The Last HOPE: Hacking the Price of Food - An Urban Farming Renaissance (Complete)

The Last HOPE took place on July 18-20, 2008 at Hotel Pennsylvania in New York City. With the global price of food rising dramatically around the world, the number of people at risk of starvation and malnutrition will also increase. The United Nations Food Program announced earlier this year that it would not have enough money or food to meet its targets due to the cost of food. In Egypt and other parts of the world, people have been rioting in the face of food shortages and sharp increases in prices. In places like Thailand that are famous for exporting rice throughout the world, the government has announced cutbacks in exports because of shortages. A grim picture, to say the least. Yet while this crisis seems to be unfolding, another rise has come to pass - the return of urban and community farms. How do these farms manage to exist, seemingly, outside the global game? Is their business model sustainable and is this truly a renaissance of growing and thinking locally? Through a series of podcast interviews and reports, the case is presented of how some farmers are hacking the price of food.