THE FUTURE
OF F A RM ING
Named for 17th century Dutch farm
plots where Manhattan now sits, Bowery
Farming is named as a nod to the past
but is clearly focused on the future of
farming. Maximum Yield’s Alan Ray
sat down with Bowery Farming CEO
Irving Fain to discuss the future of food
security and how modern farming is
changing to meet those challenges.
“
Those Bowerijs are what fed the city
and served as the inspiration for
the creation of Bowery Farming and
growing food for a better future.”
— Irving Fain
by Alan Ray
58
Maximum Yield
T
he Bowery of New York has an infamous
and storied past. This notorious district in
southern Manhattan was synonymous with
destitution and debauchery in the late 19th
and early 20th centuries. Admittedly, when I
hear the word Bowery, it conjures an image of
flop houses, back alley bars, and dangerous
derelicts. A vespiary of seedy activity. I certainly
don’t think of farming. Well, I didn’t used to.
Rewind to an earlier time, however, and
you’ll find rich farm land being cultivated by
Dutch farmers beginning in the 17th century.
During that period of history, the fertile
expanse of land was called the Bouwerij, the
Dutch term for farm, and the landscape was
dotted with a great many of them.