It doesn't take 500 acres and a machine shed to farm anymore. Not even soil. Crops are being grown in water, shipping containers, alongside skyscrapers, and in vacant lots, using fewer natural resources and providing a perpetual harvest that doesn't depend on Mother Nature.
Thinking small is a part of sustainable urban agriculture, which is getting big. Big, said Dr. Dave Kopsell, horticulture professor in Illinois State University's Department of Agriculture. With a $150,000 grant from the United States Department of Agriculture (USDA), he's leading an interdisciplinary team in developing a new course: Sustainable Urban Agriculture. Plans are to offer it as a senior capstone course in 2025, making it Illinois State's first urban agriculture course.
"Sustainable urban agriculture is farming that's not the traditional rural large-scale field production," Kopsell said. "It could be aquaponics, a freight farm, vertical farming. It's growing plants for food production where you wouldn't normally associate them being grown, growing food where the people are."
As project director for the grant, Kopsell is developing the course with co-project directors Dr. Liangcheng Yang, associate professor of environmental health and sustainability, and Dr. Maria Boerngen, associate professor of agribusiness specializing in farm management and community marketing. The course is designed to provide training and experience for careers supporting or engaging in urban agriculture, which includes community gardens, rooftop farms, hydroponic facilities, and vertical production where crops may be grown in warehouses or along skyscrapers.
Read more on Illinois State University News.