User:Arjj/Annie Novak (Urban Farmer) née Ann Lorraine Novak

Background
Annie Novak is founder and director of Growing Chefs, a field-to-fork food education program; the children's gardening program coordinator for the New York Botanical Gardens; and co-founder of Eagle Street Rooftop Farm in Greenpoint, Brooklyn in partnership with Goode Green and Broadway Stages. Annie has worked with the CENYC Greenmarket, Slow Food, and Just Food advocating and growing urban agriculture throughout New York City. Her work in agriculture has been featured in New York Magazine, Edible Brooklyn, and on the Martha Stewart Show.

Character History
Annie Lorraine Novak was born in Chicago, Illinois on February 11,1983 to Brian (d. 2003) and Rita ( née Ryan) Novak.The oldest of three daughters, she grew up in the city's North Suburban town of Evanston on the shores of Lake Michigan. The beach setting and a childhood of travel with her family inspired her deep attachment to the natural world. A lifelong vegetarian, Annie's focus on agriculture began while she was working in Ghana with West African chocolate farmers. She has since followed food to its roots in Ghana, Burkina Faso, Togo, Benin, Turkey, Peru, Bolivia, Argentina, Fiji, New Zealand, the Cook Islands, Alaska, and the American West and Midwest. She is a 2005 graduate of Sarah Lawrence College, New York.

Since 2005, Annie has worked with the Meerkat Media Collective to write, produce, act and film in several films and documentaries. Her work has been screened in New York City and in festivals across the country. Titles include award-winning felt animation Wee Dark Hours and My Felt Bike; award-winning documentary short Every Third Bite; and narrative feature-length film A Little Death.

Articles
She has contributed articles to the Atlantic and appeared on CNN, NPRas well as other feature segments that feature her tireless work to make urban farming a norm. In 2009 she was voted "Hottest Organic Farmer" in an online poll sponsored by the Huffington Post which won her the right to blog about her farm for the publication.http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/10/13/hot-organic-farmers-pick_n_300414.html

In her free time, Annie runs  marathons, builds and races bicycles, and bird watching