Kathleen Merrigan, the United States Deputy Secretary of Agriculture and creator of the Know Your Farmer, Know Your Food initiative, talks at The New School. She speaks about efforts to strengthen urban food sheds, including strategies to link urban and rural areas and the roles that cities can play in rebuilding food systems.
The event is sponsored by the Tishman Environment and Design Center.
Bio
Nevin Cohen
Nevin Cohen is Co-Chair of the Tishman Environment & Design Center at The New School. Dr. Cohen is an expert in environmental planning who has served as a policy analyst, urban planner, and business advisor. Dr. Cohen is also an Assistant Professor at Eugene Lang College, where he offers courses on environmental planning, food and sustainability, urban environmental policy, and environmental activism.
In addition to his position at The New School, Dr. Cohen co-founded Topology, LLC, an environmental planning and development firm. He has also served as managing principal for GreenOrder, Inc., a consulting firm specializing in sustainable business practices, where he advised companies such as GE, Office Depot, Pfizer, and Pitney Bowes on methods to improve their environmental performance. He has also held senior research positions at Rutgers University's Center for Environmental Communication, Environmental Defense, the World Resources Institute, Tellus Institute, and INFORM. He was responsible for developing landmark municipal recycling, water conservation, and clean fuel laws in New York City as an analyst for the City Council and Manhattan Borough President.
Bob Kerrey
Bob Kerrey is president of The New School in New York City.
For twelve years prior to becoming president of The New School, Bob Kerrey represented the State of Nebraska in the United States Senate. Before that, he served as Nebraska's governor for four years.
Bob Kerrey is the author of When I Was A Young Man: A Memoir, published by Harcourt Books (May 2002). He served as a member of the National Commission on Terrorist Attacks upon the United States, currently leads a five year writing challenge sponsored by The National Commission on Writing in America's Schools and Colleges, and is co-chair with Newt Gingrich of The National Commission for Quality Long-Term Care.
Kathleen Merrigan
Kathleen Merrigan is the United States Deputy Secretary of Agriculture.
The active production of useful plants or animals in ecosystems that have been created by people. Agriculture may include cultivating the soil, growing and harvesting crops, and raising livestock. Agriculture was independently developed in many places, including the Middle East, East Asia, South Asia, and the Americas. The earliest evidence for agriculture has been found in the Middle East and dates to between 14,500 and 12,000 BP. Early cultivars include wild barley (Middle East), millet (China), and squash (the Americas). The domestication of many animals now considered to be livestock occurred during roughly the same period, although dogs were domesticated considerably earlier. Slash-and-burn land-clearing methods and crop rotation were early agricultural techniques. Steady improvements in tools and methods over the centuries increased agricultural output, as did mechanization, selective breeding and hybridization, and, beginning in the 20th century, the use of herbicides and insecticides.
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