Most of you have heard of the annual Greentopia Festival that is held in the High Falls district each September. This year, the festival featured several speakers, one of whom was a young man named Birke Baehr, who gained national recognition after he presented a talk entitled “What’s wrong with our food system?” at TedXNextGenerationAsheville in 2010. Here is a link to his five-minute speech:
We were lucky enough to have Birke and his mother, Tricia, visit Harley and speak with Chris Hartman’s Upper School elective Farm and Community class. Although his visit was brief, he toured our Micro-farm and spoke with the students about their interest in local food and sustainability. Birke has authored a book, appropriately titled Birke on the Farm, which we will acquire for our Lower School library. Here are some photos from Birke’s brief, but meaningful visit:
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- Tricia Baehr, Birke Baehr and Ben Woelk arrive at Harley
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- Food and Community class planting lettuce
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- Gathering around to meet Birke and Tricia Baehr
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- Introductions
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- Accompanied by Ben Woelk from Greentopia
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- Birke sharing the path that led to his speaking career
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- Everyone sharing why they decided to take Farm and Community
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- Listening to the Harley students
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- Lettuce sprouts
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- A view of the garden from the gate
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- Plaid is for farmers!
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- Discussion of community resources
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- Tricia sharing how she plans locally-sourced meals
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- Birke’s book
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- Birke is one of the 75 contriutors to this great resource
You can follow Birke on Twitter at @BirkeBaehr and his website is http://www.birkeonthefarm.com
