Project Overview
Information Products
Commodities
Practices
- Crop Production: alley cropping, cover crops, crop rotation, greenhouses, high tunnels or hoop houses, irrigation, multiple cropping, pollination, pollinator habitat, pollinator health, row covers (for season extension), season extension
- Education and Training: demonstration, youth education
- Farm Business Management: community-supported agriculture, farmers' markets/farm stands, grant making
- Pest Management: biological control, cultivation, integrated pest management, mulching - plastic, precision herbicide use, row covers (for pests), sanitation, traps
- Production Systems: organic agriculture
- Soil Management: green manures, organic matter
- Sustainable Communities: employment opportunities, food access and security, food sovereignty, partnerships, urban agriculture
Abstract:
Sola Gratia Farm (SGF), a nonprofit, sustainable farm, regularly offers educational farm tours to local school and youth groups. The farm expanded the content of these visits for students of a wide range of ages with hands-on activities and, crucially, the development of a new hands-on learning space to provide deeper understanding of sustainable agricultural practices such as organic plant start production, crop diversity and rotation, and soil health and preservation for long-term land use and viability. The farm also explored new ways of effectively communicating with youth about both career opportunities and food sovereignty to give youth a stronger understanding of the farm and our partners’ work. After participating in programming, students showed greater knowledge of farming techniques, heightened awareness of the impact of farming practices on their food, and improved attitudes towards locally-grown specialty crops. Following programming, we heard several reports from parents of program participants that they showed greater interest in engaging with specialty food crops at home. As a result of our activities, we came to the following conclusions: 1) Programming involving repeat visits to the farm learning space drives greater engagement and information retention; and 2) Hands-on activities improve youth experiences at the farm and increase the likelihood of information retention and awareness, skills, and attitude changes.
Project objectives:
- Design expanded and enhanced sustainable agriculture education opportunities, including farm field trips and hands-on agriculture education activities, for youth in local schools and youth programs;
- Provide localized and relevant agriculture experience and career awareness opportunities to 40+ local youth, especially those already interested in sustainable agriculture;
- Develop age-appropriate, interactive and replicable educational materials to be featured on SGF’s learning farm.