Proposal calls for new two-acre farm on the Farm

On Nov. 17, a handful of student farmers gathered in Old Union and quietly began to sow the seeds of a small green revolution. The students discussed a proposal to build a new, bigger farm on campus–a plan that may become a reality if approved by the University Architect and Campus Planning Office.

The proposal, submitted to the provost nearly three months ago by Pamela Matson, Dean of the School of Earth Sciences, called for the establishment of a two-acre farm alongside Campus Drive, at the end of Santa Teresa Street. Students and faculty will use the farm for education, but they also hope to put homegrown produce in Stanford’s dining halls.

Christ Carter, Director of Land Use and Environmental Planning, told The Daily in an e-mail, “The proposal…will be considered along with a number of other potential uses and development in an updated area plan for that part of campus.”

He expects that the Land Use and Real Estate Department will present a recommendation about the project to Provost John Etchemendy within the first half of 2010.

The current community farm on campus is not particularly conducive to student projects or large-scale production with only one-eighth of an acre allocated to undergraduate farming. According to Farm Educator Sarah Wiederkehr, the current space is not large enough and can only accommodate a few dozen student plots.

“[The current community farm is] basically a big garden,” said Briana Swette ‘10, who has helped out there ever since she took a sustainable agriculture class her freshman year.

Swette, one of the leaders of Farmers and Eaters for Equality and Diversity (FEED), said the new farm will have room for a greenhouse, tool shed, tractor and, most importantly, much more cropland for education and production.

Emily Bookstein ‘11 is another aspiring farmer who leads the food and agriculture division of Students for a Sustainable Stanford (SSS).

“I’m really looking forward to the farm as a way to delve into agricultural education,” she said. Bookstein also mentioned that a new farm could help reconnect Stanford students and community members with the means of food production.

For Swette, the visibility of the new farm will help achieve this goal.

“Being able to see this farm is huge,” she said. “Having a farm on campus will help bring farming to the mainstream and it reminds our community that farming is an intellectual livelihood.”

Swette and Bookstein were not alone in their enthusiasm. This quarter, Wiederkehr had to turn 35 students away from EARTHSYS 180: Fundamentals of Sustainable Agriculture, even after opening a second section. Some of the rejected students opted to do independent projects on the farm instead.

Wiederkehr said the maintenance of such student commitment is essential for the success of a new farm.

“In my experience [Stanford students] tend to bite off more than they can chew,” Wiederkehr said. “That could be the biggest hurdle. That and the ground squirrels.”

Still, Matson said that the new farm’s primary goal will be to foster student research, not to provide campus with food. She envisions students developing projects on the new farm to investigate nutrient cycling, hydrology, compost, water holding and farm systems.

“The farm has tremendous potential to be a model farm in terms of ecological practices,” Bookstein said.

As they await the provost’s decision, some students and staff have already moved forward toward farm preparations. Financial planning is underway to raise money for land development, soil conditioning and equipment. They hope to break ground by fall 2010.

Bookstein hopes to spend this summer helping any way she can. She believes that, once underway, the farm will be a valuable and essential asset of the Stanford campus.

“To literally see how food is produced–that is something that will stick with you,” she said. “When Stanford graduates are scattered across the world, they’ll have that little seed of the Stanford Farm to carry with them.”