Washington D.C. to become third U.S. city to hire urban ag director

As first revealed by consulting from Agritecture, Washington D.C. is set to become the third U.S. city to hire an urban director. 

According to Katherine Antos, a branch chief at D.C.’s Department of Energy & Environment, the one-person office will focus on goals set by the Sustainable DC 2.0 plan. That includes adding 20 additional acres of cultivation by 2032, developing food-producing landscaping in all eight city wards and supporting gardens and garden-based food system education and public and charter schools.

"[We] took the mentality of: ‘the sky is the limit’ - what can we do with this office to really meaningfully support urban agriculture...to make the District more sustainable and resilient?," Antos said, per Agritecture.

Mario Cambardella, hired by Atlanta in 2015, was the country's first urban ag director In 2018, Ashley Richards was hired by Philadelphia as the country's second urban ag director.