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45 minutes | Apr 7, 2022
A History of Farm Animals in NYC
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 oldest farm in the city, and the only one currently home to pigs (and cows, goats, and alpacas…). And Catherine’s book, Taming Manhattan, offers rich historical details about our once-pig-filled streets, and why getting rid of the pigs was also a move by the rich to change poor, non-white neighborhoods. We get into “swill milk” (a gross but important story in the city’s history), what animals you can raise in the city (no rhinos, sadly), and how Queens County operates today. We also talk to Heidi about how a person even gets into animal husbandry as a career in NYC—and why goats are magnificent creatures. Check out this episode, review Fields, and share us with your friends! Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Fields by becoming a member! Fields is Powered by Simplecast.
51 minutes | Mar 31, 2022
Urban Greenhouses: A Conversation About Growing at Home
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 reflects on her work experiences and future plans; Wythe draws on his research into indoor agriculture; and Allie brings in the aesthetic perspective—laws often focus on what cities should look like, not helping people feed themselves. Join us for another informational and informal host conversation, and if you enjoy Fields, tell a friend! Are you a business owner? Become an HRN business member! For $500 HRN will shine a light on your work AND you will help sustain our mission to expand the way people think about food. As a thank you for this tax-deductible donation, your business will receive on-air mentions, social media posts, listings on our website and more. Go to heritageradionetwork.org/biz to become a business member today. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Fields by becoming a member! Fields is Powered by Simplecast.
59 minutes | Mar 24, 2022
Scott Kellogg, Educational Director of the Radix Ecological Sustainability Center
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 reciprocity; turning vacant lots into nut orchards; and practicing “compost justice.” Radix is a model for other regions when it comes to connecting urban agriculture, education, and justice. This is an episode you don’t want to miss! Are you a business owner? Become an HRN business member! For $500 HRN will shine a light on your work AND you will help sustain our mission to expand the way people think about food. As a thank you for this tax-deductible donation, your business will receive on-air mentions, social media posts, listings on our website and more. Go to heritageradionetwork.org/biz to become a business member today. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Fields by becoming a member! Fields is Powered by Simplecast.
45 minutes | Mar 17, 2022
Post-Meat: A Conversation About Cellular Agriculture and Plant-Based Meat
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 supposed to be inevitable. The science tells a different story” by Joe Fassler), debates the likely trajectories of cell-based and plant-based meats and responds to different media narratives. In doing so, we challenge the inevitability of technological solutions to social and political problems such as the unequal burdens created by climate disruption and the unequal access to futuristic post-meats. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Fields by becoming a member! Fields is Powered by Simplecast.
53 minutes | Mar 10, 2022
Greg Peterson of The Urban Farm, Phoenix, AZ
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 agriculture online during a pandemic. In fact, The Urban Farm offers free urban agriculture classes online. Recorded at the end of COP26 summit, this episode also focuses on climate disruption’s effects on agriculture as well as the politics of agriculture. Check it out, and happy planting! Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Fields by becoming a member! Fields is Powered by Simplecast.
43 minutes | Mar 4, 2022
Farms Unknown: Tenisio Seanima on the City of East Point’s First Ever Agriculture Plan
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 their cities. From there, Jeffrey and Tenisio cover some of the history of agriculture, and Tenisio shares a long list of role models and books that will inspire anyone working in food and ag. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Fields by becoming a member! Fields is Powered by Simplecast.
43 minutes | Feb 24, 2022
Farms Unknown: J. Olu Baiyewu on Urban Agriculture in Atlanta
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 network of urban ag directors and policymakers, and what young and aspiring urban farmers can do to pursue this path. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Fields by becoming a member! Fields is Powered by Simplecast.
47 minutes | Feb 17, 2022
Exploring Farms Unknown with Jeffrey Landau
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 career. How did he become a full-time, professional consultant in urban and indoor farming? Why did he leave New York City to tour the country in a camper van? What are some trends he’s seeing out on the road, both inspiring and worrying? What is he hopeful for in the world of urban agriculture in NYC, in the year ahead? For more of Jeffrey’s work, check out his road-trip blog, Farms Unknown. And don’t forget to subscribe to Fields! Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Fields by becoming a member! Fields is Powered by Simplecast.
75 minutes | Feb 10, 2022
Sitopias: Visions of Urban Futures, Shaped by Farming
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 Biosphere 2, the world’s largest analog earth system, to examine the role of food in futurist speculation and utopia projects. We look back at food ecologies in sci-fi and NASA’s 1970s space farming projections, and hear insight from David Tollas, the general manager of Arcosanti Agriculture, and John Adams, the Deputy Director of Biosphere 2. Follow Fields for more dives into the futures (and futures-past) of urban agriculture. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Fields by becoming a member! Fields is Powered by Simplecast.
61 minutes | Feb 2, 2022
Dr. Peter H. Wood on Rice and the Reshaping of South Carolina
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 has been researching the transfer of knowledge regarding rice between West Africa and the Southern United States, including the legacy of the enslavement of Africans on the lands of the United States today. We talk about the history of rice-growing around the world, how it was grown in South Carolina hundreds of years ago and today, and the present and likely future impacts of climate disruption on the state’s coastal wetlands. (If you haven’t already listened to our conversation with Dr. Edda Fields-Black, check it out.) Dr. Wood is the author of Black Majority: Negroes in Colonial South Carolina from 1670 through the Stono Rebellion (1974), Strange New Land: Africans in Colonial America (2002), and Created Equal: A Social and Political History of the United States (2004). Follow Fields for more explorations of the intersections of urban and rural agriculture, and more discussions of how farming’s history shapes our present food systems. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Fields by becoming a member! Fields is Powered by Simplecast.
37 minutes | Jan 27, 2022
Urban Farmers: The Book, with Writer Mónica R. Goya
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 entangled in a food web deeply connected to other organisms in a city. Urban Farmers is available today. Photographer Valery Rizzo was the book’s creator and co-editor. The book features essays by urban farmers—many of whom work in New York City! Check out the book, and subscribe to Fields for more conversations about the present and future of the urban agriculture industry around the world. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Fields by becoming a member! Fields is Powered by Simplecast.
55 minutes | Jan 20, 2022
Dr. Edda Fields-Black on Rice, the Legacy of African Slavery, and Symphony as History
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 connection to this history. We also talk about her new book about Harriet Tubman—and her symphony, Unburied, Unmourned, Unmarked: Requiem for Rice, which is a contemporary classical and multimedia music symphonic work and the first symphonic work about slavery. Dr. Fields-Black is the author of Deep Roots: Rice Farmers in West Africa and the African Diaspora (Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2008). Check out Dr. Fields-Black’s books and beautiful symphony, and follow Fields for more conversations about the urban–rural continuum and the inescapable political dimensions of growing grains. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Fields by becoming a member! Fields is Powered by Simplecast.
47 minutes | Jan 13, 2022
Evan Marks of The Ecology Center on Fostering Local Farm Hubs
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 that supports a 750-member CSA program (community-supported agriculture), farm education programs, volunteers, and diverse conservation practices. We talk with Evan about water and soil conservation, climate disruption, working with other local farms, bioregional cuisine, and how farming is actually punk! His advice: “Be radical!” Check out the conversation, and follow Fields on Heritage Radio Network for more interviews with urban farmers around the world. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Fields by becoming a member! Fields is Powered by Simplecast.
58 minutes | Jan 6, 2022
Amy Franceschini of Futurefarmers on Art, Seeds, and Public Space
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 involved.) Check out all of Futurefarmers’ brilliant ag-plus-art projects! And follow Fields for more surprising and wide-ranging conversations about urban agriculture and urban culture. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Fields by becoming a member! Fields is Powered by Simplecast.
46 minutes | Dec 30, 2021
Tyrean Lewis and Reversing Food Apartheid Through Urban Ag
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 disparities and the role that urban agriculture can play in addressing them. Listen to the interview, follow Fields and Tyrean, and stay tuned to Heritage Radio Network. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Fields by becoming a member! Fields is Powered by Simplecast.
53 minutes | Dec 15, 2021
Season Two Teaser!
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 that have emerged in taping interviews for Season Two. The gang talks grains, climate disruption, compost, indoor agriculture, and more. Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Fields by becoming a member! Fields is Powered by Simplecast.
2 minutes | Dec 15, 2021
Season Two Sneak Peek!
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 Simplecast.
2 minutes | Dec 10, 2021
Season Two is Coming Soon!
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 studies, and Anthropocene landscapes. Her work encompasses research, radio broadcasts, and experiences that render past and future speculation accessible through sensory narratives. Allie is thrilled to join us as we continue to tell the unfinished story of urban agriculture. Fields is Powered by Simplecast.
44 minutes | May 14, 2021
Mayoral Candidate Kathryn Garcia Talks Urban Ag
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 the New York City Housing Authority, and Food Czar for New York's emergency food program during the COVID-19 emergency response. As mayor, she plans to green every roof in NYC and much more. We discuss food and environmental policy with a special focus on what this means for urban farmers. Give us a listen, plant a seed, and please share Fields with a friend! Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Fields by becoming a member! Fields is Powered by Simplecast.
63 minutes | Apr 9, 2021
Alex Rewagan: Craft Cannabis
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 heterogeneous legalization process in North America. Alex is from Canada and conducts research there, but he lives in the Boston area and has a lot of thoughts on U.S. legalization processes, too. We discuss who will benefit and who will likely be left behind by different forms of cannabis legalization, and we also get into why certain uses of this plant are just now taking off in consumer culture—that is, what’s up with CBD? It’s everywhere! We also discuss home-grown or small-scale “craft” cannabis as opposed to industrial growing, how Canadian smokers have responded to legalization, and who may grow cannabis at home in cities today. Take a listen, plant a seed, and please share Fields with a friend! Heritage Radio Network is a listener supported nonprofit podcast network. Support Fields by becoming a member! Fields is Powered by Simplecast.
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