Editor's note: This story is part of an ongoing “Sowing Change” series about urban farming.
When Yemi Amu first began her career as a nutrition educator and chef instructor, she quickly learned that helping people eat more vegetables was less about telling them what to eat and more about showing them how to prepare fresh food in ways that were simple, affordable and delicious.
“It's easier if someone learns how to cook really delicious meals than to tell them to eat kale,” she says. “If we go to the market together and make something wonderful out of it, you're more likely to repeat eating kale over and over again.
“A lot of my work,” Amu says, “is encouraging people to get more comfortable eating fresh food. But, as we know, fresh food, especially in New York City, is not cheap.”
Amu saw the barriers her clients faced: Fresh food was expensive and often harder to access than fast food. To bridge that gap, she began farming on a rooftop in New York City, growing vegetables that went directly downstairs into the kitchen where she was teaching. The garden quickly became a community hub, with neighbors volunteering, harvesting and cooking together.
It was there that a volunteer introduced her to a concept she'd never considered: aquaponics, a system that combines fish farming with growing plants hydroponically.
“He said, ‘Imagine not only providing residents with vegetables, but also with a hyperlocal source of fish,”' Amu says.
For Amu, the idea resonated deeply. Growing up in Lagos, Nigeria — a city of more than 20 million people — she was familiar with fish farming in urban environments. But the notion of combining fish and plants, recycling water and producing more food with less land sparked something new.
“It was a combination of the fish and the recycling of the water that really got me,” she says. “Where I'm from, water access is limited and expensive, so farming fish in a way that saves water was fascinating.”
In 2013, Oko Farms Aquaponics Farm launched as a volunteer-run initiative with the conversion of a rundown 2,500 sq.-ft. lot in Bushwick, Brooklyn. The result was the city's first and only publicly accessible outdoor aquaponics farm. Today, the farm not only produces vegetables and fish, but also serves as an education center and a community food source. Much of the farm's produce is distributed through community fridges across Brooklyn in partnership with One Love Community Fridge, a dignified model that allows people to take what they need, no questions asked.
“One in four people in New York City face food insecurity,” Amu says. “We want to make sure fresh food is available without barriers.”
The farm also runs training programs for adults and youth, equipping participants with hands-on skills to build and manage their own aquaponics systems. One graduate of Oko Farms' program, for example, was recently hired to run a new aquaponics farm in the Bronx.
“That made me really happy,” Amu says. “It shows that people are not only able to take the skills back into their communities but also get jobs doing this work.”
The impact extends far beyond jobs. Amu often meets children who arrive at the farm declaring that they don't eat vegetables, yet,
“Fifteen minutes in, they're asking, ‘Can I eat this?'” she says. “Introducing children to food in this way changes their lives. It changes how they look at food, how they interact with it and even how their families shop.”
In addition to her community work, Amu's leadership in urban farming has drawn national attention. She was recently featured in PBS Terra's “Women of the Earth” series, an experience she described as both thoughtful and impactful.
“The number of people who show up and say they saw me — it's been incredible,” she says. “Someone even came to a workshop because they watched the PBS feature and wanted to learn more. It just shows you the power of storytelling.”
For Amu, aquaponics isn't just about farming fish and vegetables, she says, it's about reshaping the urban food landscape and proving sustainable solutions can thrive in unexpected places.
“At the end of the day, aquaponics is farming,” Amu says. “And people love to be engaged in urban agriculture. It makes a difference in their lives.”
Season 1, episode 4 of “Women of the Earth” features Yemi Amu's story.
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