Annie Novak

[excerpted from author's website]
Annie Novak is founder and director of Growing Chefs, field-to-fork food education program; the Manager of the Edible Academy at the New York Botanical Garden, and co-founder and farmer of Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Greenpoint, Brooklyn in partnership with Goode Green and Broadway Stages. She is the author of The Rooftop Growing Guide: How to Transform Your Roof into a Garden or Farm, published by Ten Speed Press.

A passionate educator, Annie teaches locally & nationally, and has spoken at conferences around the country on the connections between people, food and ecology, and the benefits of urban agriculture. Annie writes in her own words for The Atlantic, Rodale's Organic Life Magazine, Wilder Quarterly, and Diner Journal.

Annie's work in agriculture has been featured in The New York Times, Modern Farmer, WNYC / NPR, New York Magazine, Edible Brooklyn, the Martha Stewart Show, Grist, the Huffington Post and the Cooking Channel, among other publications. Annie has been candidly interviewed on multiple blogs and locally in her own Brooklyn neighborhood paper The Greenpoint Gazette (twice!). In 2012, Annie was recognized by the Audubon Society's Women in Conservation Program for her work in New York City. In 2016, Annie's work at the Eagle Street Rooftop Farm was recognized by Martha Stewart Living's American Made Award. In 2018, Annie joined the board of the American Bird Conservancy.

Annie acts as an ambassador for several national brands, including Mrs. Meyers Clean Day, Bogs Footwear, Madewell, Seiko, and Terrain.

Annie's passion for agriculture began while working in Ghana with West African chocolate farmers. She has since followed food to its roots has taken her to Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Turkey, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Fiji, New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Alaska, Tanzania, Jamaica, Australia, through the West and Midwest.