Teacher Stephen Ritz at TEDxManhattan

On a snowy Saturday in January, more than 350 attendees, 60 viewing parties, and 9,000+ online viewers attended and tuned in to watch 17 leaders in the world of sustainable agriculture and food speak about the state of agriculture, challenges to our food system, and innovative advances in the field.  Most of the speakers have several advanced degrees, awards and impressive resumes.  But it was the teacher from the South Bronx, Stephen Ritz, who brought the house down and earned the only standing ovation of the day with his talk on Growing a New Kind of Green Economy.

“The South Bronx is the poorest Congressional district in the country” he said, “and my hope is that my reach will exceed my grasp.”  Working with his “kids,” underserved teenage students in the South Bronx, he developed the first “indoor edible wall” in New York City.  Attendance in his class has jumped from 40 percent to over 90 percent, and his students are graduating and going to college.  His “kids” have been asked to help share their technology and expertise with other schools, have helped put an edible garden on the John Hancock building in Boston and spent the summer in the Hamptons building a rooftop garden.  “It’s simple,” says Ritz, who is teaching his third generation of students in the Bronx.  “just show your Passion.”

Be inspired.  Watch Stephen Ritz’s video and start changing the way your community eats – and thinks. 

TEDxManhattan, an independently organized event licensed by TED, will be releasing the remaining talks from its January 21 event in the next couple of weeks at www.tedxmanhattan.org/2012talks/.  Learn from speakers that include Consumer Reports Urvashi Rangan, who oversees their Consumer Safety and Sustainability Group and discusses problems with food labeling; Wayne Pacelle, President and CEO of the Humane Society of the United States who shares his thoughts on the feelings and lives of farm animals, and President of Stone Barns Fred Kirschenmann, whose talk teaches us that soil is so much more than just dirt.  

A DVD of the talks will be released in the Spring and photos of the event can be found on Flickr.  For more information, please email TEDxManhattan@gmail.com;  media can contact geralyn@resourcescommunications.com or telephone her at 281. 980.6643. 

The Glynwood Institute for Sustainable Food and Farming is the lead sponsor and host for TEDxManhattan 2012.

About TEDx, x = independently organized event

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like* experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for

the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized. *TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. For more information about TED and TEDx, please visit www.ted.com.

About TED

TED is a nonprofit organization devoted to Ideas Worth Spreading. Started as a four-day conference in California 25 years ago, TED has grown to support those world-changing ideas with multiple initiatives. The annual TED Conference invites the world's leading thinkers and doers to speak for 18 minutes. Their talks are then made available, free, at TED.com. TED speakers have included Bill Gates, Al Gore, Jane Goodall, Elizabeth Gilbert, Sir Richard Branson, Nandan Nilekani, Philippe Starck, Ngozi Okonjo-Iweala, Isabel Allende and UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown.

Follow TED on Twitter at www.twitter.com/TEDTalks, or on Facebook at www.facebook.com/TED.

Glynwood

Glynwood

Glynwood is one of the nation’s leading sustainable agriculture and food organizations, with a mission to save farming by strengthening farm communities and regional food systems. Founded in 1995 and located in the Hudson Valley, Glynwood operates its own 225-acre farm, which models sustainable farming practices, conducts science-based soil and pasture restoration, and trains young farmers.

To further its mission, Glynwood conceives and implements community-based programs like Keep Farming®, and tackles infrastructure challenges such as the shortage of slaughterhouse facilities so that small to mid-size farmers can thrive and supply local and regional food systems. Through a national and international network of like-minded professionals and organizations, Glynwood gathers, develops, tests and shares innovative ideas and initiatives from around the world that may be effective in local communities in the Northeast and other regions of the country. In addition, the organization sponsors conferences, educational programs and public events to further a sustainable and robust food system. In 2010, Glynwood founded The Glynwood Institute as an incubator for ideas and action, a "creative action-tank" that develops and promotes realistic solutions to critical issues within the food system.

Glynwood's main programs:

• Keep Farming® is Glynwood's unique, step-by-step program for empowering communities to develop and implement plans to support local farming and conserve farmland.
• Glynwood Farm tests, innovates, and teaches techniques that demonstrate the economic viability of environmentally sustainable farming. With 225 acres in the Hudson Valley, it is a real-world model of farming practices that seek to optimize production while operating as an ecological unit.
• The Apple Project: Saving Orchards with Apples, is stimulating ‘apple entrepreneurship’ in the Hudson Valley by encouraging the diversification of apple varieties, promoting the production of high-value hard cider and spirits, giving growers new resources for knowledge and skill, and supporting a growing market for hard cider and apple spirits.
• Modular Harvest System™ is a revolutionary mobile system that is modeling the solution to the severe shortage of humane and high-quality meat processing facilities for pasture raised livestock - a solution that will benefit farmers, consumers, communities and the environment.
• The Harvest Awards honors farmers, organizations, and businesses across the United States for innovation and leadership in sustainable agriculture and regional food systems.
• The Glynwood Institute is a creative action-tank working to shift the U.S. to regional sustainable food and farming through its public programs like TEDxManhattan: Changing the Way We Eat.

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