Newsletter

Urban Food Systems Initiative Fall 2023 Newsletter

Urban Food Systems Symposium call for abstracts now open

Since 2016, Kansas State University has hosted The Urban Food Systems Symposium every two years with the goal of bringing together academics, research-oriented experts and urban food systems practitioners from around the world to discuss urban food systems issues and opportunities and the role they play in global food security. The 2024 event, themed “Developing Urban Food Systems for Sustainable and Resilient Communities,” will be hosted by Ohio State University Extension in Columbus, Ohio on June 11–13, 2024.

The Call for Abstracts is now open for both poster and oral presentations. More information can be found on the event website.

 

Urban Food Systems fully online graduate certificate and master’s program now enrolling

New this fall, our Urban Food Systems Interdisciplinary Graduate Certificate is available completely online. This certificate is geared towards students and professionals alike who aim to increase their knowledge about urban food systems and current issues surrounding them. With six core credit and six elective credit hours, students can tailor the certificate to their own specific interests and goals.

Additionally, we offer our M.S in Horticulture with emphasis in Urban Food System in-person with a research track or online with a professional track. By offering the professional track fully online, working urban agriculture professionals have an option for continuing their education while working full-time. We currently have students from various professional backgrounds in the program, including non-profit leaders, extension workers and educators.

Visit our program website to learn more or reach out to UFS@k-state.edu for more information.

 

Game-changing research award winners and open GRA positions

The Office of the Vice President for Research recently announced the university's inaugural Game-changing Research Initiation Program (GRIP) awards. The program aims to support innovative and groundbreaking research by forming interdisciplinary teams of K-State faculty across departments, colleges and campuses to address complex challenges that require a transdisciplinary approach to finding solutions.

For the project titled "Development of Resilient Urban Food Systems That Ensure Food Security in the Face of Climate Change," Eleni Pliakoni, Ph.D., is one of three grantees. A primary objective is to conduct transdisciplinary evaluation of urban agriculture types in terms of agricultural productivity, community health, environment sustainability and food systems resilience. Additionally, the project aims to develop models for connecting urban agriculture production models to food security related data, analysis and applications. Within the larger project, multiple innovative urban agriculture “seed projects” will be conducted, including work with Agrivoltaics, wastewater re-use for hydroponic systems and scenario planning for post-disaster food security. The project team represents six colleges and more than 15 different departments with 12 graduate students that will work together to assess, optimize and predict the contribution of Urban Food Systems to global food security.

As part of the Urban Food Systems Initiative and this project, K-State is seeking to hire twelve fully-funded graduate research assistants (GRAs) to work on a transdisciplinary urban food systems research project. GRAs will be hired in the areas of horticulture, economics, entomology, soil science, landscape architecture, computer science, and civil engineering. Students will earn M.S. degrees in their home discipline as well as a graduate certificate or specialization in Urban Food Systems. This is a unique opportunity to work with a diverse cohort of faculty and other graduate students to contribute toward more resilient and equitable food systems through transdisciplinary research.

The successful candidates will start in January 2024 and may be located at the main campus in Manhattan, Kansas or at the K-State Olathe campus in the Greater Kansas City area. Students will gain valuable skills working on a transdisciplinary project with graduate students and faculty from 14 different departments and 6 colleges at Kansas State University, as well as community partners. Students will also have the opportunity to participate in and help to deliver the Urban Food Systems Symposium in 2026 in Kansas City. For more details, visit the Urban Food Systems Initiative website.

 

Student highlight: Claire Barnhart

Graduate student Claire Barnhart is conducting vegetable research at Olathe Horticultural Research & Extension Center (OHREC) in Olathe. Claire grew up in Olathe and was a student worker at OHREC during high school. She earned her bachelor’s degree in horticulture at K-State and has a particular interest in fruit and vegetable production.

 

 

"My project is titled ‘Conserving Soil Moisture in High Tunnels to Maintain Soil Health’ and the goal is to investigate what ground cover will best decrease issues such as desertification and the deposition of salts in the root zone that are associated with increased evaporation that is seen in high tunnels in our region, mostly during summer," said Barnhart. "The hope is that using silage tarps that are usually used for occultation in place of plastic mulch or weed mat will help lock in soil moisture and better overall soil health, thereby bettering conditions for crop growth and yield, making the high tunnel system more sustainable and possibly even decreasing water needs for growers. There was a fall 2022 trial using lettuce that will be repeated this fall and a summer 2023 tomato trial that will be repeated next summer. While the lettuce data from last fall showed no significant differences, the summer trials should yield more dramatic results as this is an issue that is most prevalent in summer."

 

Growing Growers: season reflection

This year brought new growth into Kansas City’s Growing Growers program. With the support of a KDA Specialty Crop Block Grant, the apprenticeship program expanded its reach through the development of online for-credit and non-credit courses. The primary goal of transitioning to an online format was to make distance learning possible for K-State students and apprentices alike. Both versions of the course include guest lectures from more than ten local grower experts. In addition, Growing Growers has worked to produce five extension publications on topics such as climate resilience, fall flower production and tomato grafting. Once completed, they will be available on our resources page here.

While much of the learning material was delivered online this year, apprentices gathered monthly for farm tours around the Kansas City area. These included a propagation and production planning tour at Two Birds Farm KC, a soils-focused tour at Fair Share Farm, a postharvest handling tour at KC Peniel Garen, a farm equipment tour at Juniper Hill Farms, an integrated pest management tour at Where the Redfearn Grows and a marketing and management tour at Young Family Farm.

In August, this season’s Growing Growers apprentices and the host farms where they received hands-on training and experience were recognized at the Olathe Horticulture Research and Extension Center’s Annual Commercial Vegetable Field Day. Congratulations to this years apprentices and host farmers:

• Elizabeth Fitzner at Green Gate Farm
• Chad Baker at Two Birds Farm
• Carolyn Tragasz at KC Farm School
• Lauren Sobchak at Urbavore Urban Farm

Additionally, we would like to congratulate Kathy Malakai and Sarah Stafford, who participated in the online program and apprenticeship in Wichita, Kansas. For more information about Growing Growers, please visit growinggrowers.org.

 

Apprentice farm tour at Two Birds farm in Kansas City, KS.

 

Kansas City Urban Food Systems news

Recently, the term “urban agriculture” has received attention from the United States Department of Agriculture and other agricultural federal agencies. The USDA has recently established 17 “Urban Service Centers” to support the unique needs of urban farming operations, including support with funding and loans, conservation and climate-smart farming practices, distaste assistance and risk management. The needs of urban farmers vary greatly from those of traditional rural farms. Historically, most extension agents are trained to support rural farming and are often located far from urban centers.

Currently, the closest Urban Service Center is in St. Louis, Missouri, but there are hopes of changing that. This summer, the USDA announced the intent of establishing an “Urban County Committee” in Kansas City and has increased staffing for the St. Louis location. For more information, read the USDA press release.

 

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