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Fostering Sustainability and Innovation in Agriculture
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Urban Farming

A Nonprofit Farms Rooftops of Nation’s Capital with Triple Bottom Line in Mind

May 3, 2018 |

Located in the Washington D.C. metropolitan area, Rooftop Roots is a social enterprise taking the restrictive needs of a city littered with zoning laws and height restrictions as a challenge worth going vertical for. Designing, installing and maintaining custom gardens on rooftops, and creating community gardens across the city, Rooftop Roots is helping to build the conversation on how the nation’s capital utilizes its green spaces.

“We’re a nonprofit landscaping company but instead of mowing lawns we build gardens and maintain gardens for residential, commercial and community partners,” says Thomas Schneider, Executive Director of nonprofit Rooftop Roots.

After discovering their dream of office buildings with built up gardens on top was practically impossible to achieve with D.C.’s height restrictions, Rooftop Roots had to rethink its business plan. “We won’t only put gardens on roofs but we’ll put gardens in every nook and cranny and urban landscape we possibly can,” says Schneider. Read More

From Supermarket Rooftops to a Storied Ball Park, an Urban Farming Co. Increases Access to Local Food

September 12, 2017 |

Since its inception in 2008, Green City Growers (GCG), a Certified B Corporation that installs and maintains vegetable gardens and farms within the greater Boston area, has assisted in the production of more than 175,000 pounds of organic produce, donated more than 12,000 pounds of fruits and vegetables, and engaged more than 7,500 people through their efforts. 

“The mission is to grow food in unused spaces and provide people access to fresh produce,” says Jessie Banhazl, CEO and co-founder of GCG. “Having that mission as the core of our trajectory has led us into so many different spaces, which has been really fun and interesting and made us realize that there are so many possibilities for this kind of work.” Read More

The Growing Club and Seedstock to Offer 3-Day Urban Farming Intensive Workshop this Fall in SoCal

August 24, 2017 |

The Growing Club / Sarvodaya Farms and Seedstock are offering an intimate 3-day Regenerative Urban Farming Intensive workshop in Southern California for professionals on October 20, 21, 22 (Fri-Sun). Only 10 spots are available for the workshop, which is aimed at urban farming professionals who are working towards starting a commercial urban farm as a private for-profit or non-profit business.

The goal of the workshop will be to provide a base of relevant knowledge, basic skills, and local resources to start and operate a regenerative soil-based small-scale or urban farm. Workshop will include both hands-on and lecture portions on the Sarvodaya Farms property where attendees will be able to see, experience, and participate in a working regenerative urban farm. Read More

Nine of America’s Largest Urban Farms

July 17, 2017 |

The American urban farm comes in many guises but come it does. According to the Food and Agriculture Organization of the United Nations, 800 million people worldwide practice urban agriculture. That accounts for between 15 to 20 percent of the world’s food supply. As urban ag continues to build momentum across all 50 states, the influence and scope of the urban farm is growing. Most of us think of less than a couple of acres when we think urban farm, yet urban farms are getting bigger. And some are getting really big. Read More

Agritecture Design Workshop is First Step Towards Baltimore Urban Agriculture Community Center

June 9, 2017 |

News Release: BALTIMORE, MD. (June 9, 2017) — Teams of local architects, engineers, real estate developers, Baltimore city officials, urban farmers, and others will compete this June to design and devise the best plan for sustainably growing food in Baltimore. These crowdsourced ideas will contribute to an actual urban agriculture community center to be constructed in Baltimore in the coming years. Read More