The Farm on the Roof
What Brooklyn Grange Taught Us About Entrepreneurship, Community, and Growing a Sustainable Business
-
- $15.99
-
- $15.99
Publisher Description
The founders of Brooklyn Grange, the world’s largest green rooftop farm, share their inspirational story of changing the world through entrepreneurship.
In their effort to build the world’s first and largest commercial green rooftop farm, the founders of Brooklyn Grange learned a lot about building and sustaining a business while never losing sight of their mission—to serve their community by providing delicious organic food and changing the way people think about what they eat. But their story is about more than just farming. It serves as an inspirational and instructional guide for anyone looking to start a business that is successful while making a positive impact.
In The Farm on the Roof, the team behind Brooklyn Grange tell the complete story of how their “farmily” made their dream a reality. Along the way, they share valuable lessons about finding the right partners, seeking funding, expanding, and identifying potential sources of revenue without compromising your core values—lessons any socially conscious entrepreneur can apply toward his or her own venture. Filled with colorful anecdotes about the ups and downs of farming in the middle of New York City, this story is not just about rooftop farming; it’s about utilizing whatever resources you have to turn your backyard idea into a sky-high success.
PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
In this enjoyable but not especially useful book, Plakias relates her story of cofounding Brooklyn Grange, a commercial rooftop farm, as part of a group of people determined to build a self-sustaining, profitable business. They viewed success in more than one sense, focusing on "people, planet, and profit." The group's members left steady but unsatisfying jobs in more traditional businesses to start the farm. The book shares their struggles to raise capital, the process of building the farm, their first growing seasons, the formation of a community, and what they learned along the way. Plakias's colleagues express skepticism right up front about writing a business book skepticism that, it turns out, was justified. This is a sweet and inspiring story about what can be accomplished by a group of smart, idealistic young people dedicated to environmental and business goals, but it is not descriptive or prescriptive in any way that would help readers improve or change their thinking around business.