the community.