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May 20, 2024
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ANT 2012 - Urban Agriculture: Past, Present, Future2 lecture hours 2 lab hours 3 credits
Course Description
The city of Milwaukee has emerged as a global leader in the urban agriculture movement. Urban agriculture pioneers like Will Allen - founder of the Growing Power Urban farm and winner of a MacArthur “genius” grant (2008) - have highlighted how technologies such as aquaponics systems (which allow one to grow fish and produce symbiotically) and such resources as vacant lots and abandoned buildings can be employed to transform large swaths of the city’s built environment into sites of agricultural production. These spatial transformations have profound implications for the future development of Milwaukee and other cities across the globe. This class will work to uncover the individuals, organizations, history that informs this current moment. It will place Milwaukee within a broader narrative of urban agriculture, one that examines similar developments both across the United States and around the world. Close attention will be paid to the technologies and engineering strategies that undergird urban agricultural endeavors, along with the people who develop and employ such strategies. Such emphases will inform the course’s commitment to experiential learning. We will be getting out of the classroom and working with a number of urban agriculture practitioners on real-world projects. Through such experiential learning projects, students will come to see how the present is truly shaped by the past. (prereq: none)
Note: This course meets the following Raider Core CLO requirement: Exhibit Curiosity.
Course Learning Outcomes
Upon successful completion of this course, the student will be able to:
- Compare and contrast the differences between traditional agriculture and urban agriculture
- Explain the histories of urban agriculture in Milwaukee, the United States, and across the globe
- Utilize course materials, appropriate technologies, and their skill sets as MSOE students to participate in urban agricultural projects
- Examine the need for urban agriculture in both the developed and developing worlds in the twenty-first century, and how the practice will evolve to meet these needs
- Explain the ways that urban agriculture speaks to more than food production (education; arts and culture; community development; urban redevelopment)
Prerequisites by Topic
Course Topics
- Traditional rural farming/agricultural practice
- Industrial farming
- The history of urban agriculture in the United States
- The history of urban agriculture outside of the United States
- Farming and race
- Governmental policy and farming (rural and urban)
- Community gardening in the United States
- Community gardening outside of the United States
- Farmer’s markets
- Aquaponic/hydroponic farming
- Vermicomposting
- Urban redevelopment and urban agriculture
- Agriculture (rural and urban) and climate change
- Renewable energy and urban agriculture
- Indoor vertical farming
- Urban agriculture and education
- Growing Power Urban Farm
- Art, culture, and urban agriculture
- The future of urban agriculture
Coordinator
Dr. Michael Carriere
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