Know farms know food: Allan Gandelman at TEDxCortland

Allan Gandelman started his urban farm, Main Street Farms, to connect people to their food. As a former public school teacher he realized students couldn't learn if a substandard school lunch and poor eating habits at home weren't meeting their nutritional needs. Main Street Farms is comprised of two urban farms that focus on growing food year round while providing educational programming to local schools, colleges, and other community organizations. Allan is heavily involved with the local food movement of central New York. He sits on Cortland County's Local Agricultural Promotions committee, is the Local Food Director for Sustainable Cortland, has taught classes on urban agriculture and aquaponics for Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming, and has been on various panels about local food and food policy. Allan has traveled all over the country visiting urban farms and doing research on aquaponics.

In the spirit of ideas worth spreading, TEDx is a program of local, self-organized events that bring people together to share a TED-like experience. At a TEDx event, TEDTalks video and live speakers combine to spark deep discussion and connection in a small group. These local, self-organized events are branded TEDx, where x = independently organized TED event. The TED Conference provides general guidance for the TEDx program, but individual TEDx events are self-organized.* (*Subject to certain rules and regulations)