Our Farm
Our 23-acre farm is a community where students create, maintain and explore sustainable food systems. At the farm, students grow in many ways, learning from seasoned field-based educators, from their peers, and from themselves. They come to understand sustainability through the soils, crops, climate and community in which they work. In the process, they gain the systems-based thinking and doing skills needed to make a positive difference in today’s world.
The Student Farm hosts a number of different programs that offer opportunities in market-scale farm production, food access and security, diversified fruit, vegetable, and herb cultivation, garden-based education, commodity crop breeding, and pollination habitat establishment and restoration. We are located in the Sustainable Living and Learning Communities neighborhood - the green heart of campus. Find out more about the Student Farm's programs below.
Our Programs
Market Garden
A seven acre plot where students learn about small scale, organic vegetable production and manage the planting, maintenance, harvest, and sales of our fresh produce. Produce is sold to campus dining halls, and through Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) shares. The Market Garden also offers opportunities to specialize in vineyard management, compost production, and working in the farm shop.
Ecological Garden and Flower Project
A half-acre garden of flowers, vegetables, culinary and medicinal herbs, fruit trees, vines, and insectary plants used for teaching ecological horticulture, seed saving, and related topics. The Eco Garden is also home to our sustainably grown Flower Project, which sells bouquets of cut flowers on campus and through our Flower CSA.
Fresh Focus
Fresh Focus is a food access program associated with the Community Table Project (CTP). Students in Fresh Focus grow and glean produce for donation to centers on campus while learning about student food security and food justice. CTP more broadly is an evolving effort looking at ways the Student Farm can address campus food insecurity, and start dialogue around the intersections of people, place, and food.
Kids in the Garden
Provides hundred of children with hands-on experiences at the Student Farm. UC Davis students receive training in winter quarter and lead the tours in spring.
SCOPE
The Student Collaborative Organic Plant Breeding Education (SCOPE) project is a student-led collaborative of faculty and student plant breeders working with local organic growers on improving crop varieties for organic farming systems in Northern California.
The Woods
The Woods is a small wooded area north of the Student Farm’s Market Garden in the south and the ASUCD Community Gardens. This place is home to a mix of native and non-native plants and wildlife and newly shaped informal gathering and learning space. This place, like the rest of the Student Farm is on Patwin Wintun homeland. We are grateful to be stewarding this land and working with Wintun people and Native American students on campus to envision how best to care for this place.
Past Programs
Our Pollinator Project was a collaboration with the Williams Lab at UC Davis, along with Penn State, University of Minnesota, and Dickinson College. This was a unique opportunity to gain research skills and experience, learn about on-farm habitat for pollinators, and develop plant identification and data collection skills.
About Us
Our Team
Our team is committed to sustainable and just agriculture and food systems. In addition to non-student staff members we employ 15-20 students each quarter as Lead Student Farmers and Gardeners. In addition, we host roughly 80 interns and volunteers each quarter. Interns receive academic credit for the experiential learning opportunities they gain at the Student Farm. This team of dedicated learners stewards the UC Davis Student Farm. Find out more about joining the Student Farm here and learn more about our staff team here.
Our Mission, Vision and Values
The UC Davis Student Farm’s mission is to hold a space where students can learn, practice, and model an ecologically, socially, and economically sustainable agriculture and food system. The Student Farm welcomes all students to build this more equitable and just farm and food system by cultivating student initiatives, leadership, experiential learning, and inclusive communities. Learn more about our vision and values here.
Our Equity and Inclusion Action Plan
We believe in striving for a more just and equitable Student Farm. We developed an Equity and Inclusion Action Plan with guidance from students attending UCD in 2018-19 and 2019-20 This plan is a living document that we will revisit each year to review our progress and update every three years with student input. We are grateful for all the students, faculty and staff who contributed to this plan. You can access the entire plan here.