Everything you thought you knew about urban agriculture is about to change…

This August, leading Toronto growers of food and living green infrastructure are hosting next-generation thinkers, designers and food producers who are seeding tomorrow’s urban agriculture….and it won’t be the garden variety urban agriculture you think you already know about.

We’re talking living infrastructure, antidotes to nature deficit disorder and oases for mental health, social wellbeing and economic vitality, regeneration, beautification and gentrification where neighborhoods matter, multi-functional food principles, food forests, cradle to cradle, the brown revolution – the whole nine yards.

Think outside the box, the planter and even the garden. We’re out to urbanize the functions and style of growing food and other living things. We’re not about just growing food in the city. We’re out to grow neighborhoods, cities, greenery, citizen skills, people power.

The formal conference will feature plenaries of leading edge thinkers and implementers from four continents. Distinct streams of workshops will meet all your information and participation needs. Whether you like or need more policy, design, theory, hands-on skills for gardening in yards, gardening on rooftops, beekeeping, forest management, livestock, how-to skills for businesses, agencies and community groups, you’ll have things to take home. These sessions are guaranteed to go to seed. Check out the sessions here.

Before the conference, enjoy a variety of tours of Toronto projects that have put the city and its citizens at the forefront of the international food scene. If you want to shout from the rooftops, be sure to come a day early. Check out the options here.

Register Now. And check back here regularly to keep up with the latest.

Toronto food expert Wayne Roberts is the former manager of the Toronto Food Policy Council.