Hearts of Glass →

Hearts of Glass, a feature-length documentary, will tell the story of the critical first year of operation of Vertical Harvest, an innovative multi-story greenhouse located in the heart of Jackson Hole, Wyoming. Spearheaded by two women, and built at a cost of $3.8 million using public and private funds, this “urban farm” sits on 1/10 of an acre at an elevation of 6,237 feet. In addition to providing a year-round crop of vegetables and fruits to community members, the project was developed to offer consistent, meaningful, fair-paying jobs to Jackson residents with disabilities.

‘Hearts of Glass’ will explore themes of sustainable local food production, inclusion and community through the lens of this unique socially minded enterprise. The film is currently in production and under the auspices of Slow Food in the Tetons, a Jackson Hole non-profit focused on bringing together local food producers and consumers in the spirit of community.

Feeding Tomorrow →

A documentary exploring the overwhelming choices we make every day, about what it is we eat. These choices have a direct impact not only for our health, our society, but on the future of our planet.

Our mission is to teach people around the world to understand this link - between the food we eat - our health - and our planet's survival. 

Patagonia Action Works →

For almost 40 years, Patagonia has supported grassroots activists working to find solutions to the environmental crisis. But in this time of unprecedented threats, it’s often hard to know the best way to get involved. That’s why we’re connecting individuals with our grantees, to take action on the most pressing issues facing the world today.

We built Patagonia Action Works to connect committed individuals to organizations working on environmental issues in the same community. It’s now possible for anyone to discover and connect with environmental action groups and get involved with the work they do.

We support grantees working on issues in the areas of land, water, climate, communities, and biodiversity.

Apricot Lane Farms →

Apricot Lane Farms is located 40 miles north of Los Angeles and 20 miles east of Ventura in Moorpark, CA. Our team has been charged with the mission of creating a well-balanced ecosystem and rich soils that produce nutrient-dense foods while treating the environment and the animals with respect.

Our farm residents include pigs, goats, sheep, chickens, ducks, guinea hens, horses, highland cattle, and one brown swiss dairy cow named “Maggie.” Our land consists of Biodynamic Certified avocado and lemon orchards, a vegetable garden, pastures, and over 75 varieties of stone fruit.

SeedStock →

SEEDSTOCK is a mission-driven consulting company that fosters the development of robust urban farming and local food systems through its work with municipal and private sector clients, the news and information blog Seedstock.com, and live events.

Founded in 2010, Seedstock functions not only as a market builder, but as a facilitator to connect urban farming practitioners and entrepreneurs with new business opportunities.

BackYard Chickens

Back in 1999 a few baby chicks were brought home from a kindergarten class. Similar to the experience of hundreds of thousands of other children and their families, what started out as a fun project turned into a hobby and then into an obsession! BackYardChickens is the result of years of collective learning and fun rolled up into the best resource for raising your own backyard flock.

Over the past few years there has been a resurgence in people who want to be more “green”, more self-sufficient, and take part in the “grow local” movement. A handful of egg-laying hens in a relatively small yard allows people to participate in these trends without having to move or change their lifestyle.  BackYardChickens.com promotes the green, self-sufficient, and grow-local movements by educating people on how to raise chickens properly.

As the content of the site has grown so have the visits to the site and with visitors came questions... lots of questions. Everything from "How to raise chickens?" and "How to hatch eggs?" to "How do I build a chicken coop?" and "How do I keep my chickens healthy?". We tried to answer as many questions as we could by adding information to the site but we realized there were too many different variables to create content for every situation. So, back in 2000 we started the first Chicken Forum. Over the years this forum has grown, moved, changed, moved again, and continued to grow and develop based on the needs of the site visitors. At the time of updating this page, June 2017, BYC has a vibrant community of more than 325,000 chicken owners who add about 6,000 new posts per DAY (on average 5 new posts every minute of every day, 24/7)!

The growth in the trend toward raising backyard chickens and the quantity and quality of information gathered on the site have greatly exceeded any of the original expectations. BYC now boasts over 2,500 chicken coop designs, an extensive chicken breed database, and an amazing raising chickens learning center. The site has become the # 1 resource for everyone interested in raising, breeding and caring for their own flock of backyard chickens.

BYC is managed by Rob Ludlow, co-author of the books Raising Chickens for Dummies & Building Chicken Coops for Dummies. The vast amount of content and the vibrant community is the result of over 14 years of contributions by tens of thousands of people and the dedication of the world’s best group of moderators. You can read a more detailed journal of events regarding to the history of BYC by clicking: History Of BackYardChickens

Enjoy your time here! If you have comments or questions, turn to the Chicken Forum - it's one of the friendliest message boards around and you will get a LOT of great answers to any questions you may have.

The Growing Club | SGV →

The Growing Club, based in the San Gabriel Valley of Los Angeles, gathers diverse individuals and communities together to nourish the common well being of people and our planet.

Join our group of pro-activists as we revive the power of people’s hands to weave humanity into nature’s web of generosity. Learn and explore with us as we bring health and resilience back to our urban ecosystem, as we ground our community in healthy soil, nutritious food, and human connection. Come meet us for one of our upcoming hands-on workshops, watch a few of our popular educational & how-to videos, visit one our three ecological demonstration gardens, or apply for LA’s only Urban Farmer Training Program.

Local Roots Farms | Vernon, CA →

We design, build, deploy and operate the world’s most productive indoor farming solutions. We believe the key to a more sustainable future requires eliminating supply-chain risks and undoing the commoditization of the food industry. That’s why our Local Roots Family is building a distributed network of cutting-edge farms throughout the world to grow the freshest, healthiest food possible.

Farm Fresh To You →

Get an organic farm box delivered to your door. We bring the season’s best mix of organic produce and specialty farm products conveniently to your door by growing and partnering with local farms and artisans in your area. Each delivery comes with farm news and recipes!

"Our hope is that the price Americans pay for food will someday reflect the real cost of producing it: the stewardship required to make sure that the land will remain fertile and productive, the health and benefits necessary to maintain an active labor force, a strong rural community, and a profit margin that will provide the incentive for people like us to spend every waking moment producing food and fiber for the rest."

- KATHLEEN BARSOTTI

Drake Family Farms | Ontario, CA →

Drake Family Farms cheeses are both “farmstead” and “artisan”. “Farmstead” means made on the farm with milk exclusively from the farm’s own animals. According to the American Cheese Society, the word “artisan or artisanal” implies that a cheese is produced primarily by hand, in small batches, with particular attention paid to the tradition of the cheese maker’s art, and thus using as little mechanization as possible in the production of the cheese.

The secret to making the best cheese is to use only the highest quality milk. The best quality milk comes from happy healthy goats. Dan Drake is a veterinarian who has been overseeing the health of the Drake Family Farms goat herd for the past 26 years. Dan brought 143 goats from the farm in Utah to start his farm of happy Southern California Goats. All the goats have names and are registered with the American Dairy Goat Association. We love our goats and give them a very high standard of care. Goats are like dogs with individual personalities and we consider every goat a pet. The herd consists of Nubian, Saanen, Alpine, and Snubian Goats. (Snubians are a hybrid cross between Saanen and Nubians).

We are currently producing fresh chevre at the farm. We use the finest French cultures and it is incubated for twelve hours and then drained in bags to give it a wonderful smooth texture and taste. We package our chevre in tubs which make great storage containers so you can eat a little bit of it and snap the lid on to keep it fresh for the next day. Our chevre tubs can be frozen and thawed in the fridge when you need cheese. We recommend everyone have a few tubs in the freezer in case you have a goat cheese emergency! We also produce specialty cheeses at the farm which you can read about in the “About Our Cheese” section.

Pico Union Project →

Our Vision

The Pico Union Project is dedicated to the Jewish principle to “love your neighbor as yourself.” It elevates this teaching into practice in a historic building by bringing diverse cultures together through song, story, art, food and prayer. Pico Union Project is a multi-faith cultural arts center and house of worship founded in 2013 by visionary recording artist, composer and musician Craig Taubman. Pico Union Project aims to help invigorate the community of Los Angeles and reflect the Jewish value of being a light to all nations.

Vida Sana Farmers Market
2nd and 4th Thursdays 2:30-4:00pm

Come volunteer at our bi-monthly Vida Sana Farmers Market and help out with the activities, workshops, and produce distribution. All are welcome. 2:00 PM call time for all volunteers!

Click here to sign up as a volunteer.

The Ron Finley Project →

BRINGING CULTURE & COMMUNITY TOGETHER

Ron envisions a world where gardening is gangsta, where cool kids know their nutrition and where communities embrace the act of growing, knowing and sharing the best of the earth’s fresh-grown food.

Ron is realizing his vision for community gardening and rejuvenation. Let’s grow this seed of urban gangsta gardening into a school of nourishment and change. Help spread his dream of edible gardens, one city at a time.

It’s time for Americans to learn to transform food deserts to food forests. Help them learn to regenerate their lands into creative business models. Let’s make Ron’s philosophy mushroom across the country, and the world.

In part of this effort, Ron is planning to build an urban garden in South Central LA that will serve as an example of a well-balanced, fruit-and-veggie oasis  called “HQ”. Inspired by the idea of turning unused space such as parkways and vacant lots into fruitful endeavors, this garden and gathering place will be a community hub, where people learn about nutrition and join together to plant, work and unwind.

HQ will create a myriad of jobs for local residents, and this plot of land will be a self-sufficient ecosystem of gardening, education, cooking, business learning and management. The community will get their hands dirty together, shovel together, work together and be healthy together.

Moonwater Farm | Compton, CA →

Moonwater Farm is an urban microfarm in Compton, CA, providing access for youth and residents of South Los Angeles to organic farming, livestock raising and healthy food preparation and preservation. We are interested in re-establishing connections to homesteading history and developing opportunities for learning, training and potentially employment in the food systems of Los Angeles.

We invite you to come visit! Teachers or families - we offer workshops on a wide range of subject matter that creates hands-on opportunities, engaging learners of any age. We do farm tours that focus on practical food growing, making and preserving as well as livestock care and maintenance. Use our contact page to reach out and plan your field trip.

Veteran Farmers of America →

Veteran Farmers of America or “VFA” is an organization that connects veterans to agriculture in many ways. One way we introduce veterans to farming is by providing paid internships at a variety of the nation’s leaders in agriculture. Future programs are to include a veteran-operated farm and a scholarship program. VFA was founded to help veterans with the transition from active duty to civilian life. Our hope is to help veterans heal, reintegrate, and become productive members of society. The benefit to the veterans will be helping them transition from protecting their country to providing their fellow Americans with food, which will undoubtedly continue to give them a sense of contribution and fulfillment.

Farming will offer veterans the opportunity to continue their quest and substantial desire to give back, which we hope will improve their emotional wellbeing. Veterans are 1% of the population, but represent 20% of the suicide rate in America. Military families will benefit greatly by being part of a team of professionals dedicated to safely and sustainably producing the crops that feed America. The farms will benefit as veteran recruits will help solve the current labor shortage. The benefit to the farmers will be finding employees who are accustomed to working in austere conditions for long periods of time. Farming is not only fulfilling; it is hard physical labor and veterans are up for the challenge. We hope to fight the increase in veteran unemployment and suicide. With the support of the community, veteran Farmers of America can change lives.

Shemesh Organic Farm | Malibu, CA

At the Shemesh Organic Farm, we teach about the connection between Judaism, Israel, nature, and agriculture through hands-on organic farming, gardening, harvesting, and composting. The farm is also model for Jewish social and environmental responsibility – the harvested fruits and vegetables are used in our outdoor cooking workshops, as ingredients in meals in our dining hall, and donated to SOVA, the kosher food pantry.

The farm consists of:

• Marla Bennett Israel Discovery Center & Garden
• Gan Aya Farming Center
• Pinat Chai Animal & Horse Center
• The new Big Jewish Tent Five Acre Farming Center

Throughout the year, the Shemesh Organic Farm is open to the community for field trips and retreats. During the summer, hundreds of Camp JCA Shalom campers enjoy the farm experience. To read more about our farm, please click here.

To read Marla’s story and a full description of activities available at the garden, please click here.

To donate to the Marla Bennett Israel Discovery Center and Garden please click here »

To book your field trip or service day or for more info please contact Bill Kaplan at (818) 889-5500 ext. 108 or e-mail bill@shalominstitute.com.

"One day, Honi the Circle Maker was walking on the road and saw a man planting a carob tree. Honi asked the man, “How long will it take for this tree to bear fruit?” The man replied, “Seventy years.” Honi then asked the man, “And do you think you will live another seventy years and eat the fruit of this tree? “The man answered, “Perhaps not. However, when I was born into this world, I found many carob trees planted by my father and grandfather. Just as they planted trees for me, I am planting trees for my children and grandchildren so they will be able to eat the fruit of these trees.”

Social Justice Learning Institute →

At the Social Justice Learning Institute, we are dedicated to improving the education, health, and well being of youth and communities of color by empowering them to enact social change through research, training, and community mobilization.

We envision communities where education empowers individuals to use their agency for the purpose of improving each other’s lives.

SJLI Core Values

1. We privilege the ideas, voice, and leadership of our youth and community members.
2. Everyone must be afforded equal opportunity in order to achieve equitable treatment.
3. We do all things in love.
4. No one is hopeless.

Our Goals

Our goals are simple. We work to:

• build capacity for individuals and communities to advocate for their needs
• train and build leaders
• educate and empower youth and community members to identify and rectify injustice; and to
• deliver effective programs, resources and support that help advance our mission

To meet these goals, we work with youth, residents, local schools, districts and city officials to increase educational opportunities through innovative programs and sustainable practices. We also develop and manage programs that advance academic, food, and environmental justice.

RootDown LA →

RootDown LA is a youth-run non-profit committed to bringing better food & nutrition education to neighborhoods in South L.A.

At RootDown LA, we believe supplying a community with healthy food is not enough to help residents make sustainable dietary changes. Without a genuine demand for that healthy food and a population of people who can reinforce demand over time, our efforts to maintain a supply fall flat.

Luckily, in 2007, a group of highly-motivated youth living in South L.A. got serious about improving nutrition programs for their families and peers. Not long after, RootDown LA was born. With these youth at the forefront of our engaging programs and strategically located veggie gardens, we've successfully developed a model that has convinced thousands of people in South L.A. (and beyond!) they'll wanna eat their veggies!

Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust →

Our mission is to grow healthier, safer, and stronger communities by creating urban parks and community gardens that remedy the critical lack of green and recreational spaces in greater Los Angeles' underserved neighborhoods.

The Los Angeles Neighborhood Land Trust was founded in 2002 to address LA's park inequities. We focus our efforts exclusively in communities of color that have little to no access to green space.

Less than one acre of green space is available for every 1,000 residents in the communities we serve. In stark contrast, the citywide average is over four acres and the countywide average is over three acres. For 15 years we have aimed to change this dynamic and have added nearly eight acres of accessible green space to LA by helping create 25 parks and gardens. These neighborhood assets serve 195,000 Angelenos annually. By 2019, we will complete five additional parks and gardens, adding nearly 15 additional acres of green space to LA County.

Our successful greenspace development model engages residents from the beginning of our design process, through construction and ultimately the stewardship of the parks and gardens we create. To ensure the long-term impact of our efforts, we are working towards equitable greenspace development in LA through grassroots policy reform.

American Community Garden Association →

The Mission of the American Community Gardening Association is to build community by increasing and enhancing community gardening and greening across the United States and Canada.

The American Community Gardening Association (ACGA) is a bi-national nonprofit membership organization of professionals, volunteers and supporters of community greening in urban and rural communities. The Association recognizes that community gardening improves people’s quality of life by providing a catalyst for neighborhood and community development, stimulating social interaction, encouraging self-reliance, beautifying neighborhoods, producing nutritious food, reducing family food budgets, conserving resources and creating opportunities for recreation, exercise, therapy and education.

ACGA and its member organizations work to promote and support all aspects of community food and ornamental gardening, urban forestry, preservation and management of open space, and integrated planning and management of developing urban and rural lands.

The Association supports community gardening by facilitating the formation and expansion of state and regional community gardening networks; developing resources in support of community gardening; and, encouraging research and conducting educational programs.

Garden School Foundation →

The Garden School Foundation is a 501(c)3 nonprofit whose mission is to provide meaningful education for underserved youth in Los Angeles through garden-based learning in outdoor living classrooms. We work with Title 1 schools to sustainably implement our curriculum of experiential standards-based lessons in all academic subjects, as well as cooking and nutrition, to strengthen the connection between education, health, environmental awareness, and thriving communities.

Since 2005, we’ve been turning asphalt into ecosystems, working to create a healthy, educated and aware future generation that cares for their community, their bodies and for the earth. We currently serve at 6 elementary schools and one high school throughout Los Angeles, reaching over 2,500 students and their families. Our Seed to Table program brings to life what’s taught in the classroom and gives children the tools they need to lead healthy, fulfilling lives.