June 29, 2008

Dec 16, 2007

October 2, 2005

New Amsterdam Market was first held on October 2, 2005 under the arcade of the Municipal Building of the City of New York.

This magnificent Beaux Arts structure was designed in 1908 by the firm of McKim, Mead, and White, the architects of the fabled Pennsylvania Railroad Station. Built of solid stone, the station would have survived for centuries - such is the meaning of sustainable. To our great shame as a society we tore down Penn Station in 1963, only 50 years after its construction! Today, we are not capable of building anything as beautiful and as enduring.

Like Pennsylvania Station, the Municipal Building was designed to serve the public and celebrate human achievement. New Amsterdam Market celebrated the resurgence of a regional agricultural system by gathering its proponents in this monumental, civic space.

Market vendors were grouped by geography, to highlight the significance of the region in defining sustainability. The importance of historical continuity was shown instead by the selection of the market’s name: New Amsterdam.

New Amsterdam was founded in 1625 as the capital of a region called New Netherland, whose existence - like that of Pennsylvania Station - was cut unnaturally short. By reconsidering New York as the geographic and economic center of an agricultural region (and of a corresponding fishery) we will create a complex, self-sustaining food system.

This system will revive, build upon, and improve practices and institutions from eras that were not reliant on fossil fuels. The public market was one such institution.

Download the event program.