The Food Element of Sustainability in Baltimore

GOOD give a rundown of the new position, and how officials in Baltimore hope to make food issues an important element of their sustainability efforts.

"[S]ince early May, there's been added momentum to the efforts with the appointment of Holly Freishtat as food policy director, tasked with coordinating and implementing a comprehensive food policy for the city from her eighth floor offices in a drab, grime-covered building near City Hall. Her task is to promote farmers' markets and community supported agriculture, foster urban agriculture with new zoning to increase food production within the city, and better market and educate consumers about healthy foods.

Sustainability might not be the first thing you think of when you think of Baltimore, but the city has been on the vangard, piloting two virtual supermarkets, where library patrons can order groceries online and then pick the items the next day. The Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health has been working on a healthy corner stores initiative and Real Food Farms has been teaching high school students to grow and sell vegetables behind the Clifton Park school. Within the Planning Department, Freishtat hopes Transform Baltimore, a proposed draft zoning code, will allow more urban farming that could, in turn, increase the supply of produce within the city."