Fields

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.

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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.

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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!

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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.

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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!

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