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Autumn was palpable at the fourth annual Green Brooklyn…Green City event yesterday afternoon. Brooklyn Borough Hall Greenmarket provided a perfect backdrop for the gathering where excitement for the change of seasons was evident as folks lined up to get their last taste of sweet corn and peaches and took notice of the newcomers- apples and winter squash. I purchased my first honeycrisp apple of the season–it did not disappoint.

Nonprofits, green businesses, and members of the local community congregated to a day that was seamlessly presented by the Brooklyn Center for the Urban Environment . There was even a creative art and crafts section featuring reusable materials for the kids to use.

Booths were gathered inside Brooklyn Borough Hall and along the Greenmarket pathway. A stand-out organization called We Add Up, we learned, is a campaign that is using customized organic cotton t-shirts to promote collective action regarding climate change. My favorite among the many clever options was “Buy Local“. Another company, Alive Structures, works to transform our concrete jungle into a vegetated landscape through green roof and green wall installation.

We made sure to swing by our friends at GreenEdge Collaborative and Slow Food USA. Stone Barns Center for Food and Agriculture was also present, whose upcoming Harvest Fest 2008 shindig is shaping up to be quite the tempting event inclusive with a seasonal pie bake-off and a Berkshire pig roast. At our own table, we enjoyed chatting with schoolchildren doing class projects on sustainability, greenmarket-goers, nonprofit organizers, and newbies to the green movement.

Scattered throughout the day were a number of workshops. I attended one led by Gabriel Langholtz, current Manager of NYC Greenmarkets and Michael Hurwitz from the Council on the Environment of New York City (CENYC) entitled Food Miles: An Inside Look at Food from Farm (or Factory) to Table. To my delight, it ended up being less of a lecture and more of an intimate discussion of the issues we face in working to transition our current industrial food system to a more sustainable model. We discussed the many benefits of eating local (consumer health, food safety, animal welfare, reduced fossil fuel costs, etc.), the contentious definition of “organic”, and ways we as consumers can challenge the food status quo in our daily lives. The most important take-away piece was definitely the act of “voting with your food dollar”. Making conscious choices to purchase food from local farmers will change the system little by little.

The fresh local food, good company, interesting conversation and excitement for change at Green Brooklyn…Green City made my experience unforgettable.