Sowing Seeds in the City (PDF)

Sally L Brown is a Research Associate Professor at the University of Washington School of Forest and Environmental Science. She is a Fellow in the Soil Science Society of America, was a two- term member of the National Academy of Science Standing Committee on Soil Science and a member on the National Academy of Science Committee on the Bioavailability of Contaminants in Soils and Sediments. She has won multiple awards for her work on residuals use in soils. Dr. Brown writes a monthly column for Biocycle Magazine, a journal that focuses on sustainable management of organics. She has a BA in Political Science from Williams College (1980) and a MS (1993) and PhD (1996) from the University of Maryland. Before returning to graduate school, she worked as a chef in New York City, New Orleans and Connecticut. In 1986 she started a business delivering locally grown vegetables to stores and restaurants in New York City and Connecticut. She currently grows greens, onions, potatoes and currants on two plots near her home with the assistance of her husband and Tagro, the biosolids based soil amendment from Tacoma, WA.Kristen McIvor is the director of Harvest Pierce County, a program of the Pierce Conservation District. Their mission is to invest in people to foster and sustain an equitable and healthy community-based food system throughout Pierce County. She is also an adjunct professor at Antioch University Seattle where she teaches classes on food systems. Dr. McIvor got her MS at Antioch in Environment and Community and her PhD at the University of Washington. Her academic work has focused on improving soils in urban areas to support the growing of food, and much of her time is spent working with community groups to do just that. She lives in the drippy Pacific Northwest and loves its mild climate for year-round growing. In her spare time, she gets her hands dirty as often as she can, and loves preparing and sharing the bounty of her garden with her family and