Introducing "Locally Grown In", A New Podcast By Agritecture

Agritecture’s new podcast, Locally Grown In, is on a mission to help entrepreneurs grow local food around the planet!

The challenges facing our regional and global food systems are tremendous: every year the planet’s demand for food rises, people are flocking to cities, climate change is altering weather patterns, and resource scarcity threatens our very ability to grow the healthy food that we so desperately need.

It’s a gloomy picture isn’t it?! And yet, amazing things are happening every day in local food systems across the world to tackle these challenges head on. Through our work here at Agritecture we get to experience these daunting challenges and witness the incredible innovations happening across the global food system first hand, but for many these stories can be hard to come across. That’s why we started agritecture.com as a blog 7 years ago, and the very same drive to democratize urban agriculture stories and knowledge is why we have created a podcast all about local food systems across the globe: Locally Grown In.

In each episode we explore the threats and opportunities for local agriculture in a different city by looking at existing data and interviewing leaders from that city’s local food movement. Our goal is to help YOU identify the economic, social, and environmental opportunities in growing fresh local food around the world.

As those who have tried before are familiar, creating a podcast isn’t a walk in the park. It means ordering recording equipment, creating an impromptu recording studio in our basement, learning how to edit audio, and dedicating a lot of time to researching, preparing, recording, editing, and then editing again. But with multiple episodes under our belts, we are confident now more than ever that it was all worth it. We’ve learned so much already, and we couldn’t be more excited share these stories of local food innovation and tenacity with you!

The podcast starts with our intro episode, where we tell you a little about ourselves and set the stage for future episodes. If you haven’t started listening yet, this is a great place to begin.

In ‘Episode 2: Sydney’, we take a deep dive into the local food scene in Sydney, Australia. Did you know that the Sydney Region produces about 20% of its food locally - not too bad right? Unfortunately, population growth and urban sprawl are infringing on the city’s fertile peri-urban farm land each year, meaning that local food production is expected to fall to 6% by 2030 if nothing is done to protect and support growers. In this episode we talk to University of New South Wales Research Fellow Dr. Luke Craven about these threats to the local food system, and with urban farming entrepreneur Scott Gregory about the ways in which his organization Sprouting Good is helping to address youth homelessness and fresh food production in Sydney.

In “Episode 3: Dubai”, we explore the recent expansion of local food production in Dubai, UAE, which has been making headlines in recent years across the vertical farming world. Did you know that Dubai has committed to build 12 vertical farms in the city by 2030, and at the same time reduce food waste by 50%? To discover how companies are responding to these lofty goals and paving the way for future food security, Henry Gordon-Smith talks with the food and sustainability entrepreneurs at Agricool, The Sustainable City, and Badia Farms.

Our next episode about Atlanta, Georgia is well on the way, and episodes after that will explore cities such as San Francisco, Toronto, and Brussels. Every urban area has a unique story with a specific set of challenges and opportunities for growing food locally, and we want to help tell these stories to inspire you and provide you with the knowledge to start growing food in the city you call home. It could be on your terrace, in your backyard, or in a new vertical farm that you launch in a basement or warehouse somewhere; wherever you grow and at whatever scale, the important part is that it’s locally grown in.