Farm to fork programs gaining popularity

DURHAM, N.C. — A slight breeze rattled the gate to Duke Campus Farm.

The rising sun dried dew droplets on the kale, beet greens, arugula, collards, carrots and other crops, flowers and fruit trees growing on the one-acre plot about five miles from the Duke University campus.

What is being cultivated in the rows of rich soil inside the rattling gate is much more than the fall crops destined for the campus food service or Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) boxes.

At Duke, UNC-Chapel Hill and other research and liberal arts campuses across the country, students' interest in food now extends beyond what's being offered on the menu to what's available on the syllabus. Many students are curious about how what they eat gets from the farm to the fork - and want to explore the environmental, economic, historical, cultural, social justice and public health issues along that path. And they don't mind getting their hands dirty to acquire firsthand knowledge that until recently was largely the province of agricultural schools.

Campus farms are proliferating along with a new breed of farmer. Americans in their 20s and 30s with few family ties to the business of agriculture are settling on small plots and pursuing dreams of becoming organic growers or small-scale livestock farmers. Some are drawn by the romanticism of homesteading. Others are fueled by a distaste for the corporate world.

The Sustainable Agriculture Education Association estimates that at least 55 campuses have student farms and gardens.

"It is definitely trendy right now," said Charlotte Clark, an environmental sciences professor who taught the class that created Duke Campus Farm in 2010. Part of its mission is to place foods and crops at the heart of education. Professors use the farms to supplement traditional classroom teaching.

Clark's students spent fall semester designing a garden from which fresh herbs will be harvested for culinary and medicinal purposes.

Carl Heinz, a junior from Chicago attracted to Duke's environmental studies and science programs, was among four students working on that design.

Like other students who find ways to make hands-on experiences part of their course of study, Heinz gets academic credit for his work at the farm. He says he is also learning practical skills important to his career ambitions.

"I'm interested in sustainable agriculture and landscape architecture," he said. "I'd like to find ways to incorporate food into landscape architecture."

Beyond the practical, there is a growing sense among students and faculty across the country that research universities and liberal arts programs can and should play a role in reshaping American agriculture.

Guides for prospective college students now list campus farms among other popular amenities. Oberlin College in Ohio, Carleton College in Northfield, Minn., Washington University in St. Louis, and Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass., are just a few campuses that have farms.

Each farm has a different mission. Each school offers its own experience.