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Urban Campus Agriculture and Local Food:
Action Research and Policy Development with the Community
Ricardo Ramirez and Karen Landman
Twenty-five years ago, a handful of students, staff and faculty organized the first Organic Agriculture Conference at the University of Guelph. That conference was an incubator - and it continues today thanks to innovators from across Ontario. During the 25th. Organic Conference in January 2005 we will announce another project for the next 25 years. This one is already well rooted on this campus...An abandoned apple orchard at the northeast corner of the Guelph Turfgrass Institute constitutes an opportunity for interdisciplinary research. The location is conducive for activities where urban communities can improve their agricultural literacy.
The School of Environmental Design and Rural Development (SEDRD) brings together teaching, research and professional expertise in Capacity Development and Extension, Landscape Architecture and Rural Planning. We will report on the early stages of a proposal to integrate research and teaching projects on this site. We envision a work plan that is driven by graduate and under-graduate student projects. We will harness their creativity within a set number of design principles, such as:
- Respecting biological regeneration patterns
- Thinking in a 25 year time-frame
- Spreading labour and mechanized practices across seasons and years
- Paying equal attention to learning, design and planning dimensions
- Engaging communities
- Sharing food
We will present this scenario to the community and seek new opportunities to enhance linkages. Topics such as agricultural literacy for schools, integrated pest management and organic demonstrations; heritage variety collections; a cross- generational time scale; and enhancing local food networks, are among some examples.
Full Paper 
Source
Presented at the Social Research in Organic Agriculture Symposium. Guelph, Ontario. January 2006
Author Locations and Affiliations
The School of Environmental Design and Rural Development,
University of Guelph
rramirez@uoguelph.ca, klandman@uoguelph.ca
en français