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A group of UW-Madison researchers is embarking on a quest to find best practices in urban agriculture and other strategies that alleviate “food deserts” – pockets of hunger or poor access to healthy foods in impoverished communities.

The group, the Community and Regional Food Systems consortium, envisions a multi-year project to study hunger and food availability in cities, and also strategies, such as community gardens grown on vacant city land, that are “best practices” for providing cheaper, healthier food.

It recently won a $5 million grant from the U.S. Department of Agriculture. In its first year, the project plans to study Milwaukee, Chicago and Detroit. In its second year, it plans to move on to Los Angeles, Boston, Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Madison.

One of the consortium’s partners will be Growing Power, the urban agriculture nonprofit in Milwaukee that has risen to national prominence. “The project will engage the types of urban communities that we know and have worked in for years,” said founder Will Allen in a statement. He’s also working on a project in the city that will build 150 “hoop houses” – inexpensive greenhouses – around the city for community gardens.

The researchers hope to publish a book when the project is complete and award a series of grants to projects, such a Growing Power, that have already had some success.

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