Episode 4 - Bringing Agriculture Home to the Roofs
Food security is one of the most pressing issues our communities face. Accessing fresh, healthy, affordable food can be a challenge for many families and food miles can be a tremendous contributor to net emissions.
This episode, Sustainable Futures is joined by Ben Flanner to discuss the business of urban agriculture, how the Brooklyn Grange weathered the pandemic, and how a rooftop urban food revolution can help improve our communities and the people who live there.
Ben Flanner will also be speaking at CitiesAlive in Philadelphia. For more information see here.
Guest
Ben Flanner
The Brooklyn Grange
Ben Flanner is co-founder and CEO of Brooklyn Grange Rooftop Farm. He is widely considered a pioneer for his groundbreaking farming model, which adapts existing green roof technology to intensively cultivate vegetables. He has taught urban agriculture courses in multiple cities in North America, and a course in the Environmental Studies department at New York University (NYU). When he’s not meeting with soil scientists to develop a better growing mix or tinkering with a fussy irrigation pump, Ben can be found whipping up a batch of his homemade bitters, or lacto-fermenting whatever is in season at his home in Brooklyn.
Host
Steven Peck, GRP, HASLA
Green Roofs for Healthy Cities
Steven spearheaded the first green roof demonstration project on Toronto City Hall 20 years ago and the mandatory green roof policy in Toronto a decade ago. This innovative policy has resulted in more than 6 million additional square feet of green space across the city. Due to Steven’s work, GRHC has helped to win green roof policy victories in San Francisco, Washington, DC; Portland, Oregon; and Denver, Colorado. Steven also founded Green Infrastructure Ontario coalition to bring together organizations that share an interest in the protection and development of green infrastructure in Ontario. In 2007 he co-founded the World Green Infrastructure Network, an international organization that promotes the use of green infrastructure around the world.
