UrbanAg Goes Global

Every week, members of Students Organizing for Sustainability’s (SOS) Urban Agriculture (UrbanAg) project tend to the rooftop garden at The Kendeda Building for Innovative Sustainable Design. In the last year, student interest in gardening has grown, and the project has taken on new life. Weekly meetings have grown from five to 25 regular members. 

“We started as just a few people pulling weeds,” said Elaina Render, UrbanAg project lead and a civil engineering major. “As we have grown, I have seen firsthand how the project has transformed the way students consider sustainability and food production in their daily lives. By having a community to discuss ideas with, everyone has learned to practice more sustainable habits.”   

This month, the UrbanAg project goes global as seven members travel to Singapore, where they will present their research on campus gardening at the 8th Global Botanic Garden Congress (8GBGC). The conference will include presentations from global leaders in gardening, including the CEO of Singapore’s National Parks Board and the chairman of Botanic Gardens Conservation International. Tech students will also tour campus sustainability initiatives at the Singapore University of Technology and Design, hosted by a student club similar to their own. 

The trip is UrbanAg’s largest foray yet. Biomedical engineering student Nicole Allen, vice president of finance for SOS, has been organizing the trip’s logistics and finances, and the group has secured more than $15,000 from on-campus grants to fund their travel.  

“This trip will be a great opportunity to discuss our ideas with students outside of the U.S.,” she said. “Georgia Tech has become a leader in sustainability through its Climate Action Plan, but also through its student initiatives. We’re excited to share our progress with the world and bring back new ideas to speed up Georgia Tech’s progress toward net-zero emissions.”  

Nikita Takalkar, a second-year student going on the Singapore trip, wants to explore her passion for farm-to-table initiatives and community gardens. “The opportunity to learn from experts and other students about how programs like our urban agriculture project are implemented worldwide will be such a fascinating and beneficial experience,” Takalkar said. She hopes to learn new urban gardening techniques from the other presenters at 8GBGC and from touring the many publicly accessible gardens in Singapore. 

Seven of the 25 regular UrbanAg members are attending: fourth-years Nicole Allen, Isabella Baker, Mia Granelli, and Elaina Render; third-year Kiran Kapileshwari; and second-years Rachel Bohl and Nikita Takalkar. The group is largely interdisciplinary, with backgrounds in five different majors. 

As UrbanAg has grown, new initiatives have budded. Project members will plant micro-gardens this fall as part of the LEAD department’s Teams for Tech Fellowship. They've brought in speakers from sustainability-focused companies throughout Atlanta, toured gardens at Delta’s headquarters, cooked up garden-based recipes each week, and are leading a research project through Kendeda Micro Research Grants for the Regenerative Built Environments program. They have explored brewing new teas, attended the Atlanta Botanical Garden’s spring gardening symposium, and gone to fungi talks hosted at local businesses.  

“There’s encouragement for any member, no matter experience level or involvement length, to explore what interests them and find opportunities to learn more,” Render said.   

The group will be abroad Aug. 5 – 11. Follow along on Instagram @gt.urbanag.