Young farmers in Baltimore, Sep 15

Hi Baltimore Spokes folks
 - here are details for our young farmers urban farm tour, lectures, film screening...
i think Bikers in the city will be interested in coming out.
http://thegreenhorns.net/baltimore
Please share widely with your networks, facebook, twitter, calendar, etc...
Thanks. Hope to see you there!
Patrick Kiley, greenhorns
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE – 
MEDIA ADVISORY for SEPTEMBER 15, 2011
Contact:
 
Patrick Kiley, Greenhorns
cell: 
517-242-5684 
·
 land: 845-889-3132 
·
 
farmer@thegreenhorns.net

 

Schedule at 
thegreenhorns.net/baltimore


Urban Farmers to Assemble in Baltimore for Workshops and Farm Tours

 
All-day Event Will Advance Next-level Thinking in Urban Agriculture and Brownfields Uses

BALTIMORE, MD – A fast-growing and enterprising community of young and aspiring urban farmers will join researchers, environmental professionals, and city and federal health officials for a day of hands-on workshops, lectures and farm tours on September 15 in Baltimore. Introductory training in the wide field of urban agriculture and community food issues will form the core of the day’s programming. An additional focus will be the potential to use agriculture to revitalize thousands of acres of brownfields (former industrial sites) in the city. This event is being organized by 
The Greenhorns
.
 
The day will kick off at Five Seeds Farm in the Belair-Edison neighborhood at 10am, then move to Real Food Farm in Clifton Park in Northeast Baltimore. Participants will be encouraged to bike between urban farms and other sites. A full schedule is available at www.thegreenhorns.net/baltimore
 
Baltimore has seen a rise in the number of urban farms in recent years. The city’s Office of Sustainability now hopes to turn 10 acres of city-owned vacant lots into farmland though competitive grant giving. Baltimore is an EPA-certified "Brownfields Showcase Community" with at least 1,000 brownfields that total 2,500 acres. Because the city has lost more than half of its manufacturing jobs in the last 20 years and has a poverty rate of 23 percent and unemployment rate of more than 10 percent, the state’s goal is to create 100,000 green jobs here by 2015. The Greenhorns has organized the day to empower residents and officials to make community agriculture part of that future. This event is FREE and open to everyone.
 
Partners include the Johns Hopkins Center for a Livable Future, The Radix Ecological Sustainability Center, MICA, the Baltimore Free School, Five Seeds Farm, Real Food Farm, Civic Works, Boone St. Farm and Community Garden, Seed & Cycle, the Baltimore Office of Sustainability, and the EPA Office of Brownfields & Land Revitalization.
 
Scott Kellogg, author of The Toolbox for Sustainable City Living and founder of the Rhizome Collective and the Radix Ecological Sustainability Center, will lead a presentation about ecological tools and technologies that can be used to regenerate urban environments.
 
The second half of the day will begin at the Baltimore Free school with the “Greenhorns 101” class, led by Greenhorns founder and director Severine von Tscharner Fleming, on planning for a first season of farming.  
Concluding the day is a panel discussion followed by a free screening of “The Greenhorns” documentary about the struggle and valor of young farmers in America, at MICA (1300 Mt. Royal Ave, Room M110).
 
Schedule at www.thegreenhorns.net/baltimore


The Greenhorns
 
national non-profit organization recruits, supports and promotes young farmers in America. 
Using radio, blogs, film, new media, original resources and live events, the Greenhorns build agrarian culture by connecting young farmers with land, resources and each other. We are based on a farm in the Hudson Valley of New York