is a collaborative group of artists, activists, researchers, and gardeners with a shared interest in "projects that reveal social, political, cultural, and environmental relationships." They are particularly interested in the interrelationships among cities and other ecologies, the environmental impact of urban development, and progressive uses of urban space. (The team working on Beyond Green includes new media artist Amy Franceschini, founder of the artists' group Futurefarmers; artist and interaction designer Myriel Milicevic; and artist and radical gardener Nis Rшmer.) Free Soil brings the interdisciplinary skills of its members to bear on multimedia projects that include sculpture, gallery installations, public projects, gardens, workshops, and Web-based new media technologies. Free Soil's projects combine a friendly, even playful design sensibility with activist pedagogy; they believe "art can be a catalyst for social awareness and change."

F.R.U.I.T. (Fruit Route User InTerface, but an open acronym), Free Soil's new project for Beyond Green, explores the networks that link cities and agricultural areas and highlights the costs (social, economic, environmental) of getting fruit from rural farms to ever-growing urban populations. Franceschini, Milicevic, and Rшmer have conducted research to trace the paths that fruit takes as it travels from farms to urban fruit stands. Focusing on the orange-a fruit they chose for its sturdiness and the ease with which it can be shared among a group of people-they have compiled stories and statistics that reveal the environmental and social impact of its journey to market. With its tagline "The Right to Know!", F.R.U.I.T. encourages people to learn about where their food comes from and to support local agriculture.

The project combines an ongoing public art initiative with an installation that makes the public component tangible within the gallery space. The installation centers on Free Soil's re-creation of a fruit stand: a bit of vernacular design that one might find in any urban street market, laden here with fake oranges rather than actual produce. The "oranges" are wrapped with printed sheets that combine playful graphics with concrete information about Free Soil's "The Right to Know!" campaign. Visitors are invited to take one wrapper from a dispenser included in the installation. The wrappers (also available in digital form on Free Soil's Web site) can be used to wrap fruit in one's own local grocery or fruit stand and leave it for others; this gentle intervention makes use of existing networks to spread information and raise awareness. The gallery presentation also includes prints that convey Free Soil's ideas and an interactive computer station that links to the interactive F.R.U.I.T Web site. These components of F.R.U.I.T. unpack the elaborate processes that undergird an everyday act of consumption. Like all of Free Soil's projects, F.R.U.I.T. is a conduit for learning, and through it they hope to raise awareness about urban gardening and other alternative food movements as instruments for change.