What does “progress” in developing new kinds of environmentally friendly meats look like? What are the hidden costs of cell-based and plant-based meats? Following up on their interviews with Garrett Broad (Fordham University) and Meera Zassenhaus (New Harvest) regarding cellular agriculture, Melissa and Wythe talk with Allie about some new developments in this growing sector, and what they may mean for urban growers. The Fields team, intrigued by an article in The Counter (“Lab-grown meat is...

The Fields team speaks with Greg Peterson, founder of The Urban Farm in Phoenix, AZ, about his decades of working in urban agriculture. He’s developed an “urban to the max” old-growth food forest in the middle of a dry region. (At the same time, Greg is also the host of The Urban Farm Podcast, which has an archive of over 650 episodes!) We talk about trust in nature, the human condition, abundance, why growing grass makes much less sense than growing fruit trees, and how Greg has taught urban...

In April 2021, the City of East Point, Georgia, adopted its first ever agriculture plan. Almost two years later, Tenisio Seanima is leading the charge as urban agriculture manager for East Point. Following up on his interview with J. Olu Baiyewu, Jeffrey Landau interviews Tenisio. Listen as Tenisio shares his findings on the challenges farmers have faced, how he and his colleagues are addressing them, and his advice for policymakers beyond the Atlanta area as they consider urban ag plans for...

What is the role of an urban ag director? And in the City of Atlanta, also known as the City in a Forest, how is urban agriculture impacting the City? In this episode, Jeffrey Landau interview’s Atlanta’s newest Urban Ag Director, J. Olu Baiyewu. Listen as Jeffrey and J. Olu stroll through the West Atlanta Watershed Alliance (WAWA), during a thunderstorm, discussing the latest achievements and challenges urban farmers face in Atlanta, the divide between producers and consumers, the growing...

The Fields team chats with Jeffrey Landau, Director of Business Development at Agritecture Consulting. Jeffrey has been on an exciting road trip to document farming in the United States, both urban and rural, indoor and outdoor. He’s been conducting his own interviews of farmers and agricultural policy makers, and he’s sharing a series of conversations about urban agriculture with us. Before we meet some of Jeffrey’s contacts in urban ag, however, we thought we’d talk to him about his own...

What is a sitopia, and why does it matter? The term was coined by Carolyn Steel in Hungry City, referencing a utopia which ideologically pivots around food in some way. How has farming been wielded by creatives’ in their visions of the future? How have architects and artists imagined sitopias which bring human systems back into harmony with ecology in experimental societies through food? We visit Arcosanti, an architectural and social experimental community in the Arizona desert, and...

How did rice become a very commonly grown, rock-star grain in many parts of the world? What is the legacy of rice-growing in South Carolina, specifically? How has rice reshaped wetlands—and cultures? Following up on our conversation with Dr. Edda Fields-Black regarding the rice and the West African diaspora, we speak with another historian of rice: Peter H. Wood, Professor Emeritus of History at Duke University and Adjunct Professor of History at the University of Colorado–Boulder. Dr. Wood...

From rooftop beekeeping to underground mushroom farms, the new photo-driven book Urban Farmers (Text by Mónica R. Goya and photos and editing by Valery Rizzo, gestalten, 2021) explores what farming looks like today in cities around the world. Writer Mónica R. Goya takes us through her investigation of inner-city agriculture, sharing stories of harvesting precious saffron on a farm in Paris as well as educational gardens in unlikely places. We ask how urban gardening can help us all become...

How did knowledge of grains from West Africa shape rural lands and cities in North America? Why has it taken so long for historians to address the agricultural knowledge work of enslaved persons? Dr. Edda Fields-Black, Associate Professor of History at Carnegie Mellon University, joins us to discuss these vitally important questions. She tells us all about rice farming in the United States, including the agricultural traditions of the Gullah and Geechee peoples, including her personal...

We speak with Evan Marks, founder of the Ecology Center in San Juan Capistrano (Orange County), CA. Evan is a first-generation farmer who has practiced agroforestry in Nigeria and Ghana. For the past several years, he has devoted himself to fostering agroecological, community-focused agriculture in his own suburban region, in opposition to extractive industrial agriculture that leads to eaters’ disassociation from the land. Today, the Ecology Centers is a model of multigenerational farming...

How does grain cultivation relate to urban agriculture? How can growing food in cities function as art? As education? Why do so many people love flatbread? Amy Franceschini, founder of Futurefarmers, joins the Fields team to discuss these and other aspects of her work. We also talk about seed banking, using agriculture to bring new social life to post-industrial waterfronts, and urbanization and the movement of knowledge about heritage grains. (Oh, and, yes—the King of Norway does get...

How does one commercial urban farm—Heru Urban Farming in St. Louis, Missouri—grow food for a community? Why did its founder and CEO, Tyrean Lewis, start down this path? We interview Tyrean about his familial connection to the land and to giving back to his community, how he pursued urban agriculture full-time during a pandemic, and what he is hopeful for today. We talk about grants, accelerators, and—of course—the many delicious crops growing at Heru. We also talk about food-system...

Enjoyed Season One of Fields? Get ready for another crop of episodes, this time featuring co-host Allie Wist (RPI). Allie is an artist-scholar and working on a Media Arts PhD focusing on food and the Anthropocene. In this teaser episode, Allie joins Wythe Marschall (NYU Stern, Center for Sustainable Business) and Melissa Metrick (NYU Urban Farm Lab/NYU Nutrition and Food) in the official Heritage Radio recording booth—located inside Roberta’s Pizza in Brooklyn—to discuss some of the themes...

In this sneak peek, hear just a snippet of a great story told by Amy Franceschini, Founder of Futurefarmers, about the Lykov family’s hardships in rural Russia, a single grain of rye, and how agriculture-focused artists are making connections between rural grains and urban education today. Full episodes are dropping! Subscribe to Fields and don’t miss out.

Season Two of Fields is just around the corner. Fields isn't just for farmers or foodies, it's for anybody who eats food. We talk to guests involved in urban agriculture, including many growers, and we ask why they're so passionate about growing food in cities all over the United States in the world. And this season we're happy to add a new alongside Melissa and Wythe: Allie Wist. Allie is an artist-scholar, photographer, and writer working on topics related to food, futures, sensory...

How will Garcia’s ambitious green infrastructure plans promote urban farming in NYC? The Fields team reached out to all of the major candidates for mayor of New York regarding their urban agriculture plans. Kathryn Garcia gave us an hour of her time to discuss her highly relevant background as well as her new green infrastructure plan. Garcia has previously served as Commissioner for the New York City Sanitation Department, incident commander during Hurricane Sandy, Interim Chair and CEO of...

How will cannabis legalization play out in different cities? Will legalization give rise to a craft weed industry? With cannabis laws fluctuating every year, Melissa and Wythe have a lot of questions about the home-growing of this popular plant, its regulation by the government, and its use by consumers. Before New York State moved to legalize recreational cannabis use—we spoke to social scientist Alex Rewegan (Ph.D. candidate, MIT) about his research into cannabis production and the...

What are ways that the pandemic is nudging us to work with delicious microbes?” During a time when antibacterial soaps and wipes are flying off shelves, why are people cultivating microbes at home? Melissa Metrick (NYU Urban Farm Lab/Nutrition and Food Studies Department) and Wythe Marschall talk about how the COVID-19 pandemic is bringing more and more people into growing food at home—not only via backyard or window-sill gardening, but also via growing their own sourdough starters for bread...

How are Universe City and Grow Brownsville helping community members grow their own food, invent their own technologies, and push back against gentrification? In this episode, Melissa and Wythe learn about the inspiring farm-tech co-op Universe City from one of its founders—multidisciplinary farmer, chef, and artist Alexis Mena. Universe City is Brownsville and East New York’s first aquaponic farm, food hub, and maker space. At this space, farmers grow fish and greens and teach growing...

How can we learn to forage in cities—and use Instagram to get to know the living world around us? Artist, organizer, urban forager, and social media ninja Candace Thompson (Collaborative Urban Resilience Banquet) joins Wythe and Melissa to dig into a variety of practical and visionary topics about what wild foods we can harvest in urban areas and preservation techniques from pickling to making your own beer. Candace tells us about plants that we are usually blind to in urban areas—weeds....

“What’s it like, farming on a roof next to a jail in Brooklyn during a pandemic? How have urban farms responded to the pandemic?” Melissa and Wythe catch up with their friend Maya Kutz, greenhouse manager at the Brooklyn Grange’s newest rooftop farm in Sunset Park. Maya is an experienced grower and food justice activist. We talk about both her work growing greens—how she became a manager of a greenhouse on a roof in NYC—and her work to provide food aid to people during the pandemic. Maya...

Long-time farmer, gardener, and educator Melissa Metrick (manager, NYU Urban Farm Lab, and adjunct professor in the Nutrition and Food Studies Department at NYU) joins host Wythe Marschall (research associate, Cornell University) as a co-host to explore different visions for the future of growing food in and around cities. In this first episode, Wythe and Melissa discuss how she has adapted her Introduction to Urban Agriculture course at NYU Steinhardt in the face of the COVID-19 pandemic....

How did you come to start farms that employ people with different abilities and people exiting the prison system? Vertical farming pioneer and industry leader Penny McBride (COO, Second Chances Farm) joins Wythe and Melissa to discuss her career, working with farmhands from nontraditional backgrounds, and food safety during the time of COVID-19. Penny co-founded Vertical Harvest, a hybrid greenhouse/vertical farm in Jackson, Wyoming, that employees people with different abilities. Recently,...

What is cellular agriculture, and why would anyone want to “brew” meat? We asked these questions and many others of Meera Zassenhaus—Communications and Media Manager at New Harvest, an organization promoting cellular agriculture, or growing tissue in a lab—and Garrett Broad, a professor at Fordham who studies what consumers think about different kinds of agricultural practices. We talk about everything from Taco Bell to the future of St. Louis, and from meat and nationalism to whether...

What's it like, farming at the Texas State Fair... during a pandemic? Drew Demler is the head grower at Big Tex Urban Farms, which stands on the grounds of the Dallas State Fair. Drew joins Melissa and Wythe to talk about starting a farm in the middle of a giant concrete carnival. He talks about how his operation started in raised beds on a vacant lot and moved indoors to a hydroponic greenhouse—doubling his food production capacity. All of the food grown at the Fair is donated to local...