The Horticultural Society of NY Hosts 3rd Annual Urban Ag Conference: Reception, Talks & Urban Farm Visits
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| Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm, Queens, NY © Anastasia Plakias |
The road from the farm to the plate meets at the crossroads of The Hort. Starting tonight through Friday's tours of local urban farms, this is THE place to be to learn about our connections to our food.
See you at the Hort!
Visit NYC Urban Farms Hear International Speakers
The Horticultural Society of New York (The Hort) Hossts the Third Annual
Urban Agriculture Conference (UAC)
Visit NYC Urban Farms Hear International Speakers
Field tours
include Brooklyn Grange rooftop farms,
Randall’s Island Farm and the beehives and garden atop the Waldorf Astoria;
discussions will highlight known food movement leaders.
From Wednesday, May
15 through Friday, May 17, The Horticultural Society of New York (The Hort)
will present its third annual and largest ever Urban Agricultural Conference
(UAC).
The UAC will open
with an evening reception and work-in-progress screening of “Growing Cities,” a
documentary that examines the role of urban farming urban farming
in America and its power to revitalize cities and change the way we eat.
The
following morning, Thursday, May 16th, keynote speaker Manhattan Borough President Scott M.
Stringer will kick-off a day of innovative panel discussions and lectures led
by some of the most prominent organizations and individuals in the movement.
“The Hort has
been committed to urban gardening for over 100 years, yet the focus has evolved
and expanded with changing social and environmental issues, says The Hort’s
Director of Horticulture and Public Programs George Pisegna. “With 80% of all
people living in cities, we need to increase awareness of food sovereignty and food deserts food and discover ways that food
production in urban environments can emerge as a prominent and viable
alternative,” George Pisegna, The Hort.
On the final day,
conference participants will visit farms in Manhattan, Brooklyn, and
Queens. Among the sites to be visited are Brooklyn Grange (in the
Brooklyn Navy Yard), a 65,000 sq ft rooftop farm hovering eleven stories over
the East River; Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, the nation’s first commercial
rooftop farm; Randall’s Island Park Farm, NYC’s only working rice paddy
operation; Window Farms in the Global Kitchen Exhibition at the Natural History
Museum; the Waldorf Astoria kitchen garden and beehives; and Battery Urban Farm
at the southern tip of Manhattan.
“Growing Cities”
filmmaker Dan Susman notes, “Urban farming connects people to their food,
strengthens communities, creates jobs, revitalizes blighted areas. It allows us
to reimagine what’s possible in cities. It challenges us to get beyond the
urban/rural divide — to really think about how we can all be producers in a
society driven by consumption.”
UAC panelist,
Carolyn Dimitri of NYU, an applied economist with expertise in food systems and
food policy who is studying urban agriculture in 15 US cities says, “In a city
like New York… urban farms are a reminder, or perhaps an awakening … that our
food does come from the tending of soil and seeds, and not the supermarket.”
She notes though that solutions are not easy: “One concern I have is that we
are asking too much of urban agriculture. Is urban agriculture the panacea for
our urban food problems, such as uneven food access and poor health? And is it
possible for our urban farmers to make a living, tending the soil in our
cities?” These questions, and more, will be explored over three days.
Wednesday, May 15 – Opening reception and work-in-progress
screening of Growing Cities at Brooklyn Lyceum, 6 pm to 8:30 pm
Here is the trailer:
Here is the trailer:
Thursday, May 16 – Panel discussions at NYU Kimmel Center, 9 am
to 4 pm.
Friday, May 17 – Field tours of urban farms in Manhattan,
Brooklyn, and Queens, 10 am to 4 pm.
For a complete agenda
of the UAC, visit: http://thehort.org/UAC/