This post is part of a series of testimonies of students’ experiences with the Urban Farm. The series is meant to demonstrate the farm’s immense value to people personally and for the community as a whole. As the University of Oregon continues to develop its north campus in the area surrounding the farm, we want to recognize the farm’s qualities and attributes that can be brought into the overall vision for the future of the university.

“My name is Ilse, and I’m a sophomore at the University of Oregon. I’m actually currently taking the Urban Farm class right now, and since I’ll be in Eugene over the summer I plan on helping out around the farm as much as I can! The Urban Farm has saved my soul as a student during Covid-19. I heard about it through upperclassmen that I respected and always had the class on my bucket list [of courses] to take. It has not disappointed.

I have made better friends in seven weeks of the Urban Farm course than I have in many online courses. I have learned about subjects I previously hated (such as biology) with wonder, and have discovered a deeper level ofconnection with food systems than I thought possible. I have learned about valuable food access resources, such as the double your SNAP dollar program at our local farmers’ market.

The Urban Farm course has also given me hard skills to apply to my internship this summer with the organic garden organization Huerto de la Familia. I know many other Environmental Studies majors who have a similar experience applying the practical learning they get from their internship requirement to the Urban Farm and vice versa.

The Urban Farm has fed my love of and hunger for agroecological research as part of my thesis, and has nurtured ideas in me that I will carry along on my study abroad journey this next year. The Urban Farm is a place of practical skills trainings that engages in feed the flock programming, provides valuable food security, nurtures a love of the world around us, provides knowledge that students in this academic world are unlikely to find anywhere else, and really deeply contributes to UO’s renowned architecture program as well.”

It is valuable to protect and expand the Urban Farm for future generations “and the many many people that the farm feeds–both directly and through the creation of knowledge to power future urban farms. It’s time for UO to invest in what it already has, not more shiny, new-money infrastructure. The Urban Farm is loved and has real student support.”

This post is part of a series of testimonies of students’ experiences with the Urban Farm. The series is meant to demonstrate the farm’s immense value to people personally and for the community as a whole. As the University of Oregon continues to develop its north campus in the area surrounding the farm, we want to recognize the farm’s qualities and attributes that can be brought into the overall vision for the future of the university.

I have never even taken the Urban Farm class, but I have learned so much just from being at the farm and helping out on volunteer days. I had no agricultural experience or knowledge prior to meeting Harper and the other wonderful people that help maintain that facility. I had never tried gardening before COVID, and had the farm not provided me with a seemingly-bottomless pool of wisdom, resources, and inspiration, I doubt that I’d still have interest in growing food today, let alone feeling as autonomous as I now do in the refiguration of what little land I have access to. The urban farm showed me, and continues to show me, that all land is valuable and viable soil in one way or another, capable and deserving of thoughtful stewardship. It has shown me that even in the shadow of unending development-for-development’s sake, even in patches of dirt alongside parking lots and construction zones, delicious, healthy food can be grown, habitat can manifest, and insight can be passed down from one generation to the next. I worry already about how the new science building on the southern edge of the farm (built, ironically, for the sake of better understanding the earth) will drastically decrease the amount of sunlight hitting an enormous portion of the Urban Farm’s “protected” areas.

Agriculture, as the UO teaches legions of students each year, is the foundation of organized society, and food sovereignty is by all means a matter of social justice, of civil rights, and of basic wellbeing. The Farm helped me to truly grasp the importance of self-sufficiency, agricultural skills, and access to nutrition. I really appreciate the farm’s model of land stewardship and ecologically-based, hands-on, food sovereignty education in an era of climate catastrophes.

-Bryce Cumpston

This post is part of a series of testimonies of students’ experiences with the Urban Farm. The series is meant to demonstrate the farm’s immense value to people personally and for the community as a whole. As the University of Oregon continues to develop its north campus in the area surrounding the farm, we want to recognize the farm’s qualities and attributes that can be brought into the overall vision for the future of the university.

Hello!

I recently saw that the U of O is currently in talks to keep expanding campus around the area inhabited by the Urban Farm, and that sharing what the urban farm means to those who have taken the class could be of assistance in helping keep the Urban Farm [a significant element in this ever-changing landscape]. 

I had the pleasure of taking the class in the spring of 2019. I originally took the class as a way to enjoy the Eugene springtime and as a way to catch a break from my accounting classes (that was my major), but I soon learned that the Urban Farm was much more than an excuse to get outside a bit. The people I met, the experiences I had, and the skills I learned would come to play a big role in my life after college.

This class sparked my love for gardening and gave me the resources to learn more about food sustainability, which was a topic I already thought a lot about. Even being outside made me feel happier about myself and my soon changing life. Graduation was coming up and I knew my life was going to change drastically. I would no longer see the same people everyday and the freedom of being a college student would soon be replaced with an office job. While I was excited for the future, I was also sad to leave, and the Urban Farm made my last months in Eugene some of the best months of my life. Getting to work with my hands and being sent home everyday with fresh food were some of the highlights of my week. I knew that everytime I showed up to class I was going to talk to meaningful people and help do my small part in keeping the wonderful farm functioning. 

I hope that as the U of O makes decisions to expand that they think about the lesser known gems of their own university. While having a new science center is nice, and giving the town of Eugene a football team that many love is great, it is often easy for them to chase prestige and notoriety and forget about the lesser known things that make the university truly amazing. [Let’s integrate the farm’s special qualities into the new development!]

All the best,

Stephen Fleischman