{{Short description|American author, organic farmer, educator}} {{Use mdy dates|date=October 2019}} {{Infobox person |name=Michael Ableman |image= |birth_date= |birth_place= |occupation=Writer, educator, farmer }}
'''Michael Ableman''' is an American-Canadian author, organic farmer, educator, advocate for sustainable agriculture, and is considered one of the pioneers of the organic farming and urban agriculture movements {{Citation needed|date=September 2025}}.
Ableman is the founder of the Center for Urban Agriculture at Fairview Gardens in Goleta, California where he farmed for 20 years; co-founder and director of Sole Food Street Farms and the charity Cultivate Canada in Vancouver, British Columbia; and founder and director of the Center for Arts, Ecology and Agriculture based at his family home and farm on Salt Spring Island.<ref>{{Cite web|url=https://www.michaelableman.com|title=Michael Ableman {{!}} Michael Ableman|website=www.michaelableman.com|access-date=28 December 2016}}</ref>
==Biography== Ableman originally intended to become a photographer. However, in 1972 he joined an agrarian commune east of Ojai, California where he was to eventually manage {{convert|100|acre|km2}} of pear and apple orchards.<ref name="sun">{{cite web |url=http://www.thesunmagazine.org/_media/article/pdf/330_Ableman.pdf |title=Earthly Delights: Cultivating A New Agricultural Revolution |accessdate=24 February 2009 |work=The Sun Magazine |last=Cooper |first=Arnie |date=June 2003 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20080905213720/http://www.thesunmagazine.org/_media/article/pdf/330_Ableman.pdf |archive-date=5 September 2008 |url-status=dead }}</ref> After a time managing a nursery on the coast north of Santa Barbara, in 1981 Ableman took a job grafting orange trees at Fairview Gardens. When the previous manager left, Ableman remained, "farm-sitting," until 2001.<ref> {{cite web |url=http://www.fieldsofplenty.com/michael.php |title=Michael Ableman |publisher=fieldsofplenty.com |accessdate=24 March 2013 }}</ref><ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.globalpublicmedia.org/deconstructing_dinner_michael_ableman_fields_of_plenty |title=Michael Ableman – Fields of Plenty |accessdate=24 February 2009 |work=Deconstructing Dinner |publisher=Global Public Media |date=February 22, 2007 }}</ref> At its peak the farm served as an important community and education center and a national model for small-scale and urban agriculture, hosting as many as 5000 people per year for tours, classes, festivals, and apprenticeships. Under Ableman's leadership, the farm was saved from development and preserved under one of the earliest and most unusual active agricultural conservation easements of its type in the country.<ref name="sun" />
A frequent speaker at conferences throughout North America, Ableman gave a plenary presentation on the future of farming at the Bioneers conference in 2005.<ref>Collective Heritage Institute (2007) [https://secure.bioneers.org/view/2005audio_viewlist Bioneers 2005 Conference Catalogue]{{dead link|date=January 2018 |bot=InternetArchiveBot |fix-attempted=yes }}. Retrieved 25 February 2009.</ref>
==Works== * ''Street Farm: Growing Food, Jobs, and Hope on the Urban Frontier''. Chelsea Green (2016) [https://www.chelseagreen.com/farm-garden/street-farm] {{ISBN|9781603586023}} * ''Fields of Plenty: A Farmer's Journey in Search of Real Food and the People Who Grow It.'' Chronicle Books (2005). {{ISBN|978-0-8118-4223-5}} * ''On Good Land: The Autobiography of an Urban Farmer.'' Chronicle Books (1998). {{ISBN|978-0-8118-1921-3}} * ''From the Good Earth: A Celebration of Growing Food Around the World,'' with Cynthia Wisehart, Sam Bittman. Harry N. Abrams, Incorporated, (1993). {{ISBN|978-0-8109-2517-5}}
==See also== *Clara Whitehill Hunt *Lawrence Fraser Abbott *Adeline Pond Adams
==References== {{reflist}}
==External links== * [http://www.fieldsofplenty.com/ Ableman's website].
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Ableman, Michael}} Category:Living people Category:Year of birth missing (living people) Category:American agricultural writers Category:Organic farmers Category:Sustainability advocates Category:American sustainability advocates