International Urban Agriculture Champions

Leveraging global lessons is a powerful means of inspiring local implementation. In this webinar, we are joined by the international perspectives of Natalie Keene (Norway), Merrin Layden (representing UK), and Pablo Ermini (Argentina).

Hear about how Norwegian CSA's take particular care of their members who harvest directly from the fields themselves and work on the farm with the farmers. Learn how community orchards in the UK are responding to the climate crisis. Be inspired by agriculture in the city taking forms of resistance and adapting to dominant power.

Each will discuss their experiences with urban agriculture, highlighting the challenges they overcame, the successes along the way, and lessons that might be applied in our Australian context.

This is the third evening webinar supporting the Urban Agriculture Forum, proving more opportunities to connect, grow and share. Purchasing a 3-day pass to the Urban Agriculture Forum gives you free access to all three evening webinars!

Registrations close at 5PM AEDT on April 20th.

Natalie Keen - CSA Farm Manager & Project Leader, Agroecology Consultant

Nat is a CSA Farm Manager and Project Leader, and agroecology consultant currently living and working in Norway. Nat came from a huge, dusty wheat farm in NSW and jumped head first into the food cooperative and community gardening scene in Canberra during her undergraduate years in the early 2000's. After a long stint in the campaign to protect Southern Tasmania's Old Growth Forests and just as long working in remote, Central Desert Indigenous communities she moved to Norway to undertake a Masters in Agroecology.

Over the last 3.5 years in the cold north, she has become immersed in Community Supported Agriculture. The CSA model in Norway is unique, with over 80 farms all offering direct contact between their members, the growers and the farm. Nat holds various positions on three of these Norwegian-style CSA's where she both farms and organises all the communication, working-bees, social and community events, and workshops for her nearly 350 members.

The agroecology principal of knowledge-sharing is at the heart of her approach both on and off the farm. She is hired each growing season to consult on various community projects and in winter she teaches various topics in the Introduction to Urban Agriculture at the Norwegian University of Life Sciences in Ås. She also founded the first Norwegian Permablitz group in 2019, renamed with a local twist 'Permadugnad Oslo' which is funded by the Oslo Municipality in their drive to create and involve Oslo's population in more urban growing projects.

See Natalie’s work here:

Dysterjordet andelalndbruk

Kirkeby Andelslandbruk

Tveten CSA

Permadugnad Oslo

Merrin Layden - 3000 Acres / The Orchard Project

After a first career working on climate and forest campaigns, Merrin decided to turn a personal passion into her profession and completed a permaculture design course followed by a Graduate Diploma of Urban Horticulture at Burnley.

She lived and worked for 5 years in London delivering community garden training programs and establishing urban food projects, including several years at The Orchard Project UK. Now back in Melbourne with 3000acres, Merrin seeks to build on the existing wealth of knowledge in our city and work in partnership with other groundbreaking organisations to change the local food system.

The Orchard Project is the only UK charity dedicated to the creation, restoration, and celebration of the community orchard. Their aim is that every household in the UK's towns and cities be within walking distance of a productive, well-cared-for, community-run orchard. https://www.theorchardproject....

Pablo Ermini - Instituto Nacional de Tecnología Agropecuaria (INTA)

Pablo Ermini is agriculture engineer, graduated in the Agronomy Faculty of the National University of La Pampa, Argentina. Around 1998 started his work in Urban Agriculture as volunteer given training and technical support. In 2002 initiate his labor in INTA (National Institute for Agriculture Technology) inside PROHUERTA, a program created in 1989 dedicated to resolve the food insecurity in the country.

Also he is involved in projects of INTA related with vegetable production, environmental assessment and characterization of urban and periurban farms. He visited and work like volunteer in projects related to local food, family farming, organic production and urban agriculture in Spain, France, Italy, Wales and Australia. During 2012 finished his master studies in “Environmental
Management of the Urban Development” where he works focus on typology of Urban Agriculture with the objective of improve the urban policies and better design of agriculture in the city.

During 2020 finished his PhD of “Urban Studies” in the University General Sarmiento of Buenos Aires, Argentina. His thesis is related to how agriculture in the city take forms of resistance and also adapt to dominant power. At moment runs activities in projects related to urban fringe planning and rural-
urban links. Read more here.

The 2021 Urban Agriculture Forum:

Care Farming & Gardening in the Climate Emergency

April 22rd to 24th, 2021

The Urban Agriculture Forum (UAF) is a bi-annual event that will be held online. The 3rd National UAF will be held on Thursday April 22nd, Friday April 23rd and Saturday April 24th, 2021. The forum attracts over 200 policy makers, practitioners, innovators and institutions in the urban agriculture sector.

You’re invited to join us as we explore the growing urban agriculture initiatives in Australia and beyond and the positive impacts it has on our community’s health and wellbeing.

Please get in touch with us via uaf@sustainaustralia.org for more information on how you can get involved.

Find out more:

This event is organised by Sustain.

About Sustain: The Australian Food Network

Sustain is a national food systems think and do network that co-designs and co-builds better food systems. We work collaboratively with stakeholders across government, community and business towards the transition to a food system that works for all Australians and supports flourishing communities and ecosystems.

Sustain was formed in 2015 and is based in Melbourne, with members and partners in all states and territories. Sustain’s leadership and impact is demonstrated with the multiple achievements of the ground-breaking collective impact projects Cardinia Food Circles (2016-present) and the Melbourne Food Hub (2018-present), as well as its coordination of two national Urban Agriculture Forums (2016, 2018) and an inaugural Australian Community Food Hubs conference and speaking tour (2016).

Contact the host of International Urban Agriculture Champions