Tomorrow (Tuesday, January 26 at 6:30-8pm) the National Building Museum kicks off the 2010 season of its ground-breaking series, For the Greener Good: Conversations that Will Change the World, with an exploration of urban agriculture.
City grown crops can activate blighted property, encourage more healthful diets, reduce the carbon footprint of what we eat, and create food oases where there were once deserts. Municipalities like Washington, D.C., are considering new laws that require public school produce to be grown within a 100-mile radius. Working farms are sprouting up in the empty lots of Detroit, Michigan. And groups in Los Angeles are harnessing social media to post maps that show where fruit trees are publicly accessible and ready to be harvested.
The program will feature the president of Slow Food USA, Portland’s food policy and programs manager, and our very own Liz Falk, founder of Common Good City Farm, in a discussion about the challenges and opportunities of urban agriculture.
Moderated by New York Times “By Design” columnist Allison Arieff, these experts will share strategies for repealing outdated laws that prohibit growing food in publicly accessible land, ways to save heirloom species from tomatoes to turkeys, and how individuals are harnessing social media to promote food literacy. One can imagine not just ornamental cherry trees around the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall but also fruiting trees, more restaurants that harvest their own tomatoes grown on site, and giant herb pots replacing ugly concrete security barricades around the city.
The event is from 6:30-8pm tomorrow, Tuesday January 26, at the National Building Museum. To buy tickets online, go here.
