{"id":16579,"date":"2014-06-12T08:37:22","date_gmt":"2014-06-12T14:37:22","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/wordpress-367309-1145705.cloudwaysapps.com\/?p=16579"},"modified":"2014-06-12T08:37:22","modified_gmt":"2014-06-12T14:37:22","slug":"planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/","title":{"rendered":"How Planting Pumpkins Created an Urban Agriculture Advocate"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"urban<\/a><\/p>\n

Editor’s note:<\/strong> Dan Susman, one of the producers of the documentary Growing Cities, offered me another guest post<\/a> this week, and I took him up on it. How does a kid from Nebraska end up making films about urban agriculture? Here’s how…<\/em><\/p>\n

I grew up planting pumpkins in the backyard with my parents, always hoping I might end up like James and the Giant Peach<\/i>. Each Spring, I would eagerly plant my seeds and nurse them through the sweltering Nebraska summers. Evil squash bugs and ever-looming drought aside, I usually ended up with at least one pumpkin bigger I was.<\/p>\n

Even though sports (and later girlfriends) kept me away from the garden as a teenager, I\u2019ve always had that experience to show me the importance of growing food<\/a>. Whether it was the magic of a tiny seed growing into something so huge or the responsibility I felt for caring for another living being, I understood this was something essential. However, it wasn\u2019t until I traveled over 13,000 miles across the country for my film, Growing Cities<\/i><\/a>, that I realized how lucky I was.<\/p>\n

I became interested in urban farming while working at Zenger Farm<\/a> in Portland, OR. There I saw the incredible things people were accomplishing with urban agriculture and yearned to learn more. Fresh out of college, I hatched a plan to visit urban farmers across the country. I spoke with my childhood friend (and filmmaker) Andrew Monbouquette about the idea and he said, \u201cWe have to make this into a movie.\u201d And that was the beginning of Growing Cities<\/i>.<\/p>\n

\"urban<\/a><\/p>\n

We have all heard about the problems in agriculture, from GMOs to CAFOs, but what all these acronyms don\u2019t add up to is change. So, we figured it was time to show off the people on the ground who were doing something positive, right in their own backyards. And this is what Growing Cities<\/i> is all about.<\/p>\n

The film follows Andrew and me as we visit folks who are challenging the way this country grows its food one vacant city lot and backyard chicken coop at a time. We found urban agriculture has remarkable power on many levels\u2014it connects people to their food, strengthens communities, creates jobs, revitalizes blighted areas; and much more. More than anything, urban farmers challenge us to re-examine our assumptions about what it means live in the city, and how all us can be part of providing for ourselves and one another.<\/p>\n

Urban agriculture will not<\/i> fix every problem our communities face. However, I do think it\u2019s a place to start. A conversation\u2014\u201cWoah, you have rabbits in your backyard? My grandparents had them on the farm!\u201d A journey\u2014meet growers in your city, you\u2019ll be surprised how helpful they are. And a place to start a movement\u2014we\u2019ve met someone of every age, race, and class who are growing food for reasons as diverse as they are people. This is not a hippie (or hipster) movement, though there are plenty of each. This movement is for anyone and everyone, whether you have a window, a rooftop, or a backyard. As Eugene Cook, a farmer in Atlanta told us, \u201cWe\u2019re not asking you to grow everything. We\u2019re saying grow something\u2026grow where you are.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"growing<\/a><\/p>\n

Please support our Kickstarter today! We need to raise $30k by July 9th<\/sup> to broadcast the film nationally on PBS this Fall: www.kck.st\/1kDfhgP<\/a><\/strong><\/p>\n

Dan Susman, Director, Growing Cities: Dan has lived, breathed, and eaten urban agriculture over the past three years making Growing Cities. He has visited countless urban farms and worked with many leaders in the sustainable agriculture movement. He is also the co-founder of Truck Farm Omaha, an edible education project which teaches local youth about sustainable farming and healthy foods.<\/em><\/p>\n

Images<\/strong> courtesy of Growing Cities<\/em>.<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Filmmaker Dan Sussman comes by his interest in urban agriculture honestly; find out how this Nebraskan found his passion for growing food <\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":51,"featured_media":16580,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[24,2],"tags":[537,23,5720,6972,5420,2712],"yoast_head":"\nFrom Gardening to Urban Agriculture: One Filmmaker's Story<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Filmmaker Dan Sussman comes by his interest in urban agriculture honestly; find out how this Nebraskan found his passion for growing food\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"From Gardening to Urban Agriculture: One Filmmaker's Story\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Filmmaker Dan Sussman comes by his interest in urban agriculture honestly; find out how this Nebraskan found his passion for growing food\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Sustainablog\" \/>\n<meta property=\"article:published_time\" content=\"2014-06-12T14:37:22+00:00\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:image\" content=\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/urban-agriculture-eugene-cook.jpg\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:width\" content=\"500\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:height\" content=\"372\" \/>\n\t<meta property=\"og:image:type\" content=\"image\/jpeg\" \/>\n<meta name=\"author\" content=\"Guest Author\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Guest Author\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\/\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Guest Author\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/295040e3a0f0edbacb25f149ecdda102\"},\"headline\":\"How Planting Pumpkins Created an Urban Agriculture Advocate\",\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-12T14:37:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-06-12T14:37:22+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/\"},\"wordCount\":647,\"commentCount\":0,\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\"},\"keywords\":[\"documentary\",\"gardening\",\"growing cities\",\"nebraska\",\"pumpkins\",\"urban agriculture\"],\"articleSection\":[\"Living\",\"Media\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/\",\"name\":\"From Gardening to Urban Agriculture: One Filmmaker's Story\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website\"},\"datePublished\":\"2014-06-12T14:37:22+00:00\",\"dateModified\":\"2014-06-12T14:37:22+00:00\",\"description\":\"Filmmaker Dan Sussman comes by his interest in urban agriculture honestly; find out how this Nebraskan found his passion for growing food\",\"breadcrumb\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/#breadcrumb\"},\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"ReadAction\",\"target\":[\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"BreadcrumbList\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/#breadcrumb\",\"itemListElement\":[{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":1,\"name\":\"Home\",\"item\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\"},{\"@type\":\"ListItem\",\"position\":2,\"name\":\"How Planting Pumpkins Created an Urban Agriculture Advocate\"}]},{\"@type\":\"WebSite\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\",\"name\":\"Sustainablog\",\"description\":\"Since 2003, Sustainablog has been one of the pioneers of sustainability news online.\",\"publisher\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\"},\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"SearchAction\",\"target\":{\"@type\":\"EntryPoint\",\"urlTemplate\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/?s={search_term_string}\"},\"query-input\":\"required name=search_term_string\"}],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\"},{\"@type\":\"Organization\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization\",\"name\":\"Sustainablog\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/\",\"logo\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg\",\"width\":200,\"height\":142,\"caption\":\"Sustainablog\"},\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/\"}},{\"@type\":\"Person\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/295040e3a0f0edbacb25f149ecdda102\",\"name\":\"Guest Author\",\"image\":{\"@type\":\"ImageObject\",\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"@id\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/\",\"url\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cbf22ef60cba3080be1353f11cc00d9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"contentUrl\":\"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cbf22ef60cba3080be1353f11cc00d9?s=96&d=mm&r=g\",\"caption\":\"Guest Author\"},\"url\":\"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/author\/guestauthor\/\"}]}<\/script>\n<!-- \/ Yoast SEO plugin. -->","yoast_head_json":{"title":"From Gardening to Urban Agriculture: One Filmmaker's Story","description":"Filmmaker Dan Sussman comes by his interest in urban agriculture honestly; find out how this Nebraskan found his passion for growing food","robots":{"index":"index","follow":"follow","max-snippet":"max-snippet:-1","max-image-preview":"max-image-preview:large","max-video-preview":"max-video-preview:-1"},"canonical":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/","og_locale":"en_US","og_type":"article","og_title":"From Gardening to Urban Agriculture: One Filmmaker's Story","og_description":"Filmmaker Dan Sussman comes by his interest in urban agriculture honestly; find out how this Nebraskan found his passion for growing food","og_url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/","og_site_name":"Sustainablog","article_published_time":"2014-06-12T14:37:22+00:00","og_image":[{"width":500,"height":372,"url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/06\/urban-agriculture-eugene-cook.jpg","type":"image\/jpeg"}],"author":"Guest Author","twitter_misc":{"Written by":"Guest Author","Est. reading time":"3 minutes"},"schema":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@graph":[{"@type":"Article","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/#article","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/"},"author":{"name":"Guest Author","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/295040e3a0f0edbacb25f149ecdda102"},"headline":"How Planting Pumpkins Created an Urban Agriculture Advocate","datePublished":"2014-06-12T14:37:22+00:00","dateModified":"2014-06-12T14:37:22+00:00","mainEntityOfPage":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/"},"wordCount":647,"commentCount":0,"publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization"},"keywords":["documentary","gardening","growing cities","nebraska","pumpkins","urban agriculture"],"articleSection":["Living","Media"],"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"CommentAction","name":"Comment","target":["https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/#respond"]}]},{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/","name":"From Gardening to Urban Agriculture: One Filmmaker's Story","isPartOf":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website"},"datePublished":"2014-06-12T14:37:22+00:00","dateModified":"2014-06-12T14:37:22+00:00","description":"Filmmaker Dan Sussman comes by his interest in urban agriculture honestly; find out how this Nebraskan found his passion for growing food","breadcrumb":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/#breadcrumb"},"inLanguage":"en-US","potentialAction":[{"@type":"ReadAction","target":["https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/"]}]},{"@type":"BreadcrumbList","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/planting-pumpkins-created-urban-agriculture-advocate\/#breadcrumb","itemListElement":[{"@type":"ListItem","position":1,"name":"Home","item":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/"},{"@type":"ListItem","position":2,"name":"How Planting Pumpkins Created an Urban Agriculture Advocate"}]},{"@type":"WebSite","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#website","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/","name":"Sustainablog","description":"Since 2003, Sustainablog has been one of the pioneers of sustainability news online.","publisher":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization"},"potentialAction":[{"@type":"SearchAction","target":{"@type":"EntryPoint","urlTemplate":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/?s={search_term_string}"},"query-input":"required name=search_term_string"}],"inLanguage":"en-US"},{"@type":"Organization","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#organization","name":"Sustainablog","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/","logo":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg","contentUrl":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-content\/uploads\/2014\/07\/cropped-sblog-logo_3b.jpg","width":200,"height":142,"caption":"Sustainablog"},"image":{"@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/logo\/image\/"}},{"@type":"Person","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/295040e3a0f0edbacb25f149ecdda102","name":"Guest Author","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","inLanguage":"en-US","@id":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/#\/schema\/person\/image\/","url":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cbf22ef60cba3080be1353f11cc00d9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","contentUrl":"https:\/\/secure.gravatar.com\/avatar\/7cbf22ef60cba3080be1353f11cc00d9?s=96&d=mm&r=g","caption":"Guest Author"},"url":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/articles\/author\/guestauthor\/"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16579"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/51"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16579"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16579\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16580"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16579"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16579"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/sustainablog.org\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16579"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}