Milwaukee To Grow Urban Farming Skills

Erin Richards:

Odell Chalmers, a senior at Bradley Tech High School, dreams of starting a nonprofit that would grow vegetables inside blighted homes in Milwaukee.

The homes would have a purpose, he reasons, and neighbors could learn how to build and maintain aquaponics units, or self-contained ecosystems where plants grow in water fertilized by fish waste.

Chalmers' vision may be idealistic, but it's rooted in a passion spurred by exposure to aquaponics and hydroponics -- cultivating plants in water -- in school.

Milwaukee Public Schools received a $98,000 grant Wednesday from AT&T and the National Education Association Foundation to encourage more of that thinking, with the grant funds used to expand the district's aquaponics offerings to 18, up from a dozen.

More teachers in the region and nationwide are trying to tap their students into the farm-to-table food movement and urban agriculture, creating partnerships with local farms, agriculture experts or college horticulture teachers to get students involved in aquaponics or hydroponics.

Posted by Jim Zellmer at February 1, 2014 12:34 AM
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