MSU students connect with the community through food

Urban Agriculture: Creating an Alternative to Traditional Methods

By Alison Grey, 9-09-07

When members of MSU’s Friends of Local Foods, a student-run group, got together less than a year ago, they had a simple plan: to provide locally-grown, organic vegetables to the University’s Food Service.

Today, Towne’s Harvest Garden production has surpassed all expectations by providing high quality produce to over 300 community members while creating an alternative “urban” way of thinking about traditional agricultural practices.

“This farm is so close to civilization, and we’ve been able to create a highly productive, almost protected enclave there,” said Kate Malone, the group’s president, describing the concept of urban agriculture. “It’s really indicative of what you can do with such a small piece of land.”

Towne’s Harvest Garden is a two-acre farm located southeast of the Bozeman Chronicle on College Street that is run by an array of students, ranging from those studying health and nutrition to those in the plant sciences. It employs four student gardeners and produces more than 100 types of vegetables, including tomatoes, eggplants, green beans and peppers.

“We ordered some seeds, planted in February and hoped for the best,” said Malone. “And now, it has snowballed into a really exciting movement.”

It’s a movement that renews a direct interest and connection to the land, the people and the state’s long agricultural tradition by providing a successful example of urban agriculture.

As Gallatin County continues its rapid growth, many large agriculture plots around the valley are becoming developed and subdivided, threatening not only open space, but also the valley’s agricultural tradition.

It’s difficult to practice traditional agriculture on these fragmented, small patches. But, as Towne’s Garden Harvest demonstrates, smaller, more intensively managed farms can operate and produce a diverse crop in these areas, creating a mosaic between open space and developed ground.

“As cities grow, some of the agricultural tradition is lost,” said David Baumbauer, manager of the Plant Growth Center and one of the group’s faculty advisors. “There’s a connection to the land that urban people sometimes lose. Agriculture is still the number one driver of our economy, and people can sometimes forget that when they get caught up in the growth of the community.”

Through generous donations of money, land, equipment and faculty by the MSU School of Agriculture and President Geoffrey Gamble, the students have witnessed their idea of urban agriculture become a reality, Malone said.

Alison Harmon, assistant professor of food nutrition and one of the group’s faculty advisers said the Friends of Local Foods is still working on integrating their produce into the University’s food services. With stringent regulations and high food safety standards, it is difficult for small farms like Towne’s Garden Harvest to be approved for providing produce.

“This has really been a formation and experimental year,” said Harmon. “It’s been one of our goals from the beginning, and we hope to achieve it in the future.”

In the meantime, the group sold 42 shares of their harvest, at $400 each, to members of the Bozeman community, insuring them a weekly supply of fresh vegetables. Partnering with the Gallatin Valley Food Bank, 25 shares were given to this local non-profit, and the students have since provided thousands of pounds of fresh produce to area families.

In addition, the group is a weekly presence at the Bogart Farmer’s Market.

“We’ve had an awesome growing season, with no frost here in June, and really high production,” said Baumbauer. “All of the heat-loving plants, eggplants, tomatoes and peppers have done really well.”

Beyond favorable weather, much of the success is linked to a renewed interested in locally grown produce.

“There is an interest in eating closer to home,” said Baumbauer. “It’s something that’s in the consumer’s mind.”

Small-scale gardens, like this one, produce a diverse array of high quality vegetables for a local market, offering a valuable alternative for consumers.

“We can pick a tomato when it’s ripe and give it directly to the consumer,” he said. “It doesn’t have to be picked early and sit on a truck for 1500 miles as it’s being shipped from Southern California; you can enjoy it right then.”

With no sellers or middlemen in between, people can see the land, how their food is being grown and has a direct relationship with the farmer. There is a conversation going on that benefits both sides.

“We’ve been able to really connect with the community,” said Kaly Hess, co-chair of Friends of Local Foods. “It’s a relationship based on food, which is universal concept and something that is necessary to everyone’s life. And that is really powerful.”

Towne’s Harvest Garden has been able to reconnect the community’s relationship with food. Even in Montana, there are people who have never had a garden, never pulled a carrot out of the ground, washed it and eaten it.

“Food has become a foreign concept to some people,” said Malone. “They see it on grocery store shelves, but they don’t know where it came from.”

This farm is a way for people to make that connection.

“This is a new look at agriculture,” said Hess. “We hope to be a model for the community to get reconnected with agriculture.”

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