Share your story.

This week VALOR III Fellows met in Northern Virginia to learn and discuss agriculture. The field is so vast that my last statement could require a million more words to define it. This week was focused on urban agriculture on some days and national agriculture policy on others. It makes sense. Northern VA is expanding in population and of course there’s Washington DC lurking in the background, just a coin toss across the Potomac River (remember that story)?
I chaired a story sharing experience hosted by Kristof Grina, of Up Top Acres. This is the coolest idea I’ve seen. Kristof and his team are utilizing existing green roofs around DC to produce vegetables then sold in their D.C Consumer Supported Agriculture, wholesale and Farmers Markets around DC. In a world where transportation is one of the biggest challenges of affordably marketing products these entrepreneurs have figured it out! VALOR III had an awesome time learning about how they make it possible and best of all, nobody fell off the roof! I will personally add that if I were to live in the District of Columbia then working for Kristof would be high on my list of job choices, second only to maybe being President Trump’s press secretary. Just kidding. Thank you, Kristof! You elevated my understanding of ag by what… about 20 stories? A lot. I know it’s up there.
VALOR III got the whole DC experience. Below is an image from the National Portrait Gallery. Can you believe the museum curators would tell our story with pictures from our trip? Amazing.