BIA Academy Outreach Email Extension to Cities / Counties

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Help Connect Your City Partners to the BIA Academy

Extension professionals are uniquely positioned to help communities address complex challenges through research-based education, partnership building, and local engagement.

The National League of Cities Building-Integrated Agriculture (BIA) Academy is a 12-month, no-cost cohort learning program that helps municipal leaders explore innovative approaches to sustainability, resilience, green infrastructure, food systems, economic development, and community well-being.

We encourage you to share this opportunity with municipal partners in your community.

Who Should Receive This Invitation?

Consider reaching out to:

  • City Managers and Administrators
  • Planning Directors and Staff
  • Sustainability and Climate Officers
  • Public Works and Stormwater Managers
  • Economic Development Professionals
  • Community Development Staff
  • Local Elected Officials

Before You Send

Take 2-3 minutes to personalize the template below by:

  • Mentioning a local priority or initiative
  • Highlighting how Extension can support the city
  • Offering to continue the conversation

A short personal note can significantly increase engagement.

Key Program Details

  • National League of Cities Building-Integrated Agriculture Academy
  • 12-month cohort-based learning experience
  • Learn alongside innovative city leaders from across the country
  • No cost to participate thanks to USDA NIFA funding
  • Applications close October 5

Resources

🌐 BIA Academy Website: https://nurec.extension.org/portfolio-item/bia-academy/

🎧 NLC Podcast Featuring Brad Gaolach: CitiesSpeak Podcast – National League of Cities]

👥 Featured Contributors & Instructors: 

Use the email template below to start a conversation with your city partners about how building-integrated agriculture and nature-based solutions can support their existing community goals.

Subject Line Options

Option 1: Exploring a New Opportunity for Sustainability and Resilience in [City]

Option 2: Invitation to Partner on the National League of Cities BIA Academy

Email Template

Dear [Name],

I hope you are doing well.

I wanted to share an opportunity that immediately made me think of the important work your team is doing around [sustainability planning, comprehensive planning, green infrastructure, climate resilience, economic development, food systems, public health, or another local initiative].

The National League of Cities (NLC) Building-Integrated Agriculture (BIA) Academy is currently accepting applications for its next cohort, with applications due October 5.

What is the BIA Academy?

The BIA Academy is a 12-month cohort-based learning program that helps municipal leaders explore innovative approaches to advancing community priorities through systems thinking, cross-sector collaboration, and place-based problem solving.

While the name suggests a focus on agriculture, the Academy is about much more than growing food on rooftops or integrating greenhouses into buildings.

Using building-integrated agriculture as a practical lens, participants explore how communities can address interconnected goals such as:

  • Sustainability and climate resilience
  • Stormwater management and green infrastructure
  • Urban heat island mitigation
  • Nature-based solutions and ecosystem services
  • Economic and community development
  • Food security and local food systems
  • Public health and quality of life
  • Strategic planning and stakeholder engagement

Participants learn alongside a national cohort of innovative city leaders who are tackling similar challenges in their communities, creating opportunities for peer learning, collaboration, and long-term professional relationships.

Why I Thought of [City]

As I think about your work on:

  • Comprehensive Plan
  • Climate Action or Sustainability Plan
  • Stormwater or Green Infrastructure Initiatives
  • Food System Efforts

I see strong alignment with the goals of the Academy.

Rather than creating a new priority, the Academy helps communities explore new tools and strategies that can support existing goals. Building-integrated agriculture serves as a way to think differently about how buildings, infrastructure, food systems, energy, water, and community development can work together to create multiple public benefits.

Why Extension Wants to Partner

One of the greatest challenges facing communities today is not a lack of ideas, but limited capacity to advance them.

Extension is uniquely positioned to serve as a partner in helping communities connect research, local knowledge, stakeholder perspectives, and implementation opportunities.

If your community chooses to participate, Extension can help support the process by:

  • Connecting research and best practices to local decision-making
  • Facilitating stakeholder engagement and community conversations
  • Identifying local assets and partnership opportunities
  • Exploring ecosystem service and resilience outcomes
  • Supporting data collection and evaluation efforts
  • Helping translate emerging ideas into practical community action

This Academy provides a unique opportunity for municipal leaders and Extension professionals to learn together while strengthening local partnerships and identifying opportunities for future collaboration.

What Participants Receive

  • A 12-month national cohort learning experience
  • Peer learning alongside innovative municipal leaders from across the country
  • Access to experts from leading universities, architecture and design firms, industry practitioners, and former municipal leaders
  • Opportunities to explore sustainability, resilience, food systems, green infrastructure, and economic development through an integrated systems approach
  • A capstone project focused on a real opportunity in your community
  • New professional connections and partnerships that extend beyond the program
  • No-cost participation thanks to funding from the USDA National Institute of Food and Agriculture (USDA NIFA)

Learn More

🌐 BIA Academy Website

🎧 Listen to the National League of Cities Podcast Featuring Brad Gaolach [CitiesSpeak Podcast – National League of Cities]

👥 Meet the Academy Contributors and Instructors
Learn from leading researchers, practitioners, designers, architects, and former municipal leaders. [Insert Contributors Page Link]

 📅 Application Deadline: October 5

💲 Cost: Free through USDA NIFA support

Interested in Exploring This Together? I would be happy to discuss whether this opportunity aligns with your community’s priorities and how Extension could support your participation. Please feel free to reach out if you’d like to schedule a conversation.

Best regards,

Name/Title

Date and time listings for the urban food futures webinar series.

ICYMI: Part IV – Urban Food Futures Seminar Highlights

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The following is a summary of Session 4: Urban Agriculture Extension & Research, which took place on May 5th, 2026, 10-11:30 am PST / 1-2:30 pm EST

Urban Food Futures, Part 4: How Extension is Advancing Urban Agriculture Programs in Cities

The fourth session of the NUREC Urban Food Futures Seminar Series brought the conversation firmly into practice—exploring how urban agriculture Extension professionals are building and supporting urban farming programs across diverse communities.

While earlier sessions focused on defining urban agriculture and its ecological role, this webinar asked a more applied question: what does it take to make urban agriculture work on the ground?

Speakers from Rutgers Cooperative Extension, UMass Extension, and Cornell Cooperative Extension shared real-world examples of programming, technical assistance, and research. Together, they illustrated how urban agriculture Extension is evolving to meet the needs of growers, communities, and cities.

Community Engagement as the Foundation of Urban Farming Programs

In New Jersey, Claudia Geneva’s work with Rutgers Cooperative Extension highlights how successful urban farming programs begin with community relationships. Gardens in public parks, seed libraries, and compost education initiatives create spaces where learning and food access intersect.

Programs also extend into urban farmer training and workforce development, including initiatives like the Urban Grower Training Program and business management education for new producers. Youth programs help build leadership pipelines, while multilingual outreach—including Spanish-language education and digital content—ensures broader access.

This approach reflects a core principle of urban agriculture Extension: programs must be culturally relevant, locally grounded, and relationship-driven to be effective.

Urban agriculture, in this sense, is not simply about growing food—it is about building community through shared spaces and knowledge.

Technical Assistance and the Role of Urban Agriculture Extension

At UMass Extension, Olivia Golden presented a model that emphasizes hands-on technical assistance for urban farms. The Urban Mentor Farm Program works intensively with a small number of farms each season, providing ongoing support through site visits, troubleshooting, and collaborative problem-solving.

This type of Extension-based technical assistance supports growers in key areas such as:

  • Soil health and fertility
  • Pest identification and management
  • Season extension and high tunnel production
  • Food safety and farm operations

Through this work, a critical issue has emerged: urban soils do not behave like conventional agricultural soils.

Urban farms often rely on constructed soils with high organic matter, which can produce confusing or inconsistent results in standard soil tests. This highlights an important gap in urban soils research, where existing agricultural tools may not fully meet the needs of urban growers.

These findings reinforce the importance of long-term Extension relationships, where support evolves alongside the farm and contributes to identifying new research priorities.

Scaling Urban Agriculture Extension in Complex City Systems

In New York City, Cornell Cooperative Extension is supporting more than 65 commercial urban farms—demonstrating how urban agriculture Extension programs operate at scale in dense urban environments.

Their work includes:

  • Technical support for soil management and pest control
  • Farmer networking and peer learning opportunities
  • Engagement in policy discussions affecting urban agriculture

A major focus is the challenge of managing constructed urban soils, which differ significantly from traditional agricultural systems. High organic matter and unique physical properties make it difficult to interpret soil test results using conventional methods.

At the same time, ongoing conversations around nutrient management have raised questions about nutrient leaching in urban agriculture systems. While soil tests may indicate high nutrient levels, current observations suggest that actual environmental risks may be relatively low compared to other urban land uses.

These findings point to a growing need for urban soils research that better reflects real-world conditions—an area where Extension, research institutions, and farmers must collaborate closely.

Urban Soils Research: A Shared Priority

Across all three regions, one issue stood out: urban soils are a critical and unresolved challenge in urban agriculture.

Unlike conventional soils, urban soils are often:

  • Constructed from imported materials
  • High in organic matter
  • Influenced by past land use and infrastructure

As a result, key questions remain:

  • Are current soil testing methods accurate for urban systems?
  • How do nutrients behave in high-organic-matter soils?
  • What are the actual environmental impacts of urban farming practices?

These uncertainties highlight a major opportunity for advancing urban agriculture research and Extension collaboration. They also reinforce the idea that urban farms, despite these unknowns, may have a lower environmental impact than many other urban land uses.

What This Means for Urban Agriculture Extension

This session makes clear that Extension is central to the growth and success of urban agriculture programs nationwide. From community engagement to technical assistance and policy support, Extension professionals are already shaping how urban farming functions in practice.

At the same time, the work is evolving. Urban agriculture demands approaches that are more relational, adaptive, and interdisciplinary than traditional models. It requires Extension to operate in spaces where research is still developing, especially in areas like urban soils and nutrient management.

It also calls for a broader understanding of value. Urban farming programs provide food, but they also support education, public health, environmental stewardship, and community resilience. Recognizing and communicating these benefits is increasingly important for sustaining support and investment.

Equity remains foundational. Programs that succeed are those that reflect the communities they serve—through culturally relevant content, multilingual access, and meaningful opportunities for youth and new farmers.

Looking ahead, a key priority is coordination. Efforts like the NUREC Urban Data Hub offer a pathway to better connect urban agriculture Extension programs, share data, and align research and practice across regions.

Looking Ahead

Urban agriculture is continuing to expand—and so is the role of Extension in supporting it. The challenges ahead are technical, social, and systemic, but they also present opportunities for innovation and collaboration.

This session highlighted a defining reality: urban agriculture succeeds not because it is simple, but because Extension professionals are willing to work within its complexity.

In doing so, they are not only supporting urban farming programs—they are helping to shape the future of urban agriculture in cities across the country.

Speaker Bios

Sam Anderson, MS
Urban Agriculture Specialist, Cornell Cooperative Extension

Sam is an urban agriculture specialist with Cornell Cooperative Extension’s Harvest NY team. He provides technical assistance and educational programming for urban farmers throughout New York City. His work is primarily focused on soil health and integrated pest management (IPM) for vegetable crops, with an emphasis on uplifting the expertise of historically underserved urban farmers.

Links:

  • University Profile: https://cals.cornell.edu/people/sam-anderson

Olivia Golden
Urban Agriculture Educator, UMass Amherst

Olivia Golden is an Urban Agriculture Extension Educator with the University of Massachusetts Amherst, where she supports community-driven food and environmental initiatives. She holds a master’s degree in Urban and Environmental Policy and Planning and brings experience in environmental education, sustainable agriculture, and community-based research.

Links:

Claudia Urdanivia, MS, MA
County Extension Dept. Head and Agriculture & Natural Resources County Agent

Claudia Urdanivia is an urban agriculture educator and anthropologist committed to advancing equitable, community‑driven food systems. Her work spans extension education, youth development, and community garden support, with a strong foundation in public health, food justice, and culturally rooted agricultural knowledge.

Links:

Date and time listings for the urban food futures webinar series.

ICYMI: Part III – Urban Food Futures Seminar Highlights

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The following is a summary of Session 3: Urban Agriculture, Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services, which took place on April 14th, 2026, 10-11:30 am PST / 1-2:30 pm EST

Urban Agriculture as Social Infrastructure: Lessons from Session Three of the Urban Food Futures Series

Urban agriculture is often discussed in terms of yields, efficiency, or economic viability. But during Session Three of NUREC’s Urban Food Futures Seminar Series, speakers collectively made a compelling case for a broader—and more impactful—frame: urban agriculture as social infrastructure.

Focusing on the social and economic impacts of urban agriculture, this session highlighted how community gardens, urban farms, and grassroots food projects function as sites of cultural continuity, political organizing, public health support, and community resilience—especially in cities shaped by inequality and ongoing crisis.

For Extension researchers and practitioners, the session offered important insights into how urban agriculture should be supported, studied, and sustained moving forward.

Urban Agriculture Is More Than Food Production

Dr. Antonio Roman‑Alcalá (California State University, East Bay; Agroecology Organizing Project) opened the session by emphasizing that urban agriculture generates multiple forms of value beyond food.

These include:

  • Cultural and agro‑biodiversity, especially through the foodways of migrant and diasporic communities
  • Social cohesion and place‑making in neighborhoods affected by displacement and precarity
  • Environmental stewardship rooted in lived experience
  • Political capacity building through mutual aid, food justice, and collective organizing

Urban agriculture, Roman‑Alcalá argued, often serves as an entry point—inviting people to engage with food systems hands‑on, while also revealing the limits of localized food production within broader economic and political structures.

For Extension, this underscores the need to avoid framing urban agriculture solely as a technical or entrepreneurial endeavor. Its deepest impacts often occur where community relationships, values, and power are being built.

The Central Barrier: Land and Power

A key through‑line of the session was the role of land access. Across decades of practice and research, challenges related to land tenure—short‑term leases, speculative markets, and private property regimes—remain the biggest constraint on urban agriculture’s long‑term impact.

Roman‑Alcalá emphasized that:

  • Temporary or incentive‑based land access often reproduces inequality
  • Market‑driven land systems limit food justice outcomes
  • More transformative approaches include community land trusts, public land stewardship, and land reform frameworks

Without secure land access, urban agriculture remains vulnerable—no matter how successful it is socially or ecologically.

For Extension practitioners, land policy and governance are not peripheral issues. They are central to enabling sustainable, community‑led food systems.

Community Gardens as Social Infrastructure

Dr. H. Shellae Versey (Fordham University) brought a psychological and community‑based lens to the conversation, drawing from qualitative research conducted with Black farmers and community gardeners across multiple states.

In these interviews, growers consistently described community gardens not just as places to grow food, but as:

  • Spaces for dignity, healing, and leadership development
  • Informal safety nets during moments of crisis
  • Sites for political education and voice
  • Less stigmatizing alternatives to formal food assistance

Crucially, these themes emerged organically. Gardeners spoke about survival, care, and responsibility to their communities, not program metrics.

Versey framed community gardens as a form of social infrastructure—similar to libraries or parks—providing public value that far exceeds their physical footprint.

For Extension, this reinforces the importance of recognizing social and psychological outcomes as core impacts, not secondary benefits.

Gardening Across Acute and Chronic Crises

Lucy Diekmann and Laura Vollmer (UC Cooperative Extension) expanded the discussion by situating urban gardening within both acute crises and chronic structural conditions.

Drawing from a literature review published in Crisis Gardening: A Global Perspective, they described two overlapping contexts:

  • Acute crises: pandemics, wars, natural disasters—moments when gardening often receives increased attention and support
  • Chronic crises: food apartheid, housing insecurity, environmental injustice—long‑standing conditions that shape everyday life

While gardening during acute crises can increase food access and community connection, Diekmann and Vollmer showed that the greatest and most enduring benefits emerge when gardening is embedded within long‑term struggles for food justice and sovereignty.

This distinction matters for Extension. Short‑term surges of funding or interest—followed by withdrawal—undermine the continuity that community‑based food systems require.

Implications for Extension Research and Practice

Across perspectives, several key takeaways emerged for Extension professionals working in urban contexts.

1. Redefine What “Success” Looks Like

Traditional metrics—pounds harvested, revenue generated, number of participants—capture only part of the picture. Extension programs should also document:

  • Community governance and leadership
  • Cultural relevance of food
  • Stability of land access
  • Strength of social networks
  • Contributions to food sovereignty and resilience

2. Engage Directly with Land and Policy

Land access, zoning, and governance shape every outcome in urban agriculture. Extension can play a vital role by:

  • Supporting community land trusts and shared stewardship models
  • Translating land‑use policy into accessible guidance
  • Convening food, housing, and planning stakeholders
  • Documenting unintended harms of “temporary use” approaches

3. Center Participatory Research and Co‑Creation

The strongest insights presented in this session came from:

  • Oral histories and qualitative methods
  • Community‑defined research questions
  • Long‑term partnerships built on trust

Extension is uniquely positioned to bridge academic research, lived experience, and practice.

4. Plan Beyond Crisis Cycles

Urban agriculture cannot be mobilized only during emergencies. Sustainable impact requires:

  • Baseline public investment
  • Integration with health, housing, and climate strategies
  • Capacity building before, during, and after crises

5. Reject False Binaries

Speakers challenged common divides—urban vs. rural, market vs. community, emergency vs. long‑term change. Instead, they pointed to the importance of interdependence, solidarity, and connection across food systems.

Looking Ahead

Session Three made clear that urban agriculture is not a niche or temporary solution. It is a longstanding, evolving practice that sits at the intersection of food, land, health, and justice.

For Extension and research institutions committed to equitable urban futures, the challenge is not whether to engage with urban agriculture—but how deeply, how thoughtfully, and how sustainably.

As NUREC continues to convene conversations and build national networks around urban food systems, these insights will be critical for shaping research agendas, Extension practice, and policy engagement that truly serve urban communities.

Speaker Bios

Antonio Roman‑Alcalá, MS

Assistant Professor, California State University, East Bay
Director, Agroecology Organizing Project

Antonio Roman‑Alcalá is an educator, researcher, and long‑time urban agriculture practitioner focused on agroecology, food sovereignty, land access, and social movements. He co‑founded San Francisco’s Alemany Farm and the San Francisco Urban Agriculture Alliance, and brings over two decades of experience connecting grassroots organizing, policy, and scholarship in urban food systems.

Links:

H. Shellae Versey, PhD

Associate Professor of Psychology, Fordham University
Principal Investigator, Critical Health + Social Ecology Urban Living Lab

Dr. Shellae Versey is a community and social psychologist whose research examines how place, policy, and structural inequities shape health, aging, and access to basic needs such as food and housing. Her work centers the lived experiences of Black and other marginalized urban communities, including research on urban agriculture as a pathway to food sovereignty and community resilience.

Links:

Lucy Diekmann, PhD

Urban Agriculture and Food Systems Advisor
University of California Cooperative Extension (Santa Clara & San Mateo Counties)

Dr. Lucy Diekmann is an Extension advisor and researcher working at the intersection of urban agriculture, food security, and food justice in high‑cost metropolitan regions. Her work examines how community and home gardening contribute to nutrition, social connection, and resilience, and she is a contributing author to Crisis Gardening: A Global Perspective.

Links:

Laura Vollmer, MPH, RD

Community Nutrition and Health Advisor
University of California Cooperative Extension (San Francisco, San Mateo & Santa Clara Counties)

Laura Vollmer is a registered dietitian and Extension advisor specializing in nutrition security, community food systems, and equitable food access. Her work integrates public health, evaluation, and community‑based practice, including research on gardening and food systems during acute and chronic crises.

Links:

Date and time listings for the urban food futures webinar series.

ICYMI: Part II – Urban Food Futures Seminar Highlights

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The following is a summary of Session 2: Urban Agriculture, Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services, which took place on March 24th, 2026 10-11:30 am PST / 1-2:30 pm EST

Urban Food Futures Seminar: Growing Healthier, More Resilient Cities Together

Urban agriculture is often framed as a strategy to improve food access—but those working on the ground know it’s much more than that. In cities, farms and gardens are deeply connected to public health, environmental quality, biodiversity, climate resilience, and community well‑being.

As part of the Urban Food Futures Seminar Series, hosted by the National Urban Research and Extension Center (NUREC), we recently welcomed three great speakers whose research helps illuminate these connections. It’s our pleasure to highlight the work of urban agriculture researchers and practitioners who are asking hard questions, sharing practical insights, and advancing more equitable and sustainable urban food systems.

At NUREC, our role is to bring collaborators together—to create space for learning across disciplines, institutions, and communities. This seminar was a powerful example of what happens when we do just that. Below, we share key themes and takeaways from the conversation, with a focus on why they matter for Extension and its partners.

Why Urban Agriculture—and Why Collaboration Matters

The seminar opened with framing from Joshua Arnold (UMass Amherst and NUREC), who reflected on NUREC’s mission and the growing importance of coordination across land‑grant universities in urban settings.

Urban agriculture today touches far more than food production. It intersects with nutrition and food access, certainly, but also with climate adaptation, heat mitigation, workforce development, youth leadership, and neighborhood revitalization. At the same time, Extension systems were largely built with rural contexts in mind, and urban efforts have often emerged in piecemeal ways.

NUREC exists to help bridge those gaps—by strengthening national collaboration, supporting community‑engaged research, and translating applied science into scalable Extension practice. The seminar made clear that urban agriculture is not a side project for Extension; it’s central to how the system stays relevant and responsive in metropolitan regions.

Soil Safety, Urban History, and Community Health

Dan Brabander (Wellesley College) shared lessons from nearly 20 years of participatory action research with The Food Project in Boston, focusing on lead contamination in urban soils.

His findings were sobering. Across residential growing spaces, most soils tested exceeded EPA benchmarks for lead. This contamination was not random—it closely followed patterns of redlining, disinvestment, and arson‑for‑hire, which released lead into the environment when older homes were burned. Even today, contaminated dust continues to move through neighborhoods, settling into pathways, compost, and raised beds.

Raised beds—often promoted as a universal solution—do reduce exposure risks, but only when thoughtfully designed. Bed height, placement near buildings, and compost quality all matter. In some cases, municipal compost programs can inadvertently reintroduce contamination if feedstocks come from legacy‑polluted areas.

For Extension, the takeaway is clear: urban soil safety is fundamentally a community health and equity issue, not just a gardening concern. Practitioners need tools to talk honestly about risk, exposure pathways, and practical mitigation strategies. Brabander’s work also highlights the value of long‑term, community‑engaged research. Participatory approaches build trust, generate actionable science, and ensure that Extension guidance responds to what communities are actually facing.

Gardens as Places for Biodiversity and Belonging

Dr. Monika Egerer (Technical University of Munich) shifted the lens to ecology, sharing findings from long‑term studies of urban gardens in Berlin and Munich.

Her research shows that urban food gardens can be rich biodiversity hotspots—even in dense city centers. Diverse plantings, shaped by gardener creativity and cultural traditions, support a wide range of wild bees and other beneficial species, including some that are endangered. Flower diversity emerged as the strongest driver of pollinator abundance, while small habitat features such as deadwood, bare soil, or water sources had outsized ecological benefits.

Just as important were the human dimensions. Urban gardens support mental health, foster connection to nature, and provide stability during times of crisis. For Extension, this work reinforces the idea that food production and conservation do not have to be in tension. Gardens can—and often do—do both. Gardeners are enthusiastic partners in this work, and Extension programs that embrace co‑learning and co‑design can amplify impact for people and ecosystems alike.

Climate Impacts Are Shaped by Design Choices

The seminar concluded with Dr. Jake Hawes (University of Wyoming), who presented findings from a global life‑cycle assessment of urban gardens and farms.

The results challenged some common assumptions. Urban agriculture is not automatically low‑carbon. In many cases, emissions are driven by carbon‑intensive infrastructure, imported materials, and short site lifespans when gardens are displaced after only a few years.

But Hawes emphasized that this is not a reason to dismiss urban agriculture—it’s a reason to design it better. Systems that prioritize reused materials, long‑term land tenure, and high productivity come much closer to climate parity. Some crops, particularly those typically air‑freighted, can even give urban producers a carbon advantage. And critically, climate assessments should account for co‑benefits like health, education, and biodiversity—outcomes that communities deeply value.

For Extension professionals, this elevates the advisory role Extension can play in site planning, materials choices, and partnerships that support permanence and resilience.

Bringing It All Together

Across these presentations, a shared message emerged. Urban agriculture is inherently interdisciplinary. Community engagement is essential, not optional. And equity shapes every aspect of who benefits from urban food systems and who bears their risks.

This is where NUREC sees tremendous opportunity. By bringing together researchers, practitioners, and communities, Extension can help align standards, share lessons across regions, and translate research into practice that improves urban life. Seminars like this one are part of that effort—creating space to learn together and move the work forward.

We look forward to continuing these conversations and working alongside our partners to build healthier, more resilient, and more just urban food futures.

Speakers

Dan Brabander

Dan Brabander is Professor of Geosciences at Wellesley College and a leading scholar in the emerging field of GeoHealth. His decades‑long participatory research with community partners investigates legacy lead contamination, exposure pathways, and soil safety in urban agriculture, centering environmental justice and public health.

Links

Monika Egerer, PhD

Monika Egerer is Professor of Urban Productive Ecosystems at the Technical University of Munich. Her interdisciplinary research explores how urban gardens function as ecosystems that support biodiversity, pollinators, food production, and human well‑being, often through participatory and co‑designed research approaches.

Links:

Jake Hawes, PhD

Jake Hawes is an Assistant Professor at the University of Wyoming, jointly appointed in the School of Computing and the Haub School of Environment and Natural Resources. His research uses life‑cycle assessment, modeling, and mixed methods to examine the climate, infrastructure, and equity implications of urban agriculture and food‑energy‑water systems.

Links:

Date and time listings for the urban food futures webinar series.

ICYMI – Urban Food Futures Seminar Series Kickoff

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The following is a summary of Series Kickoff: Urban Agriculture, Biodiversity & Ecosystem Services, which took place on March 3rd, 2026, 10-11:30 am PST / 1-2:30 pm EST

Urban Food Futures: Growing Ideas for Resilient Cities 

As cities continue to grow, questions about how—and where—we produce food are becoming more urgent. NUREC launched our new Urban Food Futures web series with a lively, wide‑ranging conversation that explored those questions from multiple perspectives, bringing together researchers, Extension professionals, and practitioners working at the intersection of food, cities, and communities. 

Hosted by Joshua Arnold (UMass Amherst), the kickoff webinar featured two internationally recognized scholars whose work highlights the breadth of urban agriculture today: Dr. Miguel Altieri, Professor Emeritus at UC Berkeley and a leading voice in agroecology, and Dr. Most Tahera Naznin, Associate Professor at the University of Nevada, Reno, whose research focuses on indoor and controlled‑environment agriculture. 

Together, their presentations reminded us that urban agriculture is not one thing—it is a spectrum of systems shaped by place, purpose, and people. 

Food, Ecology, and Community—From the Ground Up 

Dr. Altieri opened by situating urban agriculture within a rapidly urbanizing world. With most Americans projected to live in cities within the next few decades, food systems are increasingly disconnected from the people they serve. Urban agroecology, he argued, helps rebuild those connections. 

Drawing on research from cities in the U.S. and globally, Dr. Altieri showed that community and peri‑urban farms can be remarkably productive while delivering benefits that go far beyond yield. Agroecological practices—such as intercropping, composting, and building soil biology—support diversified harvests, natural pest regulation, and long‑term resilience. Just as importantly, these spaces contribute to cooler neighborhoods, stronger social ties, and improved access to fresh, healthy food. 

Realizing this potential, however, depends on secure land access, supportive policies, and knowledge‑sharing networks—areas where Extension and community‑based partnerships are especially critical. 

Precision and Possibility Indoors 

Turning to controlled environments, Dr. Naznin shared how advances in indoor and greenhouse farming open new opportunities for food production in cities facing extreme heat, limited water, or poor soil. Her research demonstrates how careful management of light, temperature, nutrients, and humidity can shape both crop performance and nutritional quality. 

By adjusting lighting spectra or environmental conditions, indoor growers can influence plant structure, antioxidant levels, and consistency—factors that matter for both human health and market viability. At the same time, Dr. Naznin emphasized the real challenges facing this sector, including energy costs, workforce training needs, and competition with large‑scale produce imports. 

Rather than replacing outdoor systems, she framed indoor agriculture as a complementary approach—one that can strengthen local food supply chains when paired with education, extension support, and targeted policy incentives. 

Shared Challenges, Shared Work 

Across both presentations and the discussion that followed, common themes emerged: land access, workforce development, and the need to better account for the social and environmental value of urban agriculture—not just its economic returns. Participants emphasized that research and Extension must work together to develop meaningful metrics, demonstration sites, and peer‑learning pathways that reflect real urban conditions. 

Looking Ahead 

The Urban Food Futures series is designed to support that collective work—connecting science to practice and elevating the full range of roles urban agriculture plays in community well‑being, climate resilience, and food security. 

This kickoff session set the tone: urban food futures will be shaped not by a single model, but by collaboration across disciplines, systems, and communities. We look forward to continuing the conversation in the months ahead. 

Speakers

Miguel Altieri, PhD

Dr. Miguel Altieri is a globally recognized pioneer of agroecology whose work has shaped sustainable agriculture theory and practice worldwide. Over four decades at UC Berkeley, he advanced ecological farming systems that center biodiversity, farmer knowledge, and resilience in food systems, with significant influence across Latin America and beyond.
Links:

Most Tahera Naznin, PhD

Dr. Most Tahera Naznin is an associate professor of urban and controlled‑environment agriculture at the University of Nevada, Reno, specializing in indoor farming, hydroponics, aquaponics, and climate‑smart food production systems. Her research and Extension work focus on optimizing year‑round crop production while improving food access and resilience in arid and urban environments.
Links:

Evaluating Urban Extension Programs: WSU’s Metropolitan Center for Applied Research and Extension (Metro Center), and the WCMER

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The National Urban Research and Extension Center (NUREC) addresses our nation’s urban challenges and bridges the gap between community and research by applying the unparalleled power and reach of the land-grant university system, rooted in Extension’s community-centered approach.

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