After attending the presentation by guest speaker, Annie Novak, I was inspired be her. Discussing the agricultural world, I was intrigued at how much I learned from her in a short period of time. She was very knowledgeable and passionate about rooftop farming, going into depth about each topic she spoke about. While I was never particularly interested in planting and growing crops, I was also interested in health and nutrition which she discussed. I’ve always felt the organic way of living was unrealistic because of the expense and the difficulty in growing fresh crops without them going bad. She opened my eyes to think about the food world differently.

In growing cities like New York, Annie Novak focused on utilizing the space available and started growing farms on rooftops. To me, this is a very innovative and genius idea because, as she discussed in the presentation, these cities do not have the space for farms anymore with overpopulation being such an issue. This reminded me of the RFT neighborhood projects where we looked at growing neighborhoods and the rising issues of overpopulation and gentrification. These rooftops farms are still allowing for the neighborhood to cater to its population while creating a better food source for locals. The rooftop gardens also provide better insulation for the building , the accessibility to use more nutrient-rich soil because you start on a new slate as well as being able to keep animals that live on the ground away from destroying the crops.

Annie Novak as inspired me to do something I love and be very passionate in whatever I chose to do. Also over the past few years, I have traveled to new places and began a love for traveling and she further inspired me to visit new places and see new things because it can totally change my life, like it did for her when she visited West Africa and the chocolate plants. Annie also spoke very educated and emphasized her feelings towards never being ignorant. I hope to learn more and grow like she had and expand my knowledge beyond my school life. While this lecture was focused on plants, rooftops gardens and the Botanical Garden, I took away much more of a intellectual and inspirational message from Annie Novak.