FROM THE GROUND UP: NURTURING THE ART OF SUSTAINABLE LIVING
THE URBAN FARM with keynote speaker Michael Ableman
Wed Sept 17, 2008
LECTURE 5:30 pm, Isabel Bader Theatre, 93 Charles St. West, Toronto
DINNER 7:45 pm, Gardiner Museum, 111 Queen’s Park (just north of the theatre)
Please join us for the annual Robert Rose Inc. lecture addressing the sustainability of our food supply. Keynote speaker Michael Ableman – farmer, esteemed author and photographer – will share his experiences and insights into urban agriculture. A panel discussion will follow, featuring culinary historian Elizabeth Driver, architect Stephen Teeple, and Debbie Field, executive director of FoodShare, who will provide their perspectives on growing food in Metropolitan Toronto.
Following this presentation, Jamie Kennedy at the Gardiner will prepare a superb gala dinner celebrating the freshness and flavour of locally produced food and wine. Proceeds from the event will support the Gardiner Museum’s educational programs, which serve more than fifteen thousand school children from the Greater Toronto Area. Tax receipts will be issued for the maximum allowable amount.
TICKETS
$350 DINNER & ROBERT ROSE INC. LECTURE (includes a copy of The Science of Good Food: The Ultimate Reference on How Cooking Works, by David Joachim and Andrew Schloss)
$15 ROBERT ROSE INC. LECTURE only ($10 students/seniors)
ORDER TICKETS by phone 416.586.8080 or online gardinermuseum.com
MORE ABOUT THE EVENT
AN INVITATION
Join us for an inspiring evening of thought-provoking conversation and mouthwatering food focused on the theme of urban agriculture. As our keynote speaker, Michael Ableman, wrote in an essay for the book Fatal Harvest: The Tragedy of Industrial Agriculture, “there is a quiet revolution stirring in our food system. It is not happening so much on the distant farms that still provide us with the majority of our food; it is happening in cities, neighborhoods and towns…in small gardens, next to railroad tracks and under power lines, on rooftops, at farmers markets and in the most unlikely of places. It is a movement that has the potential to address a multitude of issues: economic, environmental, personal health and cultural.” Join Michael and our panelists who will help you put a Toronto perspective on this exciting new development.
THE ISSUES
Anyone concerned with the sustainability of our food supply will be interested in learning more about urban agriculture, which offers a made-at-home solution to providing fresh food that doesn’t travel great distances to reach our tables. Michael Ableman, a pioneer in this field, is the founder and executive director emeritus of the Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens near Santa Barbara, California, and now farms on Salt Spring Island in British Columbia. He is the author of three internationally acclaimed books, the most recent of which, Fields of Plenty: A Farmer's Journey in Search of Real Food and the People Who Grow It, was published in 2005.
On September 17th he will be joined by panelists who will put the movement into a Toronto context: Elizabeth Driver, author of the award-winning Culinary Landmarks: A Bibliography of Canadian Cookbooks, 1825-1949 and “Food Roots” columnist for Edible Toronto; Stephen Teeple, five-time winner of the Governor-General’s Award for Architecture, who is currently designing community housing with significant green surfaces to support agriculture; and Debbie Field, executive director of FoodShare, a long-time advocate for growing food in the city to feed neighbourhood dwellers. Lori Stahlbrand, president of Local Food Plus, will moderate. In preparing the sumptuous feast to follow, Chef Jamie Kennedy will draw on local farmers and artisans, as well as on food grown in the urban setting.
THE PRODUCERS
Local farmers in the country as well as in the city, along with the skilled artisans who produce products such as farmhouse cheeses and fruit wines, are the building blocks of a sustainable future. Not only will they provide the ingredients for the meal, with your help they will join us ā table, along with Jamie Kennedy, Michael Ableman, Elizabeth Driver, Stephen Teeple, Debbie Field and Lori Stahlbrand, sharing their experiences and thoughts on issues affecting the safety and sustainability of our food supply.
WHAT YOU CAN DO
When you purchase your ticket for this event, please consider donating an extra ticket or contributing to the cost of an additional ticket so that local farmers, artisans and others who produced some of the food you are eating can share in the experience of this celebratory event.
Buy tickets now
