LFS:UBC Farm Audio Tour 3 Academic Programs
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Hi, my name is Andrew Rushmere and I’m the Academic Coordinator at the UBC Farm and Centre for Sustainable Food Systems. With over 150 innovative programs at the farm each year, including student and faculty-led research projects, courses, and Community Service Learning opportunities, anywhere you stand during this farm tour, you will likely be within sight of 5-15 of these projects. Many of these might be stacked on the same square foot of land. For example, a few years ago, a 4th year Faculty of Land and Food Systems course initiated a Community Service Learning case-study aimed at improving the sustainability of the campus food system by incorporating more seasonal produce into campus food outlet menus. To this end, Food, Nutrition, and Health students began conceiving of and testing nutritious recipes, the most successful of which was a butternut squash pizza to be sold at the student run pizza joint on campus. Meanwhile, a Food and Resource Economics directed studies student began drafting a feasibility study and business plan based on projected pizza sales to determine the required quantity of butternut squash, and the land needed to grow it. Once the crop was planted, a Faculty member from Chemical and Biological Engineering, along with hired student researchers, began testing the effectiveness of novel bio-fertilizers made of compost, yeast, and mycorrhizal fungi in improving squash yields. At the same time in the same field, a group of Agro-ecology students was conducting trials on corn-based biodegradable plastic mulches in which the squash were growing, and honeybees from the Faculty of Medicine research project looking into improving bee immune systems were pollinating the squash blossoms.
As in this example, many of the farm’s academic projects help nurture our students as agents of change by taking advantage of the site’s uniqueness as a living laboratory for exploring tangible local solutions to complex real-world issues such as improving the sustainability of the food system. The farm offers a rich site where students and faculty can learn hands-on, with the community, and as part of interdisciplinary and interprofessional teams to address some of the most pressing global challenges: climate change adaptation and mitigation, food security, health promotion, and sustainable community development, to name a few.
Furthermore, we are uniquely situated at the urban edge, which allows us to intimately study and measure flows of people, resources, waste, energy, money, ideas, and other indicators that point toward how a growing community can help a neighbouring land base thrive, and how a thriving land base can support a rich community life of healthy eating, active living, critical thinking, and ecological stewardship.
So many of these important issues cut across disciplines, and with 16 of UBC’s 25 faculties, schools, and colleges engaged in academic work at the farm, there are plenty of opportunities for students, faculty members, and community organizations to get involved in teaching and research. If would like to learn more about opportunities to learn and study at the UBC Farm, please contact us as ubcfarm.learning@gmail.com