A New Generation of Victory Gardens: NRDC’s Sustainable Food Awards Show Emergence of Urban Farming

Last years Growing Green Awards winners.

Huffington Post a big supporter of City Farming

By Jonathan Kaplan
Senior policy specialist, Natural Resources Defense Council
Huffington Post
February 5, 2011

Excerpts:

Based on the entries for this year’s Growing Green Awards — NRDC’s annual award series for sustainable food leaders — the victory garden may be making a comeback. When we created the awards in 2009, we received a single nomination for a rooftop farm. Now in our third awards cycle, the application pile is teeming with up-and-coming urban farmers.

The job of selecting NRDC’s 2011 Growing Green Awards winners is looking harder than ever, given so many impressive nominations. This year we received 265 applicants in our categories of Food Producer, Business Leader, Knowledge Leader and Young Food Leader. While there are only four awards, I can tell you that dozens of these food leaders are qualified to win.

Luckily, I don’t have to decide. An independent panel of expert judges, including acclaimed author Michael Pollan, renowned chef Dan Barber, publishing leader Maria Rodale, and UC Davis sustainability director Tom Tomich will choose the winners.

Stay tuned as we continue to preview the finalists and announce the winners of the 2011 Growing Green Awards right here on Huffington Post. Victory never tasted so good.

Read the complete article here.