I am lucky enough to have had an MBA student who is now a maven in the urban faming world.
Ryan Finch is the General Manager of Raleigh City Farm in North Carolina and she speaks eloquently about how urban faming is not just an ecological movement, but rather it’s about people and community.
In a TEDEx talk–”Enchantment on an Urban Farm”, she tells the story of the Raleigh City Farm, a relatively new social enterprise in one of the cities that make up the Research Triangle, and a winner of the “People & Planet” Green Business Contest from Green America.
Ryan describes how as well as the obvious benefits of growing food on an unused city lot, the farm is at the center of many other economic and social activities, including the local old folks home, regenerating activity in an abandoned strip mall, linking to the university and enriching human life in the community in many other ways.
The ripple effect of this initiative that was started by a bunch of enthusiastic ‘greenies’ has gone far beyond the farm’s initial mission, “to transform unexpected downtown spaces into beautiful and nourishing farmland.”
