Teacher Says It's Easy Being Green

Take one enthusiastic teacher, add a lot of hands-on learning, and you can double school attendance and inspire students to work hard and gain practical skills to share with their families and community. Stephen Ritz teaches in the South Bronx, one of the poorest neighborhoods in in New York City, and his TED talk is one of four short food videos featured on the Foodtree blog this week. His energy and drive are contagious -- you'll be out of breath and speechless after you watch him speak! (And probably planning your own veggie garden.) His students have grown more than 25,000 pounds of vegetables, and his Bronx classroom features the first indoor edible wall in a New York City school. Now his class installs edible walls and landscaping for businesses and private homes. Former members of his Green Bronx Machine have gone on to college and have living-wage jobs thanks to their experience in growing plants from seed and using the latest in green technology. Watch the video, and check out the other short films on Foodtree too. On the West Coast, Alice Waters pioneered classroom growing with her Edible Schoolyard project: Take a video tour with her and see the students' chickens, flowers, and vegetables.

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