Sustainable Food Systems

Advancing creative and interdisciplinary solutions to reduce wasted food

Food loss and waste represent a significant economic, social, and ecological challenge in the US. Approximately 40% of the 235 million tons of food produced by the US food system each year is unsold or uneaten. Our wasteful food system results in significant pollution and loss of natural resources — land, water, energy, nutrients — needed to produce that food, billions of dollars lost in economic value, and increased stress on the 47 million Americans (nearly 14% of the population) living in food-insecure households.

MICA’s Center for Creative Impact is a key partner in Multiscale RECIPES for Sustainable Food Systems, a five-year, $15-million initiative supported by the National Science Foundation (NSF) to create new and innovative knowledge and solutions to transform our wasteful food system. MICA is the design lead for RECIPES, a national network bringing together over 40 researchers and 14 institutions working across the food system to advance the science needed to address the systemic challenges of food waste.

• Convergence Café is a series of creative activities facilitated by MICA to encourage collaboration, sharing, and learning among leading food waste researchers and practitioners across the US, to spark innovative, interdisciplinary solutions to wasted food problems.
• Fresh Rescue Champions is a unique collaboration between designers at MICA, anthropology and public health researchers at Johns Hopkins, and frontline supermarket workers at Albertsons, the second largest US grocery retailer, to generate and test creative ideas for reducing wasted food by increasing donations of healthy, safe, and edible food items.
• No Waste in Nature is a pioneering project to identify inspiration from the natural world to create innovative approaches for managing or preventing human-generated food waste. MICA is leading an interdisciplinary team of researchers from across the US to integrate “biomimetic” thinking and regenerative approaches into food waste research.

The Shed

Leveraging the creative power of art and design to imagine livable and sustainable cities

The Jones Falls Watershed is a vast network of waterways, a diverse ecosystem encompassing more than 40-square miles, connecting hundreds of rural, suburban, and urban communities across Baltimore City and County. The lack of a public sewage treatment system led Baltimore to bury much of the river in 1915 and to build an elevated highway over it in the mid-1950s. Today, the Jones Falls is an under recognized ecological and economic asset, largely neglected and polluted, a victim of failed urban planning, inadequate investment, and a lack of vision and public support.

The histories of the Jones Falls and MICA have been intertwined for centuries and the river winds through the center of MICA’s campus. The Shed is a multi-year initiative in collaboration with community partners to increase awareness of, inspiration for, and investment in the Jones Falls, by leveraging MICA’s creative talent for: Co-creating inspirational and sustainable future visions and plans for the watershed; Demonstrating creative installations, spaces, and solutions on our properties adjacent to the Jones Falls to catalyze and inspire wider investment in the watershed

• Jones Falls 2076: Engaging MICA’s and Baltimore’s broader creative community in imagining aspirational and inspirational future visions for the Jones Falls Watershed, manifesting in a publication and public exhibition in 2027.
• Jones Falls Planning: Leveraging MICA’s creative talent to help advance two city-wide urban planning processes – the Jones Falls strategic plan process led by the Friends of the Jones Falls, and the city watershed master plan led by the Baltimore Office of Sustainability. 
• Jones Falls Gateway: Transforming three neglected MICA properties to help advance the broader Jones Falls Gateway Masterplan:
  • MICA Park: redesigning our small parcel between the North Ave and Howard St bridges into an openair classroom/event space celebrating public art and ecology;
  • Trenton Alley: transforming the alley into an open-air gallery celebrating installations by MICA alumni, faculty, and students;
  • North Ave Gateway: redesigning our empty lot and retaining wall along North Ave into an open-air amphitheatre and gateway for pedestrians and bicyclists to Falls Road.