Veggie Tales

JMU grad makes plans for all-organic community farm

By Ashley Siegle, contributing writer 
Posted on October 29, 2007

Plans for constructing an all-organic, environmental friendly farm are currently underway between JMU and Rockingham Memorial Hospital. 

The project aims at creating a partnership between the university and RMH by developing a Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design certified farm on ten acres of the hospital’s property. The LEED certification system is used nationwide for the construction and operation of high performance green buildings.

The proposals for constructing a community-supported organic farm were created by Beth Schermerhorn, a 2006 graduate of JMU. The geographic science major initially found out about the farm as result of her GEOG/ISAT 429 class taught by Wayne Teel. The class, Sustainability: Ecological Perspectives, focuses on giving students a basic understanding of environmental productivity and ecosystem health.

At the same time, graduate student Seth Friedman of the University of Montana was at JMU talking about his own experiences establishing community farm operations in Missoula. 

“I got a group of students, including Beth, to investigate JMU and the possibility of putting up a [Community Supported Agriculture] farm on the hospital’s land,” Teel said.  “Nine students took up the challenge and wrote a preliminary study…it was doable, we had enough support, and so we started the process.”

Geology and ISAT students are not the only individuals helping to develop the farm, which would be located at the junction of Port Republic Road and Reservoir Street. Business, public relations, art and social work majors are teaming up with Schermerhorn in hopes of making the farm a reality. 

“Right now there are 27 students involved,” Schermerhorn said.  “The business department wrote us a business plan, communication studies is writing a P.R. plan and the art department designed the green building which would be used for storage.”

The farm is projected to cost approximately $100,000 to start, which would include the building, tools, an on-site produce stand and a green house.

Emily Collins, a senior social work major, is in the process of creating a grant proposal and approaching local corporations like Cargill and Tyson to receive local funding. Besides receiving official words of approval from RMH and JMU, finding the grants to support the project is one of the final steps before the farm can be built. “We haven’t found a grant yet,” Collins said.  “Once we get funding, we can start making plans. We just need time and money at this point.”

Operations are anticipated to start in early 2010. The farm would be managed by a two-person staff — a faculty member of JMU and a farm manager that possesses the skills and knowledge on how to run a farm.  Schermerhorn is a prospective candidate for this position.

Besides growing and selling vegetables, fruits and herbs to the local community and possibly JMU dining halls, the farm will also act as an educational and volunteer outlet to both students at the university and  Harrisonburg schools.

“The idea of this farm is to have an educational component so students from JMU and local schools can participate in the learning process,” Teel said.  “They would learn about the market, how to recognize good and bad qualities in produce — those are all qualities we’ve lost because we’ve made this process so distant.  We see this as a participatory and educational idea.”