Applications for summer courses are available now until May 15th. Click here for the application!

What is Farm School NYC?

Our mission: Farm School NYC aims to provide comprehensive professional training in urban agriculture for NYC residents, in order to increase the self-reliance of communities and inspire positive local action around issues of food access and social, economic, and racial justice.

Farm School NYC offers urban agriculture training through a two-year cer­tificate program as well as a wide range of individual courses. Please  visit the Program page for more details on the two-year certificate program.

What makes Farm School NYC unique?

• Committed to grassroots social justice. Farm School NYC provides students with the tools they need to become effective and empowered grassroots leaders in the food justice movement. We do this by teaching effective community organizing and advocacy techniques as well as engaging in dialouges about larger social, economic, and racial, and justice issues.

• Community-based approach. Farm School NYC was created by a vast network of urban farmers, commu­nity gardeners, and anti-hunger and food justice advocates in the city. The program is thus created and run by grassroots leaders who know NYC's unique communities and food issues best.

• Accessible to all NYC residents. Farm School NYC aims to cultivate a student body representative of the incredible diversity of NYC. Our students come from a wide range of different backgrounds and life experiences and diversity is crucial to the success of our program. As part of our commitment to social justice and diversity, tuition is on a sliding scale based on income and household size. In addition, the time commitment and schedule of the program is designed to be accessible to students working full time jobs. In order to accommodate a wide range of students, we hope in the future to provide childcare during course offers and to offer any necessary bilingual programming.

• NYC is your classroom. Farm School NYC classes take place at a wide variety of city gardens, farms, and other unique classroom spaces in order to engage in city specific place-based education. 

What will I learn?

Students will explore a multitude of different subjects related to urban agriculture, education, and food justice. Below are some of the main topics featured in our program but please see our Course Offerings page for more details on the classes.

• Urban agriculture growing techniques
• Business planning and marketing skills
• Community organizing and leadership skills
• Food based education    

Farm School NYC is supported by the Beginning Farmer and Rancher Development Program of the National Institute of Food and Agriculture, USDA, Grant #2010-49400-21723.