Regenerative Agriculture as a Model for Urban Renewal
Charles Rosen |
TEDxNJIT
• November 2018
By increasing biodiversity and nurturing biological life in the soil, a regenerative agriculture practice builds a farm’s internal strength and stability, rather than a dependency on outside inputs. Charles Rosen, founder of Ironbound Hard Cider, tells how this lesson learned from working with nature – not against it – has impacted his approach to workforce development and urban renewal in Newark, NJ. Instead of following a typical strategy focused on luring in external resources, such as outside developers and white-collar corporate jobs, he is creating conditions that allow the most underserved members of the community, such as the formerly incarcerated, to participate in—and benefit from—the city's revival.