Baltimore Food Systems: A Case Study of Urban Food Environments

Students "go backstage" with tour guides at a supermarket, an emergency food centre, an urban farm, a rural farm, and an aquaponics facility. Students will participate in service-learning projects, providing the opportunity to contribute to improving the city’s food system while gaining additional experiential insights.  Students will also have the opportunity to conduct interviews with some of those who have been at the forefront of food system change in Baltimore.  In-class sessions are structured primarily as discussion seminars. Guest speakers active in the city’s food system join many of the sessions to share their perspectives. Throughout, students consider the relative impacts of access, demand, cost, stakeholder interests, administrative issues, history, and power, and consider the relative strengths of voluntary, governmental, legal and other strategies.  Discussions and lectures consider the applicability of lessons gained from the study of Baltimore to other food systems.

Course Objectives

Upon successfully completing this course, students will be able to:

• Analyze responses to challenges and opportunities within Baltimore's food system
• Discuss key factors that have shaped food systems in Baltimore and other urban locales
• Describe from first-hand experience the clientele, operations, key opportunities, and challenges in advancing positive change in Baltimore food and agriculture system sites
• Discuss innovative food system interventions being considered in Baltimore and elsewhere
• Describe how food systems and food environments relate to public health broadly and environmental public health more specifically
• Conduct and document qualitative interviews
• Comment on how the city’s history has contributed to the current food system
• Provide assistance targeted to a community organization’s needs, and reflect on the experience.