STORY BY JULIANNA SCHRIER

Now at four acres, the Sustainable Agriculture Project got its start in 2008 when a group of students took on the challenge of creating a community garden on campus. 

The project was part of the first capstone class for the newly created Environmental Studies minor. Called Ecological Literacy and Sustainability, the class was originally housed in the Philosophy Department and taught by Kelly Parker, professor of philosophy and director of the Environmental and Sustainability Studies Program.

“We wanted this to be a very practical, very hands-on class,” said Parker, who modeled it from existing courses in which students were involved in the community. 

The group spent the semester locating a site on GVSU’s property and obtaining the correct permissions to begin planting. 

“They told us, don’t count on having this more than one year,” Parker said. 

Despite limited expectations about keeping the land, students planted their first year of crops at the Luce Street location, and then kept going. They began selling produce, improving the poor-quality soil left from decades of industrial farming, and involving additional people as the project grew, including a farm manager. Within a few years, classes were meeting out there, and the farm had grown from one small garden to multiple acres.

See photos of a harvest at the Sustainable Agriculture Project at this GVSU Exposure page.