There is a place on this campus, away from the buzzing noise and dull
concrete, that's both a sanctuary and an experiment. Far from the bells,
libraries and Bascom Hill is a break from it all. Near Eagle Heights,
between the bike path and Lake Mendota, the community gardens offer a home to F. H. King Students of Sustainable Agriculture.
F. H. King, named for a UW-Madison scientist who merged physics and
agriculture, brings together faculty, students and other Madisonians to
learn about and practice both sustainable agriculture and organic farming.
Just this year the group puts its roots into the Eagle Heights soil and is
looking to stick around. Bridget Holcomb, a senior majoring in biology and
co-chair of the group, is looking to the years ahead, knowing that the
plants will be the most permanent members of the site.
\This is our first year at this site, and we've been working really hard at getting a lot of perennials,"" she said, looking over half-acre site.
For Ingrid Remak, a senior majoring in geography, F. H. King offers her a
chance to extend her involvement in gardening. As part of the group, she
brings home both fresh food and some knowledge about the means that made it.
""I'm interested in learning about the growing process and definitely reaping the benefits of that growing process,"" she said. ""Everyone's learning together, trying to make the garden grow.""
Ingrid also volunteers at another community garden, Troy Gardens, on the north side of Madison. Though she doesn't have a plot of her own, her
involvement with F. H. King allows her to get together with other students
looking to work toward tangible, and often edible, handiwork.
The group's labor shines in every shade of green. Five grape plants make
strides toward the sun. Some are destined for the table and others are on
their way to be wine. Around an herb hill, strawberries are bulging past
their boundaries. The beginnings of a seven-tree orchard are little more
than shoots now, but they, like everything else around the place, is
blooming into the early October sky. There's an optimism that accompanies the beginnings of every garden, and, for Bridget, the reasons for that optimism are all around her.
On a crisp-as-cold-lettuce Saturday, Bridget fixes her eyes across the garden and points to the harvest. There are blueberries, blackberries,
pumpkins and melons coming along. Tomatoes, a must for any Wisconsin garden, are all over the place. Between rows of stalks and leaves, she points to the compost bins. Currently, F. H. King is using the compost generated by Catacombs to supply its plants, but Bridget wants to take the fertilizer into her own hands.
""Hopefully, within a couple of years, we'll be able to create all our own
compost,"" she said.
The compost is part of an ongoing effort to maintain organic standards. In
order to comply with those standards, the F. H. King plot has to be wary of
its neighbors. With conventional research plots on two sides, the garden is
bordered by buffer zones to ensure a defense against pesticides and
herbicides. The group also rotates the position of plants in four-by-twenty-foot beds as a way to controls pests and diseases.
With the organic practices, F. H. King wants to take the garden beyond the
campus. Bridget quoted some statistics that show how organic research is out of sync with agricultural research as a whole. Of research land in land
grant universities, organic research land comprises only 0.13 percent, and
certified organic land comprises only 0.06 percent. Of all the federal
agricultural research funds, only 0.5 percent is in organics. She said one
of the goals of the gardeners is to provide a link between the organic
farmers of the state and the University of Wisconsin.
""Our philosophy is that although there are lots and lots of organic farms in
Wisconsin, and Wisconsin is one of the leading states in organic agriculture (fourth in number of certified organic acres nationwide), those farmers often feel like they're not being represented by the university,"" she said. ""We are trying to change that.""
Another challenge that F. H. King is tackling is that it is playing catch-up
around the Midwest. Compared to sustainable agriculture groups at Michigan State and Iowa State, UW-Madison is far behind.
At Iowa State Karen Joslin, a graduate research assistant in sustainable
agriculture and Horticulture, is president and farm manager of the Iowa
State University Student Organic Farm. Her seven-year-old group has six
acres and actively manages two-and-a-half. They market mainly to a local CSA (a group that practices community supported agriculture) and move between 600 and 1800 pounds of potatoes, tomatoes and onions each summer. The group is continually in flux, with many students creating a high turnover rate
with in the organization. Karen hopes to solicit the involvement of
community members to provide some stability.
""We still have a lot of work to do,"" she said. ""We're kind of at a
crossroads right now and have a lot of work to do on our own.""
For Karen, the crossroads is between the institutional support from the
university and the monetary side of running a garden. Iowa State University has graduate program in sustainable agriculture, which brings in a lot of student involvement and Karen is aiming to institute an independent study course for graduate and undergraduates. The course would be on the organic farm but hasn't come to fruition yet.?? One reason is that the group doesn't get much money from the university, usually only enough to cover the costs of seeds and water. However, with time and a little more support, Karen hopes to connect organic farmers of Iowa to students at the university.
""More work needs to be done to be able to provide those kinds of
connections with getting other students involved in the farm,"" she said.
Meanwhile, back at the F. H. King plot, Bridget is hoping to get some
sustainable agriculture classes at the UW. She said there might be a class
next semester that takes place in the garden. There's already an organic
colloquium, a one-credit class offered in the spring that brings in
specialists in the field to talk about organics. She hopes the work that F.
H. King is starting will continue longer than the perennials of the garden
and sees the garden as the perfect place to educate students about it.
""We are trying to offer students a place to learn about organic agriculture
and to learn about sustainable and organic techniques and give them an
opportunity that's not available in the classroom,"" she said.
Ben Schultz is a fifth-year student majoring in English and history. He can
be reached at blschultz@wisc.edu.
