Green Matters
Join Brookside Gardens on the final Friday in February each year for a daylong symposium dedicated to sustainable horticulture. In 2012, Green Matters: Urban Farming Pioneers, our third and final food-focused symposium, we'll highlight innovative approaches to feeding the world's population. Featuring Dickson Despommier, Columbia University Emeritus Professor and author of The Vertical Farm: Feeding the World in the 21st Century, Darrin Nordahl, landscape architect and author of Public Produce, Ben Flanner, Head Farmer/CEO and co-founder of the Brooklyn Grange rooftop farm, and Jeff Semler Maryland State Coordinator of Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education, this year's Green Matters will kindle your inner urban farmer and entice you to think about food production in wholly different ways. (Banner photo courtesy Dan Albert - Civesca LLC)
Program Update: We're pleased to announce that Kathleen Merrigan, Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture, will join us to speak about the USDA's Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative. Details below.
Friday, February 24, 8:30am-4:00pm
Fee: $89; Register Online or download a Registration Form
New! Webinar-only Option: $45
Join us for Happy Hour immediately following the Symposium for just $15
Brookside Gardens Visitors Center Auditorium
GMS: Urban Farming Pioneers ~ Schedule of the Day
| 8:30am | Registration & Refreshments |
|---|---|
| 9:00 | Welcome & Introductions |
| 9:15 | Public Produce: The New Urban Agriculture |
| 10:25 | Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food Kathleen Merrigan, Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food (KYF2) is a USDA management and communications initiative to strengthen local and regional food systems. With no dedicated funding and no full-time staff, KYF2 encourages collaboration across agencies at USDA to improve our response to congressional mandates related to local and regional food; increases the transparency and effectiveness with which we implement existing programs; and fosters a national conversation about where our food comes from and the importance of American agriculture in our communities . |
| 10:55 | Break |
| 11:15 | SARE Past, Present and Future Jeff Semler, University of Maryland SARE Coordinator Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education, or SARE, is a national organization whose mission is to advance sustainable agriculture by investing in groundbreaking research and education. Since 1988, SARE has funded more than $20 million worth of investment in sustainable agriculture. Learn more about this innovative organization’s mission, history, structure, funding sources and grant distribution. Jeff Semler, Maryland’s SARE Coordinator will provide insight into some of the more innovative and impactful SARE projects, and a glimpse into the future of SARE and Sustainable Agriculture as a whole. |
| 12:15pm | Lunch |
| 1:30pm | Growing Food on New York City Roofs Ben Flanner, Brooklyn Grange Starting a farm from scratch, especially on a rooftop, is not an undertaking for the lighthearted. Ben Flanner has done it twice now – first with Eagle Street Farm in Brooklyn, New York; then with the Brooklyn Grange, a nearly one-acre rooftop farm in Queens. Hear about how this incredible urban farm quickly evolved into a financially sustainable operation and where its founders plan to take it in the coming years. Learn how Ben combined his engineering background and his passion for locally grown food to launch the farm and hear all the ins and outs of urban farming and the growing challenges they face farming several stories up. |
| 2:30 | Break |
| 3:00 | The Vertical Farm |
| 4:30-5:30 | Happy Hour (additional $15 registration fee) |
Featured Speakers
Darrin Nordahl is a dynamic speaker and author of Public Produce: The New Urban Agriculture. Merging his passions for food and cities, Darrin speaks across the United States and Canada, showcasing how innovative urban food concepts can add vitality to cities. He reasons that thoughtful design can help improve the quality of the environment, our health and our social connections. Darrin is a product of the California public school system, having completed his bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture at the University of California at Davis and his master’s degree in urban design at Cal-Berkeley. Darrin is currently the City Designer for Davenport, Iowa. His work—a mélange of “Left Coast” idealism and Midwestern pragmatism — has generated headlines in newspapers and network news stations throughout the country.
Kathleen Merrigan is the Deputy Secretary of the U.S. Department of Agriculture. Working alongside Secretary Tom Vilsack, Merrigan oversees the day-to-day operation of USDA’s many programs and spearheads the $149 billion USDA budget process. Deputy Secretary Merrigan has managed the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food effort to highlight the critical connection between farmers and consumers and support local and regional food systems that increase economic opportunity in Rural America. Before becoming Deputy Secretary, Merrigan served for eight years as Assistant Professor and Director of the Agriculture, Food and Environment graduate program at the Friedman School of Nutrition Science and Policy at Tufts University, Boston, Massachusetts. Merrigan holds a Ph.D. degree in environmental planning and policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a Master of Public Affairs degree from the University of Texas, and a B.A. degree from Williams College.
Jeff Semler joined Northeast SARE (Sustainable Agriculture Research & Education) as the state coordinator for the University of Maryland in College Park in 2010 and as an Extension educator in Washington County, Maryland. He holds a B.S. in Animal Science from West Virginia University and the M.S. in Animal Science from the University of Connecticut, where his emphasis was in the physiology of reproduction. Jeff began his career with University of Maryland Extension as a 4-H Agent in Baltimore County in 1988 and has been at his current post since December of 1996. Jeff brings his lifelong love of farming and his goal of helping farmers live and farm more sustainably to his position as state coordinator for SARE.
Ben Flanner is the Head Farmer/CEO and co-founder of the Brooklyn Grange, a nearly one-acre rooftop farm in Queens, New York. The Grange is built on the roof of an industrial warehouse, which is entirely covered with a green roof membrane and soil in raised beds. A pioneering, fiscally sustainable commercial operation, the farm sells its vegetables via community-supported agriculture, farmer’s markets and restaurants. Prior to founding the Brooklyn Grange, Ben co-founded and managed the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in 2009; he has a background in engineering and analytic marketing.
Dickson Despommier holds a Ph.D. in microbiology from University of Notre Dame and has always been interested in the environment and the damage to it by encroachment. He is engaged in The Vertical Farm Project, whose mission is to produce significant amounts of food crops in tall buildings situated in densely populated urban centers. This initiative has grown, stimulating planners and developers to incorporate vertical farms into their vision for the future city. Three vertical farms now operate in Japan, Korea and Holland. It is Dr. Despommier’s hope that vertical farming will become commonplace throughout the built environment. He is Emeritus Professor of Environmental Sciences and Microbiology at Columbia University, was born in New Orleans and now lives with his wife, Marlene, in Fort Lee, New Jersey.
Past Green Matters Symposia
Brookside Gardens has hosted the popular Green Matters Symposium each year since 2004. With topics ranging from Water-Wise Landscapes to this year’s Urban Farming Pioneers, Green Matters aims to build awareness of the positive role plants and horticulture play in improving environmental quality. For more information about past Green Matters Symposia, visit our Green Matters Symposium Archive page.
- 2011: Real Food Renaissance
- 2010: Food for Thought
- 2009: Water-Wise Landscapes
- 2008: Sustainable Landscapes
- 2007: Trees: Urban Re-Leaf
- 2006: After the Rain
New! Earth Day Festival April 22, 2012
Earth Day Craft Fair Vendor application and tentative Event Schedule is now availible.
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Date of last update: June 15, 2011
Montgomery County Department of Parks