Last week, the DC Department of Energy and Environment (DOEE) announced the creation of an Office of Urban Agriculture. The office will serve as a national model for urban farming by increasing food production in all eight wards of the District and supporting a more sustainable, equitable, and resilient food system. DC is the third major U.S. city to create such an office, following Atlanta and Philadelphia.
In 2014, the DC Urban Farming and Food Security Act kicked off the District’s focus on urban farming by providing incentives to landowners who use their private land for urban farming and community gardens. Mayor Muriel Bowser’s Sustainable DC 2.0 plan, released in 2019, includes goals related to urban farming. The newly formed office will contribute to efforts to reach those goals, such as developing and supporting school gardens and garden-based food system education for students around the District.
For more information about the new office and DC’s urban farming work, see here.
