USF started offering Urban Agriculture as a minor in the spring of 2011, where students work in the USF garden to grow produce while using it as a learning center.
(Professor Melinda Stone and her son Silven)
Melinda Stone, a USF Media Studies professor, and the previous director of the Urban Agriculture program has strong feelings about why USF should offer Urban Ag as a minor. “For me it’s an entry point to begin talking about a lot of different environmental issues, said Stone. “But when just talking about these issues there’s often a situation that comes up where things just seem dire. Gardening for me is a sense of hope that we all are connected to the land.”
Stone is extremely connected to the land and her food. She actually owns a 21-acre homestead farm in Humboldt County. “In most families when you go back a few generations you’re going to find farmers,” Stone said. “One of the things missing now is we’re disconnected from the land and therefore don’t necessarily feel like we have control over what’s happening in the environment. But ultimately we’re in this situation that’s human made, and it can be human unmade.”
Stone has been working with the USF garden since it began 8 years ago. In fact, she helped write the proposal to get the garden started. Stone believes it’s extremely important to study agriculture. However, since USF is located in the middle of a city it makes sense that the school focuses on urban agriculture. “It’s really important for everyone to have a connection to their food,” said Stone. “You may not end up being a farmer, or urban gardener as your full time profession. But I think when you study urban agriculture you begin to appreciate the amount of work that goes into producing food. And you begin to understand the systems that are in place for getting the food to us in the city. I hope to see a move to shift these systems and make them more humane and just.”
Justin Valone, a USF Urban Agriculture professor, has mixed feelings about the new minor he helped form. “At one level I really like that we’re opening [Urban Agriculture] to more students,” Valone said. “But what we had previous to that was this living learning community, which was only freshman. This was very successful in terms of cohesiveness between students, and there was a really tight sense of family and community between those students.
Professor Valone and Lizzy Roble building plant tables for the greenhouse
Since we started the Urban Ag minor, and [since] we no longer have the living learning community there’s a little less of that feeling of connection between people.”
Stone would agree that something has seemed to be missing since the living learning community program ended. “People that were part of the living learning community will talk about the sense of lose of community,” said Stone.
However not all the students in the Urban Ag program feel the same way. Elizabeth Roble, 20, is a junior majoring in Environmental Science, minoring in Urban Ag, and was part of the living learning community as a freshman. She still feels a strong sense of community within the garden.
(Lizzy Roble getting a wheelbarrow ride)
“Even though there’s no living learning community,” said Roble. “I still think it’s nice to have a place and community to fall back on and be supported by. It still feels like a family spot to me.”
The Urban Ag program is still in it’s beginning stages of growth. “I think there’s about 12 students who declared the minor,” Stone said. “In my mind that’s not very many people, but when I’ve mentioned it to other faculty or the deans office they say, ‘Well that’s a good amount for only being a minor for a semester.’”
Stone also doesn’t really advertise for the minor, because she doesn’t think she wants it to be too large of a program. “Our goal right now is that we’re meeting the needs and desires of our students, and the garden is taken care of,” said Stone. “We want to get [our students] established within this realm of agriculture in the urban sphere both in [our] garden and [others] out in San Francisco.”
Stone has been raising many questions about what the future this program is. “Can we make media about we’re doing here in the garden?” asks Stone. “Can we make media about what other people are doing that is interesting, and inspiring ideas around Urban Agriculture? And can we put that out into the world. It’s an agriculture program that’s getting our students to really grapple with a media presence. I think that’s an important part of what we’re trying to instill in our students.”
I will be graduating with a media studies major and urban ag minor next Spring. Choosing urban ag as my minor was one of the best decisions of my life. I’ve connected back to mother earth and the food I eat by growing it myself. I’ve honed my gardening skills and made many great friends. In some way, shape, or form will be part of the USF garden community for the rest of my life.
