Students at Major U.S. University Grow Organic Food on Campus

Spirit of Sustainability Permeates Student Life at the University of California San Diego

 

At the University of California San Diego, four of the six student residential communities or "colleges" promote sustainability, including organic gardening:

• Revelle College (named after Roger Revelle, a founder of the University) boasts Roger's Garden.
• Waren College (named after Supreme Court Chief Justice Earl Waren) has Earl's Garden.
• Eleanor Roosevelt College (named after the former First Lady) champions Ellie's Garden.
• Sixth College has students revitalizing land cultivated by unauthorized gardeners

All of these undergraduate student-run gardens fulfill university sustainability initiatives and foster campus community.

 

Organic Food for Student Eateries

 

 

The student coordinator for Roger's Garden is working to sell produce, including

herbs, to student-run eateries and dining halls.

 

Earl's Garden has a new role as food supplier to the student-run Food Co-op, a more than 30-year-old campus eatery for vegans and vegetarians.

 

Ellie's Garden, in addition to raising crops such as Swiss chard, kale, strawberries, and garlic, has begun cultivating a second plot called Ellie's Farm to focus on row crops and fruit trees.

 

The Best of the Old and the New

 

 

Roger's Garden uses companion planting, permaculture design, and up-to-date watering methods, attempting to balance old-fashioned gardening methods with more recent scientific findings.  The "garden guru" and landscaper for the garden, Zack Osborn, a biochemistry major, says

 

"We do the best we can to make it as legit and old-school as possible, so we're not planting in the dark ages."   He and his team, however, are well aware of biotechnology excesses--for example, when the cross breeding of plants genetically produces "super weeds."  Osborn continues,

 

"We believe that finding a good moderation between old-school methods, and the new technologies, we can still have that global food supply but we don't have to sacrifice the world to do it."

 

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Details at U-T San Diego, July 13, 2013, "Something's Cropped Up: In an Effort to Go Green, Four UCSD Colleges Tend Thriving, On-Campus Vegetation Gardens," by Amelia Evrigenis.