Urban and Community Agriculture
Urban and community agriculture creates entrepreneurial opportunities and helps bring fresh, nutritious food to local communities. These urban farms range from small school gardens to huge high-tech vertical indoor operations. Starting in 2018 the Huntley College of Agriculture began offering the Urban and Community Agriculture Minor to all students in all majors at Cal Poly Pomona. These classes cover the “how to” of urban farming --- everything from how to grow fruits and vegetables sustainably to how to run a successful urban farm business enterprise, to how to engage with community organizations and interpret and implement policies that affect urban agriculture at local, state, and national levels.
See more about the Urban and Community Agriculture Minor
Cal Poly Pomona students have a wealth of opportunities to get hands-on urban agriculture experience outside the classroom. Students can work in the AGRIscapes urban agriculture greenhouse, in the field at Spadra Farm, and other campus urban microfarm and garden venues. These ‘learn-by-doing’ experiences help position our students to take on leadership roles in the growing urban agriculture sector when they graduate.
Students can work on numerous urban agriculture research projects. We investigate everything from urban farm soil health, pest management and food safety, to designing educational resources for urban farmers, to increasing efficiency and sustainability in hydroponic and aquaponic systems.
Community is at the heart of our urban agriculture program. We partner with non-profit organizations, government agencies, companies, chefs, and farmers to provide opportunities and real-world experiences for our students. We do this through service-learning and case study experiential learning in our classrooms. We also have established an urban agriculture student leadership program with our partners and with funding from the US Department of Agriculture Hispanic-Serving Institutions Education Grants Program. The program, called SoCal Farm to Table Ambassadors, selects a cohort of students each semester to lead collaborative projects and experiential learning opportunities with community partners as well as recruit new students to our urban agriculture classes and programs.
We offer urban agriculture tours, training workshops, and community events for the public. Everything from backyard bee workshops to community development meetings. This is both an opportunity for us to share our knowledge with the community and an opportunity for us to learn from our neighbors.
These student opportunities, hands-on experiences, and public offerings would not be possible without donors like you! Please consider donating to our urban and community agriculture fund.