Melissa and Wythe are joined by their friend Leigh Ollman, a mushroom grower, educator, and food systems consultant. We talk about Leigh’s role in kickstarting the NYU Mycology Group, her work as a professional mushroom grower (she started with 150 logs, farming mushrooms commercially during the pandemic), and her current role as a professional mushroom educator thanks to an amazing Cornell program. We also talk about Leigh’s new project, Citizen Species, which seeks to document biodiversity in New York City, one Instagram post at a time, by telling the stories of people growing different plants here. This leads us down a rabbit hole about crop domestication and the return of some ‘lost crops.’ (Wythe recommends the must-read article ‘America’s Lost Crops‘ by Sarah Laskow in The Atlantic.) It’s a casual, informative conversation with a passionate young food leader. Tune in, and look out for Citizen Species!
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Big news: it's goodbye for now from the team of Fields. Melissa and Wythe would like to thank Liam Werner and everyone at Heritage Radio Network for a great run. You'll still be able to enjoy all 4 seasons of Fields on the HRN website and wherever you find fine agriculture podcasts, so tell your friends! Happy planting, from NYC to wherever ...
The Farm Report Episode 4: What’s the Future of Urban Agriculture?
February 15, 2024
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Melissa and Wythe were honored to join The Farm Report team for this special and important series on the Farm Bill and the politics of food. Please check out the interview, and follow The Farm Report for more critical news and analysis of what's happening across all of agriculture.Despite an increasing number of farmers growing ...
Wythe chats with NYC educator Vicki Sando about her years of research into green roofs—especially those on schools—and her creation of the illustrated book What is a Green Roof? Vicki created the book to help kids and adults understand the benefits of green roofs, including to urban farmers. We talk about her own work to green the roof of one ...
Melissa and Wythe host the inspiring food and urban agriculture entrepreneur Henry Obispo. Henry is founder of Born Juice, the United Business Cooperative, and ReBORN FARMS. We talk about Henry's background, the importance of the South Bronx in inspiring him, why he started a juice company, and how he started organizing other Bronxian food ...
Following up on their review of recent bad news in the field of vertical farming, Melissa and Wythe catch up with an expert: Henry Gordon-Smith, founding CEO of the urban and controlled environment agriculture consultancy Agritecture. Henry relates his thoughts on recent shifts in commercial indoor and urban agriculture, reflecting on some of ...
Catching Up with Wythe: The Recent Troubles in Vertical Farming
November 30, 2023
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Melissa and Wythe catch up with each other regarding a recent trend in urban agriculture: the closure or financial restructuring of several high-profile indoor farms in urban areas. We look at recent news articles on this topic, theorize why the indoor ag-tech sector is struggling, and speculate about what could happen next. We'll return to ...
Catching up with Melissa: Harvest Time at the NYU Urban Farm Lab
November 17, 2023
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To kick off a new season of Fields, Wythe and Melissa chat about Melissa's current work as both an instructor of urban agriculture at New York University and the manager of the school's Urban Farm Lab on Houston Street. Recorded in October 2023, just before harvest time, this informal conversation covers a range of subjects, from the crops ...
Michael Treglia on Green Roofs, Birds, and Pollinators
August 17, 2023
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To round out Season 3, Melissa and Wythe talk about the concept of the 'urban forest' in NYC with scientist Mike Treglia of The Nature Conservancy. Mike was trained as a herpetologist (reptile scientist), but he now focuses on the total ecological systems of cities, especially trees. The Nature Conservancy itself works to study and protect ...
