Student run farms are not a new concept for universities and colleges in the United States. In recent years, however, there has been an increasing interest among faculty, staff, and students in sustainable agriculture and the re-localization of the food system. As a result, student farm and garden projects have been cropping up across the country with such force that the Rodale Institute considers it a student farm movement. Ohio State, the largest land grand university in the country, can now be added to the growing list of institutions involved in this movement.
Over the lunch hour on Friday, Oct. 10, there will be a different kind of picnic at Iowa State University. Students, faculty and staff are invited to bring their lunches to the library lawn to taste local apples and savor fair trade chocolate. They will contribute to the real food mural made by design students and enjoy the tunes of local musicians. All of this is part of an effort to bring more awareness to the Iowa State campus about the benefits of real food. “We want to show students that they have a voice and a choice when it comes to food,” remarked Ellen Walsh, a junior who represents Oxfam on campus. For the past year, ISU Dining has been tracking and increasing its purchases of local, sustainable, and organic foods as part of the Farm to ISU program. Last year more than half a million dollars were spent on local foods-- antibiotic-free pork, honey, organic milk, seasonal produce and beef from a small meat locker. Next year, ISU Dining plans to increase its purchases by another quarter million dollars, so that by 2012, 35% of the food purchases will have come from Iowa farms, have been sustainably grown, or have been certified organic. There is growing interest in sustainability in the university administration (this year the university launched its “live green” campaign), but the key will continue to be student demand. “I want students to ask for these kinds of foods,” remarked Nancy Levandowski, ISU Dining director.
September 27, 2008 Miami, FL-- On a sweltering hot Saturday, twenty people gathered behind a junior high school. Three students shoveled soil and compost into a new garden bed, while others removed basil, pepper and tomato plants from their pots to place in the fresh soil. Others held boards of wood while a teacher from Miami Dade County Public Schools (MDCPS) nailed the boards together.
Teachers and future educators came together to plant a garden and share ideas about how to bring healthy eating and an awareness of the origins of food to their students. The workshop, part of the Real Food Now! Month of Action, was sponsored by the Earth Ethics Institute at Miami Dade College (MDC) and is the continuation of a long-standing partnership between MDC and MDCPS. "This was my first time planting--now I can plant my own herb garden! And it'll be easy to integrate into my lesson plans," said MDC student Marilyn Morejon.
Student run farms are not a new concept for universities and colleges in the United States. In recent years, however, there has been an increasing interest among faculty, staff, and students in sustainable agriculture and the re-localization of the food system. As a result, student farm and garden projects have been cropping up across the country with such force that the Rodale Institute considers it a student farm movement. Ohio State, the largest land grand university in the country, can now be added to the growing list of institutions involved in this movement. 
September 27, 2008
