Fields artwork

Fields

55 episodes - English - Latest episode: about 1 month ago - ★★★★★ - 14 ratings

Fields brings you the stories of people who are working in urban agriculture—for money, for fun, to feed the hungry, and for entirely other reasons. In each episode, hosts Melissa Metrick and Wythe Marschall delve into different foods grown in cities. Moreover, we investigate the whys behind getting up in the morning and working as a farmer in the shadow of skyscrapers. You don’t need to be a farmer to enjoy this podcast, or even a foodie! With their expert guests, Melissa and Wythe break down the realities and possible futures of urban farming to their elements.

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Episodes

The Farm Report Episode 4: What’s the Future of Urban Agriculture?

February 15, 2024 19:00 - 45 minutes - 41.7 MB

Melissa and Wythe were honored to join The Farm Report team for this special and important series on the Farm Bill and the politics of food. Please check out the interview, and follow The Farm Report for more critical news and analysis of what's happening across all of agriculture. Despite an increasing number of farmers growing food in cities urban agriculture wasn’t acknowledged in the farm bill until 2018. Lisa Held, journalist with Civil Eats and former Farm Report host provides the sco...

Vicki Sando on Green Roofs at Schools

February 08, 2024 20:00 - 49 minutes - 45.5 MB

Wythe chats with NYC educator Vicki Sando about her years of research into green roofs—especially those on schools—and her creation of the illustrated book What is a Green Roof? Vicki created the book to help kids and adults understand the benefits of green roofs, including to urban farmers. We talk about her own work to green the roof of one school in New York, how green roofs help kids learn across subjects, and how some of our favorite green roofs function. This is an excellent introducti...

Henry Obispo on the Resilience of the South Bronx

December 17, 2023 16:00 - 1 hour - 64.8 MB

Melissa and Wythe host the inspiring food and urban agriculture entrepreneur Henry Obispo. Henry is founder of Born Juice, the United Business Cooperative, and ReBORN FARMS. We talk about Henry’s background, the importance of the South Bronx in inspiring him, why he started a juice company, and how he started organizing other Bronxian food entrepreneurs into a worker cooperative. Henry tells us the story of the Bronx Salad, and we discuss his future plans for growing greens in the Bronx. He...

Henry Gordon-Smith on the State of Indoor Farming

December 08, 2023 16:00 - 33 minutes - 31.1 MB

Following up on their review of recent bad news in the field of vertical farming, Melissa and Wythe catch up with an expert: Henry Gordon-Smith, founding CEO of the urban and controlled environment agriculture consultancy Agritecture. Henry relates his thoughts on recent shifts in commercial indoor and urban agriculture, reflecting on some of Agritecture’s experiences and what could happen in the near future. It’s a short, fun, and informative conversation! Heritage Radio Network is a liste...

Catching Up with Wythe: The Recent Troubles in Vertical Farming

November 30, 2023 21:30 - 54 minutes - 49.7 MB

Melissa and Wythe catch up with each other regarding a recent trend in urban agriculture: the closure or financial restructuring of several high-profile indoor farms in urban areas. We look at recent news articles on this topic, theorize why the indoor ag-tech sector is struggling, and speculate about what could happen next. We’ll return to this important topic with guests over the course of the season, so subscribe! Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. ...

Catching up with Melissa: Harvest Time at the NYU Urban Farm Lab

November 17, 2023 17:00 - 44 minutes - 41 MB

To kick off a new season of Fields, Wythe and Melissa chat about Melissa's current work as both an instructor of urban agriculture at New York University and the manager of the school’s Urban Farm Lab on Houston Street. Recorded in October 2023, just before harvest time, this informal conversation covers a range of subjects, from the crops students grow to how Melissa’s syllabus has covered different aspects of the history of urban agriculture over time. Heritage Radio Network is a listener...

Michael Treglia on Green Roofs, Birds, and Pollinators

August 17, 2023 20:30 - 55 minutes - 50.6 MB

To round out Season 3, Melissa and Wythe talk about the concept of the “urban forest” in NYC with scientist Mike Treglia of The Nature Conservancy. Mike was trained as a herpetologist (reptile scientist), but he now focuses on the total ecological systems of cities, especially trees. The Nature Conservancy itself works to study and protect land in many different ways, including in New York City. Mike also works with Forest For All NYC, supporting policy that can create and realize a comprehe...

Joseph Charap on the Ecosystems of Cemeteries

August 10, 2023 20:30 - 53 minutes - 49.3 MB

In what ways are cemeteries like parks? How tall should the grass in a cemetery be allowed to grow? Following up on some of the themes from our discussion with NYC Microseasons about urban plants, animals, and fungi not typically thought of as farms or gardens, Melissa talks with Joseph (Joe) Charap, Vice President of Horticulture at the Green-Wood Cemetery, about the history of cemeteries as green spaces in NYC and the broader United States. They discuss the rich and biodiverse ecosystem f...

Allison C. Meier and Erin Chapman on NYC’s Microseasons

July 27, 2023 20:30 - 42 minutes - 39.1 MB

(Note, this one was taped when it was still cold, and now it’s hot!) As author Allison C. Meier states, “There are no seasons, only microseasons now.” What are microseasons? They’re a different way of viewing time as local, marked not by arbitrary flips of the calendar or the coming and going of major weather patterns, but by more ephemeral and sometimes obscure environmental shifts that only last a few weeks. With Erin Chapman, Allison writes a newsletter called NYC Microseasons that inves...

Mary Wetherill of Green Food Solutions on Residential Agriculture

July 20, 2023 20:30 - 56 minutes - 51.8 MB

The Fields team chats with domestic farming entrepreneur and nutritionist Mary Wetherill about her company, Green Food Solutions. They set up farms in urban buildings using Tower Gardens (hydroponic growing towers) and conduct farmer trainings. Mary’s urban-agriculture business grew out of the Square Roots vertical farming accelerator in Brooklyn, but then quickly led to a new farm on a rooftop in the Bronx. From there, Mary’s team explored a whole new business model: to be a “vertical farmi...

Allie Wist on the Future of Taste and Smell

July 13, 2023 20:30 - 59 minutes - 54.4 MB

Melissa and Wythe catch up with their friend and former co-host, artist and scholar of food agriculture, Allie Wist. Allie is currently completing an interdisciplinary arts Ph.D. at Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute with a focus on the senses, the Anthropocene, and environmental archives. We talk about her work studying how plants’ odors are changing due to climate disruption, the future of sustainable pest management, how rising temperatures affect different plants, the future of coffee prod...

Yolanda Gonzalez on Cooperative Extension in New York City

July 06, 2023 20:30 - 41 minutes - 38.4 MB

In late 2022, we caught up with friend-of-the-show Yolanda Gonzalez, a Cornell Cooperative Extension agent and urban agriculture expert, about all of her exciting work. We talk about Yolanda’s path into agriculture, the general purpose of Cooperative Extension, how Cornell came to set up a branch for commercial urban growers in NYC, and the kinds of support that Harvest NY offers to different urban growers today. Specifically, we dive into the online Community Mushroom Educator (CME) Trainin...

Zac Harrison of Fresh Harvest on Modern Food Hubs

June 29, 2023 20:30 - 58 minutes - 53.7 MB

Wythe and Melissa chat with Zac Harrison, owner of the modern food hub Fresh Harvest based in southeast Atlanta (close to where Wythe grew up!). Fresh Harvest is a self-described modern CSA and ethical food hub that is committed to sourcing fresh food from farms local to Atlanta, and to making the customer experience easy enough that people will continue to buy local food, week after week. 80% of their artisan foods are sourced from within 70 miles of Atlanta. As Zac says, “People do care wh...

Jeff Landau on Urban Ag Policy

June 22, 2023 20:30 - 47 minutes - 43.1 MB

Melissa and Wythe catch up with their friend and collaborator Jeffrey Landau, Director of Business Development at Agritecture Consulting. Jeffrey is an expert in controlled environment agriculture (CEA, or indoor farming), urban agriculture, and urban agriculture policy. He’s spent the last year traveling to farms and gardens across the U.S., working much of that time with different stakeholders in the city of Dallas to craft an urban agriculture plan, and he shares with us some of his refle...

Leigh Ollman on Learning and Teaching Mycology

June 15, 2023 20:30 - 54 minutes - 50 MB

Melissa and Wythe are joined by their friend Leigh Ollman, a mushroom grower, educator, and food systems consultant. We talk about Leigh’s role in kickstarting the NYU Mycology Group, her work as a professional mushroom grower (she started with 150 logs, farming mushrooms commercially during the pandemic), and her current role as a professional mushroom educator thanks to an amazing Cornell program. We also talk about Leigh’s new project, Citizen Species, which seeks to document biodiversity...

Annie Novak on Plant Education for Everyone

June 08, 2023 20:30 - 1 hour - 55 MB

On this week's episode of Fields, Melissa (Wythe was away on jury duty) speaks with the multi-talented Annie Novak. Annie is the co-founder of Eagle Street Rooftop Farm, the director of Growing Chefs, a nonprofit that provides food education in schools and the community, the manager of the Edible Academy at the New York Botanical Garden, and the author of The Rooftop Growing Guide: How to Transform Your Roof into a Vegetable Garden or Farm. Annie began her journey into growing with commodit...

The USDA's Nina Bhattacharyya and Blake Glover on the People's Garden and Urban Conservation

June 01, 2023 20:30 - 54 minutes - 49.5 MB

Wythe and Melissa are delighted to chat with not one but two experts on urban agriculture from two different parts of the United States Department of Agriculture: Nina Bhattacharyya, Urban Agriculture Specialist at the USDA Office of Urban Agriculture and Innovative Production (UAIP), and Blake Glover, State Conservationist at the New York State Office of the USDA Natural Resources Conservation Service (NRCS). Nina and Blake clarify how the USDA supports urban growers around the country, wi...

Jonas Günther on Falling in Love With Microalgae

May 25, 2023 20:30 - 47 minutes - 43.6 MB

Melissa and Wythe catch up with their friend Jonas Günther, co-founder of the Brooklyn-based food startup, We Are the New Farmers (WATNF). The New Farmers don’t grow lettuce and tomatoes, however: they grow a fresh superfood called Spirulina—a fast-growing microalgae (clump of tiny water-living plants) that looks like a beautiful dark green foam, has no taste, and can be used to add nutrients to almost any dish.  Jonas walks us through the history of his company, starting at NYU, where he f...

H3irloom Food Group on Cooking and Urban Agriculture

May 18, 2023 20:30 - 54 minutes - 49.9 MB

For the first time in Fields history, Wythe and Melissa interview four urban growers at once! We speak to the principles of H3irloom Food Group—Linda and Floyd Taliaferro, and David and Tonya Thomas—about their simultaneously innovative and tradition-inspired approach to cooking and growing, as well as their educational initiatives using agriculture. Longtime collaborators with local farmers, the H3irloom Food Group is currently developing their own 68-acre farm, Gabriel Fields, just outsid...

Ben Flanner of Brooklyn Grange on Rooftop Farms

May 11, 2023 20:30 - 1 hour - 55.6 MB

Melissa and Wythe sit down at the Heritage Radio Network studio in Roberta’s to chat with Ben Flanner, co-founder and CEO of Brooklyn Grange, to talk about the history and future of rooftop farming. Ben walks us through the decade-long history of Brooklyn Grange, which has led the field in turning rooftops into farms in NYC. We talk about the challenges that face rooftop farmers, the innovations that have led their business model to work, the different kinds of crops grown across the many G...

Season Three Teaser!

May 04, 2023 13:00 - 6 minutes - 6.37 MB

If you enjoyed Seasons 1 and 2 of Fields, get ready for some of our biggest, boldest episodes yet in Season 3! If you haven’t tuned in to Fields before, no worries. Check out our new episodes, dropping soon. Many thanks to all of our guests, from farmers and chefs to USDA and Extension agents.

A History of Farm Animals in NYC

April 07, 2022 20:18 - 45 minutes - 41.6 MB

When and why were large farm animals banned from NYC? What’s happening on the one working farm exempt from this ban? Did you know that thousands of pigs used to freely roam around New York City? Pre-COVID, Melissa and Wythe chatted with environmental historian Catherine McNeur and long-time animal farmer Heidi Woolever (formerly of Queens County Farm Museum) in order to learn why we don’t see pigs in the streets any more. We then followed up with Heidi in March, 2022. Queens County is the ol...

Urban Greenhouses: A Conversation About Growing at Home

March 31, 2022 14:27 - 51 minutes - 46.9 MB

Following up on our various dives into mission-driven commercial vertical farming, greenhouse-growing at the Texas State Fair, indoor growing as a tool of food sovereignty in Brooklyn, and food-focused architecture, the Fields hosts discuss both the history of and recent innovations in greenhouses in cities, especially NYC. How can domestic homes incorporate greenhouses to grow food? What have cities done so far to create more viable opportunities to grow food in greenhouses? Melissa reflect...

Scott Kellogg, Educational Director of the Radix Ecological Sustainability Center

March 24, 2022 12:59 - 59 minutes - 54.2 MB

Scott is a scientist, advocate, and educator working at the intersection of social justice and biodiversity conservation. He helps manage the amazing Radix Center in the South End of Albany, NY. Among many other amazing projects that we talk about with Scott, Radix is… growing trees without cloning in order to increase genetic diversity and help protect against pests; planting trees such as paw-paws with climate change in mind; teaching a love for the living environment and an ethic of recip...

Post-Meat: A Conversation About Cellular Agriculture and Plant-Based Meat

March 17, 2022 20:52 - 45 minutes - 41.5 MB

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...

Greg Peterson of The Urban Farm, Phoenix, AZ

March 10, 2022 17:53 - 53 minutes - 48.8 MB

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 urba...

Farms Unknown: Tenisio Seanima on the City of East Point’s First Ever Agriculture Plan

March 04, 2022 15:34 - 43 minutes - 39.8 MB

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...

Farms Unknown: J. Olu Baiyewu on Urban Agriculture in Atlanta

February 24, 2022 16:19 - 42 minutes - 39.2 MB

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 n...

Exploring Farms Unknown with Jeffrey Landau

February 17, 2022 20:44 - 46 minutes - 42.7 MB

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 ca...

Sitopias: Visions of Urban Futures, Shaped by Farming

February 10, 2022 02:48 - 1 hour - 68.3 MB

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 Biosphe...

Dr. Peter H. Wood on Rice and the Reshaping of South Carolina

February 02, 2022 16:35 - 1 hour - 55.6 MB

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 ...

Urban Farmers: The Book, with Writer Mónica R. Goya

January 27, 2022 21:30 - 37 minutes - 34.1 MB

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 en...

Dr. Edda Fields-Black on Rice, the Legacy of African Slavery, and Symphony as History

January 20, 2022 19:49 - 55 minutes - 50.5 MB

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 connec...

Evan Marks of The Ecology Center on Fostering Local Farm Hubs

January 13, 2022 19:38 - 46 minutes - 42.9 MB

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 t...

Amy Franceschini of Futurefarmers on Art, Seeds, and Public Space

January 06, 2022 22:35 - 57 minutes - 52.8 MB

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 involv...

Tyrean Lewis and Reversing Food Apartheid Through Urban Ag

December 30, 2021 20:49 - 45 minutes - 41.7 MB

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 dispari...

Season Two Teaser!

December 15, 2021 20:36 - 52 minutes - 48.3 MB

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 t...

Season Two Sneak Peek!

December 15, 2021 18:30 - 2 minutes - 1.88 MB

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. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Fields by becoming a member! Fields is Powered by Sim...

Season Two is Coming Soon!

December 10, 2021 15:45 - 1 minute - 1.81 MB

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 studi...

Mayoral Candidate Kathryn Garcia Talks Urban Ag

May 14, 2021 14:00 - 43 minutes - 40.2 MB

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...

Alex Rewagan: Craft Cannabis

April 09, 2021 05:00 - 1 hour - 57.9 MB

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 hetero...

Prepping with Delicious Microbes

April 02, 2021 14:52 - 21 minutes - 20 MB

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 brea...

Alexis Mena: Universe City and Afro-Indigenous Food Sovereignty

March 26, 2021 05:00 - 58 minutes - 36.3 MB

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 skil...

Candace Thompson: Foraging in Cities

March 19, 2021 05:00 - 51 minutes - 47.2 MB

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. So...

Maya Kutz: Urban Ag and Mutual Aid

March 12, 2021 06:00 - 1 hour - 50.5 MB

“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 ...

Victory Gardens and Teaching Urban Farming Over Zoom

March 05, 2021 06:00 - 33 minutes - 31 MB

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. S...

Penny McBride and Farming as a Second Chance

February 26, 2021 06:00 - 46 minutes - 35 MB

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, ...

Meat Breweries: Cell Agriculture

February 19, 2021 06:00 - 50 minutes - 46.3 MB

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 animal...

Drew Demler, Community Growing, and Growing Community

February 12, 2021 06:00 - 51 minutes - 38.4 MB

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 comm...

‘Shrooms! Indoors, Foraged, and Friendly

February 05, 2021 06:00 - 40 minutes - 32.8 MB

Why are mushrooms so popular recently, and who is growing them—and searching for them in the wild—in New York City? To find out, we interviewed a whole bunch of fungi-focused folks. These interviews happened a couple of years ago, so this episode is technically from the vault—but it’s aged well! We learn about the cello-inspired origins of the commercial vertical farming startup Smallhold, which grows oyster mushrooms and lion’s mane all over the city. We hear from an entrepreneur on why she...