http://www.cchange.net/2009/08/19/urban-agriculture-sprouting-farms-on-rooftops-and-empty-lots/

Sea Change Radio's second weeks coverage of the NOFA Summer Conference including and coverage of Gardening the Community

This weekend I caught up with Will Allen who was keynoting the always excellent Northeast Organic Farming Association’s Annual Conference in Amherst, MA. He’s founder and CEO of Growing Power, the country’s premier grassroots urban gardening program, and also a MacArthur Genius Award Winner and former pro-basketball player.

AMHERST - For Brookfield Farm, the loss of 3,000 tomato plants to late blight has been like a death in the family.

"Just when the time had come to harvest the fruits of our labor, it is now time to say goodbye," the farm's newsletter said last week. "We were hanging on many hopes and prayers, but alas, it is now time to admit the inevitable and say farewell."

A camper doing his morning stretches in the grass outside his tent, a woman teaching a group of adults how to make felt from wool, a man setting up a spot for animals to run in the grass and a pile of books at an exhibitor’s tent were just some of the things happening at the UMass campus in Amherst this weekend where a record breaking crowd of 1600 people gathered in brilliant sunshine for the 35th Annual Northeast Organic Farming Association’s Summer Conference.