LETTER TO THE EDITOR: USU Student Organic Farm

Editor’s Note: To submit a response to this column, or submit a letter to the editor on a new topic, email your submission to opinion@usustatesman.com.

Letter submitted by Lara Gale, 2018 Student Organic Farm manager

Thank you to all who supported the USU Student Organic Farm this season, as members of the Community Supported Agriculture program or by buying our produce.

Thank you to all previous farm teams who built the foundation that made this year such a success. Thanks to the spring class of PSC 4900, especially former farm manager Sierra Zardrus, who created the plan we were able to execute to such abundant benefit.

Thank you to the staff at Greenville Research Farm, especially Eric Galloway and his team, James Frisby and his team. Thanks to Dr. Jennifer Reeve for taking time to keep tabs on our work, maintain our organic certification and advocate for the farm with the department. Thank you as well to others in the College of Agriculture, especially the Plant, Science and Climate department, who answered our questions and offered advice.

Thank you to the PSC department for providing land, irrigation water, tools, access to equipment and supporting the farm financially in 2017 and 2018.

Thank you to all who supported the USU Student Organic Farm this season, as members of the Community Supported Agriculture program,  volunteers or by  buying our produce.

The USU Student Organic farm is supposed to support itself through a CSA. The university considers the farm to be a “club,” and does not support it as an official program. Effectively, the farm is an annually- renewed experiment for inexperienced students, and is of no academic importance whatsoever. 

A 4000-level “special problems” undergraduate practicum class relies on the farm and student labor. The farm itself is nevertheleas not a recognized university-supported program and has no formal budget, nor are any tenured or tenure-track professors paid to work with the students in a formal mentoring position.

The practicum element of a for-credit practicum course paid for by students should be supported by the university. A 4000-level for-credit course with such rigorous demands should have prerequisites. Small farm experience at the university level should be offered in a professional context.

This is a board of regents-level red flag if the university administrators can’t connect the dots. To my mind, worse than the administrative problems of the program are its implications for a future that includes environmentally-responsive food production. The skills required to manage actual production across an entire season cannot be developed in a classroom or a lab. If we are to respond to climate change by fine-tuning the food system to take best advantage of resources and eliminate waste, a system must be built to support the profession of farming moving in that direction. Building those skills is more important than simply exposing young people to cultivation and leaving them to flounder around in a losing battle with nature.

Democracy doesn’t make room for wisdom as a comparative advantage. There will be no getting around the creative and risky work actually required to help young people gain skills necessary to innovate and build new systems. Systems that advance everyone’s participation in the productive effort of sustaining thriving human existence on our planet.

This year’s dream team was incredible, and I don’t speak for them. I believe they deserve to be recognized by the university for what they accomplished this year. In any case, I recognize it. They are the future.