Urban farm practices and techniques for growing food in limited space with limited resources—always with an eye on nutrition awareness—will be the focus of a lecture series this spring being co-sponsored by the Amarillo College Biology Department and the High Plains Food Bank.
The lectures will be on Monday evenings May 30 through April 20 at Russell Hall, Room 131, on AC’s Washington Street Campus. The lectures are free, but nonperishable food items will of course be accepted on behalf of the AC Food Panty.
Topics will range from aquaponics—a food-production system that combines raising fish (aquaculture) and growing plants in water (hydroponics)—to saving on the food bill through gardening. One lecture will even address global health issues.
“No one has an excuse because everyone can grow food somehow,” said Cara Young, who coordinates the Gardens & Community Partnerships initiative for the High Plains Food Bank. “Our aim is to teach as many people as we can about how to be self-sustaining where growing food is concerned.”
Both Cara Young and her husband Justin Young, director of nutrition education for the High Plains Food Bank, will lead three of the four lectures, which are:
Monday, March 30 at 6 p.m.: Self-sustaining tips for surviving Post-Zombie Apocalypse—a workshop designed to help individuals gain self-reliance growing food in an urban setting.
Monday, April 6 at 6 p.m.: Making Farmville a Reality—a lecture on the economics of growing food when space and resources are scarce.
Monday, April 13 at 7 p.m.: 3,300-Mile Ride for World Health—featuring a group of medical students and healthcare professionals on a cross-country ride to promote global health issues. Myths about vaccinations and insect-borne diseases will be addressed.
Monday, April 20 at 6 p.m.: Aqua: meaning water, Pono: meaning labor—a look at aquaponics and the self-sustaining, plant-growing technology that is dependent on the naturally occurring symbiotic relationship between fish and plants in a circulating, soilless, controlled system.
March 12, 2015