City of Atlanta to host inaugural “Aglanta Conference”

The City of Atlanta will host its inaugural “Aglanta Conference” to showcase urban and controlled environment agriculture innovation in the City of Atlanta.

The Mayor’s Office of Sustainability has partnered with Blue Planet Consulting, a firm specializing in urban agriculture projects, to bring together restaurateurs, grocers, architects, entrepreneurs, technologists, business owners and urban farmers to network, share best practices and establish partnerships. The conference will take place on Feb. 19 at the Georgia Railroad Freight Depot, and aims to help foster Atlanta’s growth as a central hub in the nation’s annual $9 billion indoor farming industry.

“We are excited about the inaugural Aglanta Conference and expect more than 200 industry leaders to attend,” said Mario Cambardella, the City of Atlanta Urban Agriculture Director. “The City of Atlanta recognizes the positive health and community outcomes of urban agriculture and will use this conference to foster relationships and partnerships which can ultimately help us meet our goals of bringing local, healthy food within a half-mile of 75 percent of all Atlanta residents by year 2020.”

In December 2015, Mayor Kasim Reed appointed Cambardella as the city’s first ever Urban Agriculture Director. Atlanta is one of a few cities in the nation with an Urban Agriculture Director, dedicated to working on food access generating policy, advocacy, and development. 

The Aglanta Conference will create an environment for participants to engage with a local, national and international audience. Through workshops, lectures, and networking sessions, the conference will cover issues across the spectrum of urban agriculture business models and technologies, with a particular focus on the emerging field of vertical and indoor farming.

During the conference, the Mayor’s Office of Sustainability will spotlight local champions already doing incredible work growing food as means of ecological restoration, social cohesion, cultural preservation, economic development and biopharmaceutical development.

Partners for the conference include the Georgia Department of Economic Development, Georgia Power, Indoor Farms of America and Tower Farms.

To learn more about the conference or to register, visit https://www.aglanta.org/.