The City of Atlanta announced that the Mayor’s Office of Resilience will host a two-day AGlanta Forum, a gathering of growers and urban agriculture organizers from across the country, to explore the potential of home and community gardening networks. The event will take place on July 21-22, 2017 at the Auburn Avenue Research Library, and will cover issues across the spectrum of community gardening including leadership development, grassroots fundraising, economic impact and environmental health.
 
As part of the forum, the second annual Taste of AGLanta, an event highlighting the City’s urban agriculture program and featuring tastings of local foods from Atlanta chefs, will take place July 22 at 7:30 p.m. at the Sweet Auburn Curb Market.
 
“We are excited to host the AGlanta Forum and foster new partnerships among growers and organizers, as well as encourage urban agriculture innovation,” said Mario Cambardella, Urban Agriculture Director for the City of Atlanta. “The City of Atlanta continues to recognize the positive health and community outcomes of urban agriculture and will use this forum to help us meet our goals of bringing local, healthy food within a half-mile of 75 percent of all Atlanta residents by year 2020.”
 
The forum will include two educational tracks – “Urban Home Food Gardening” led by Historic Westside Gardens and “Community Gardening” led by the American Community Gardeners Association.

Participants can attend sessions with speakers such as Dr. John Taylor, Assistant Professor of Agroecology at the University of Rhode Island, Eric Kornacki of Re:Vision from Denver, Bobby Wilson of Metro Atlanta Urban Farm, and Lee Perry of Fleet Farming from Orlando.

Proceeds from Taste of AGLanta will benefit urban agriculture in Atlanta through enhanced and expanded local agriculture production and sustainable food systems, in association with Groundwork Atlanta.

In December 2015, Mayor Kasim Reed appointed Cambardella as the City of Atlanta’s first-ever Urban Agriculture Director. Atlanta is one of a few cities in the nation with a director dedicated to working on food access generating policy, advocacy, and development.
 
To learn more about the forum, Taste of AGLanta or to register, visit https://www.aglanta.org/.