Wednesday, March 7, 2012

2nd urban agriculture program this week

  The Massachusetts Avenue Project’s Growing Green program is set for its second annual Spring Urban Agricultural training program, taking place from March 9 to March 11.
  According to the Growing Green website, individuals that chose to participate in the program will learn about urban fish farming, composting and value-added food production.
  “I really hope that the program continues to grow each year,” said Executive Director of Massachusetts Avenue Project Diane Picard. “People benefit by gaining knowledge about urban agriculture, and with networking with those who travel from far distances for the program.”
  The Growing Green program expects a wide variety of people participating in this program, ranging from teenagers to seniors.
  “Last year we had a lot of younger people at this program,” said Picard. “However we have had people come in that were also in their 50s and 60s, which we like to see because there is such a wide variety of people who are interested in urban agriculture.”
  According to foodsecurity.org, 80 percent of the U.S population lives in cities, which leads to a tremendous amount of energy being used to transport and process food.
  The Urban Agricultural Program is currently being held once a year, but Picard would like to see that change in the future.
  “This program started because we were getting a lot of requests for training,” she said. “I would love to see us run more training programs in the future, if we are able to acquire more staff to help out with these programs.” By Richard Cumpston and Mike Tellier