UBC Farm
Encyclopedia

Teaching and Learning

Innovative sustainability
Sustainability
Sustainability is the capacity to endure. For humans, sustainability is the long-term maintenance of well being, which has environmental, economic, and social dimensions, and encompasses the concept of union, an interdependent relationship and mutual responsible position with all living and non...

 learning is currently at the heart of the University of British Columbia
University of British Columbia
The University of British Columbia is a public research university. UBC’s two main campuses are situated in Vancouver and in Kelowna in the Okanagan Valley...

 Farm’s academic programming. The Farm provides a unique “outdoor classroom,” where learners of all ages can immerse themselves in the stewardship of a working, productive landscape, linking society’s most pressing global challenges to relevant, practical solutions that are achievable through a better understanding of the role that managed ecosystems play in supporting societies. This programming keeps a highly student-centred approach, and students take a leading role in their learning, and in the ongoing operations and strategic direction for the farm. Through curricular and co-curricular teaching and learning, more than 2,500 students currently participate in on-farm activities annually. Students in 50 courses representing eight faculties as well as four UBC schools and both colleges actively used the Farm in 2008. On-farm learning is integrative – bridging multiple disciplines and traditions – and inherently applied, providing community service, participation in research projects, and active stewardship of the landscape. Students have the opportunity to actively change the landscape of the farm, in turn, are changing the landscape of applied sustainability learning at UBC and beyond.

Research, Discovery, and Partnerships

UBC Farm activities encompassed more than 100 academic initiatives in 2009, including research projects in six UBC faculties. These initiatives represent research on globally critical topics including climate change, community health, and preservation of biodiversity worldwide. Some of the initiatives on-site included next-generation biofuel development and basic research in evolutionary biology (Science
Science
Science is a systematic enterprise that builds and organizes knowledge in the form of testable explanations and predictions about the universe...

), behavioural neuroscience (Arts
ARts
aRts, which stands for analog Real time synthesizer, is an audio framework that is no longer under development. It is best known for previously being used in KDE to simulate an analog synthesizer....

), mass spectrometry-based proteomics (Medicine
Medicine
Medicine is the science and art of healing. It encompasses a variety of health care practices evolved to maintain and restore health by the prevention and treatment of illness....

), bio-fertilizer development (Applied Science
Applied science
Applied science is the application of scientific knowledge transferred into a physical environment. Examples include testing a theoretical model through the use of formal science or solving a practical problem through the use of natural science....

), animal welfare, avian genetics, and soil conservation.

In its interface and partnership with local and global communities, the Farm serves as an important point of connection and engagement for UBC. With farm visits reaching 40,000 in 2009, faculty and students joined international visitors and the wider community to participate in courses and workshops, contribute to public events and festivals, support student-led enterprises, and build important partnerships with non-profit, private-sector, and government organizations.

Landbase and Facilities

Surrounded by a 90-year old coastal hemlock forest, the UBC Farm encompasses a 24-hectare landscape, forming a rich mosaic of cultivated field areas, hedgerows, orchards, and maturing successional forest stands. The diversity of the landscape provides valuable habitat for a range of birds, mammals, amphibians, and reptiles not found elsewhere in the city. The gently sloping southern aspect of the site and moderate maritime climate allow for cultivation of a wide variety of crops year-round. The soils are well-drained and sandy, and are therefore workable most of the year.

With two small multi-purpose field buildings on site, the farm has classroom, kitchen, office, workshop, storage, and processing areas. Two glass greenhouses and two poly houses provide facilities for plant propagation and season extension. Free range chicken flocks housed in movable coops and honeybees are the only livestock on site as of 2009, but there is a strong interest in diversifying the animal component of the farm. Two trailers provide housing for live-in student caretakers to ensure 24-hr animal care. An on-site 300 cubic metre-capacity compost facility processes organic waste from UBC’s animal care facility and incorporates it as a soil amendment on the fields. The farm is home to a heritage orchard, numerous teaching gardens and research plots, a basic complement of powered field equipment (including two tractors with a range of implements) and hand tools, and a cob tool shed.

An intensively cultivated 12 ha section of the farm has sub-surface drain tile, a network of irrigation hookups and other utility infrastructure, and soils that have benefited from forty years of additions of organic material and continued stone removal. Some areas of the farm are managed with the cooperation of the departments of Forest Sciences and Botany, who maintain their historical tenure over sub-sections of the site. Through the range of different teaching and research fields, up to 250 different varieties of annual and perennial crops are cultivated at the farm in a given year.

Vegetables, fruits, berries, herbs, edible and cut flowers, transplants
Transplanting
For botanical organ transplant, see GraftingIn agriculture and gardening, transplanting or replanting is the technique of moving a plant from one location to another. Most often this takes the form of starting a plant from seed in optimal conditions, such as in a greenhouse or protected nursery...

, eggs
Egg (food)
Eggs are laid by females of many different species, including birds, reptiles, amphibians, and fish, and have probably been eaten by mankind for millennia. Bird and reptile eggs consist of a protective eggshell, albumen , and vitellus , contained within various thin membranes...

, and honey
Honey
Honey is a sweet food made by bees using nectar from flowers. The variety produced by honey bees is the one most commonly referred to and is the type of honey collected by beekeepers and consumed by humans...

 are all produced. Annual crops and grazing livestock
Livestock
Livestock refers to one or more domesticated animals raised in an agricultural setting to produce commodities such as food, fiber and labor. The term "livestock" as used in this article does not include poultry or farmed fish; however the inclusion of these, especially poultry, within the meaning...

 are managed in a multi-year crop rotation
Crop rotation
Crop rotation is the practice of growing a series of dissimilar types of crops in the same area in sequential seasons.Crop rotation confers various benefits to the soil. A traditional element of crop rotation is the replenishment of nitrogen through the use of green manure in sequence with cereals...

. All practices voluntarily adhere to COABC standards for organic
Organic farming
Organic farming is the form of agriculture that relies on techniques such as crop rotation, green manure, compost and biological pest control to maintain soil productivity and control pests on a farm...

 production. The site is managed as an integrated, working farm system. Produce sales are the largest single source of income from the farm used to support the academic programming. Food grown on-site in teaching and research fields is provided to the UBC community through weekly farmers' markets, a Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) box program, and direct sales to restaurants and campus food services.

External links

  • UBC Farm website: http://www.landfood.ubc.ca/ubcfarm/
  • Centre for Sustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm: http://www.supporting.ubc.ca/priorities/faculties/lfs/landandfoodsystems.html
  • Friends of the UBC Farm: http://www.ams.ubc.ca/clubs/friendsubcfarm/
  • Faculty of Land & Food Systems
    Faculty of Land & Food Systems
    The Faculty of Land and Food Systems is one of the three founding Faculties at the University of British Columbia in Vancouver, Canada....

    : http://landfood.ubc.ca/
The source of this article is wikipedia, the free encyclopedia.  The text of this article is licensed under the GFDL.
 
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