Urban Food Systems Initiative Fall 2024 Newsletter

 

Warmly Welcoming Autumn

The bustle of the growing season is winding down as we enter into another semester filled with fresh faces, new courses and exciting events! Keep reading to learn more.

Golden hour during the Growing Growers 20th Anniversary Celebration at OHREC.

 

Urban Food Systems Symposium

Sept. 14-17, 2026

Save-the-Date because the biennial Urban Food Systems Symposium, or UFSS, is coming back to Kansas City in 2026. Stay tuned via the UFSS website for more details.

 

Student Highlight: Ph.D. Candidate

We are so excited to introduce Courtney Becker, who joined us this summer as a Ph.D. candidate working with Cary Rivard, Ph.D. at OHREC.

Courtney is a graduate of the University of Kansas, having earned a PSM in environmental assessment and a BGS in environmental studies. Courtney is researching soil testing methodologies for extension offices, no-till agriculture and cover cropping. She also will serve as the program coordinator for the Growing Growers farm apprenticeship program. If you see her, say "hi!"

 

AAI 795: Topics in Applied and Interdisciplinary Studies – Urban Food Systems

Policy and Governance is being offered for the first time in Spring 2025 by Rebekkah Stutteville, PhD.

The course is designed for those who want to learn more about the basic concepts of politics, policymaking and governance related to urban food systems in the United States.

This is an 8-week online course, starting on Jan. 21, 2025, with required synchronous meeting times from 4 - 5:40 p.m. on Tuesdays.

Key features of this course include:

• Exploring urban food policy history and its impact on contemporary context.
• Discussing the complexities of the U.S. urban food policy and governance infrastructure spanning the federal, state and local levels of government.
• Analyzing the connections among food and other elements of the urban environment.
• Identifying the factors that influence how food policies get made and the processes by which food policy gets made.
• Examining food's civic and political meaning and importance.
• Recognizing similarities and differences in urban food system governance in different countries.
• Identifying emerging trends in the future of urban food governance.

If you're interested in taking this course as a part of the UFS program or as a non-degree seeking student — reach out to semra@ksu.edu.

 

Farm Happenings at OHREC

It has been a busy and fulfilling past six months at the Olathe Horticulture Research and Extension Center. In addition to our regular crews of staff, students and volunteers, we welcomed hundreds of guests during two key events.

In August, we hosted our annual Fruit and Vegetable Field Day where students and staff show off the research that is happening on site. More than 90 attendees joined us to learn about agrivoltaics, high tunnel soil research, strawberry and cantaloupe trials, and more. If you're curious about what type of research is going on with the Urban Food Systems Initative, learn more on the research projects page.

This year marks the 20th anniversary of the Growing Growers farm apprenticeship program — that's enough reason to call for a celebration, don't you think? We thought so! On Oct. 3, we had a farm-to-table dinner with more than 100 attendees to reflect, celebrate and look forward to (at least) 20 more years of Growing Growers. Hear Semra's reflections about the event:

Hi all, Semra Fetahovic here, the program coordinator for the Urban Food Systems Initiative And yes — the voice of this newsletter! I have been in this role for a little over a year, and part of my job is to help facilitate and grow the Growing Growers program. In 2015, I was actually an apprentice in the program — I spent an entire growing season working at Fair Share Farm and completed the series of then in-person workshops. When I reflect back on that year, my memories are vivid and bright, I recall doing and seeing so many things for the first time: seeding, planting, mulching, weeding, trellising, harvesting, fermenting and eating!

It was such an honor to be able to pull together an event with program participants over the past two decades. At the celebration dinner, Cary Rivard honored both Katherine Kelly and Laura Christensen (of Two Birds Farm) with the first ever "Golden Hoe" awards. In the early days of the program, Katherine Kelly was blazing urban agriculture trails across the Kansas City Metro. She co-founded the nonprofit Cultivate KC, established the urban education farm at Gibbs Rd (now KC Farm School), and yes, even helped start the Growing Growers farm apprenticeship program. Katherine was QUITE BUSY circa 2004/2005. Laura Christensen went through the apprenticeship program in 2005, and after graduating both started her own farm and served as a program coordinator to keep the program running. Both of their contributions to this program, and to local food systems in Kansas City, cannot be overstated.

Guests at the dinner also got to hear Sharon Autry's story, a 2018 graduate who apprenticed with Jill Elmers at Moon on the Meadow Farm. Sharon so beautifully shared poetry and stories that conveyed her journey of a small-town rural upbringing, to city life, to finding her way back to the land. Sharon runs Herdsman House farm and serves as the Urban Agriculture Specialist for the Miami County Conservation District. The tables were filled with current and former host farmers, apprentices, organizing committee members and general supporters of this program.

Since 2004, the program has graduated roughly 250 apprentices. Of those 250 apprentices, about 21% are still farming and 66% continue to engage in food systems work by volunteering on a farm or at a community garden. The program boasts a host farmer network of more than 35 farm sites and has been actively working on expanding it’s geographic reach further into Kansas and Missouri. We are looking forward to continuing this important work and making this programming and knowledge accessible to more people. Cheers to many more years!

 

Growing Growers Expansion

We are so excited to announce that the Growing Growers program, with Cary Rivard as project director, was awarded a USDA BFRDP (Beginning Farmer Rancher Grant) grant for 2024-2027! Read more about awarded projects and our project proposal.

 

 

Ninth Annual Study Tour takes students to Austin, Texas

Each fall semester, students in the urban food systems graduate programs have the opportunity participate in the Urban Agriculture Study Tour course. This is a semester-long course with a 1-week trip to that year's chosen city. Students tour all sorts of sites that contribute to the local food system (urban farms, composting facilities, local co-ops, etc.,) and conduct a food security audit of that city. This year, 10 students and two faculty got to spend a week in Austin, Texas.

During the first week of October, 10 UFS students and two faculty members embarked on a tour of Austin's local food system as part of the annual Urban Agriculture Study Tour course. This marked the program's ninth annual study tour and its inaugural visit to Texas.

The selected sites showcased the food system from farm to fork, including farms, retail outlets and a compost facility. Students explored diverse farming practices and structures (think teaching farms, for-profit operations, institutional farms and agrihoods). They also engaged with organizations pivotal to food security in the region, such as the Central Texas Food Bank and the City of Austin's Sustainability Office. Utilizing a "food security audit tool," students assessed each site's unique contributions to the local food system.

After visiting 16 diverse sites and engaging with numerous individuals dedicated to feeding the community, it became clear that transforming our food system into one that is equitable and ecologically sound requires a broad coalition of people, organizations, and missions. While our hosts cited numerous challenges in Austin's food landscape, it was evident they are committed, collaborative and optimistic about their ability to create positive change and keep Austin weird.

A highlight of the tour was a presentation by Edwin Marty, the city's food policy manager in the Office of Sustainability, who discussed the development of Austin's first-ever Food Plan. Many farms and organizations we visited shared their involvement in shaping this plan and expressed cautious optimism about its potential impact. Luckily, the Austin City Council approved the Food Plan on Thursday, Oct. 10, during our tour. We hope this initiative will successfully achieve its nine goals and lead to a better local food system in Austin in the years to come!

Thanks for planning a wonderful trip, Vikas and Semra!

 

Upcoming Events

NRCS Cost-Share Programs for Kansas and Missouri Growers

Calling all growers near and far! Please join us for our last Growing Growers workshop of the 2024 season. From 1-3 p.m. CST on Thursday, Oct. 24, you'll have the opportunity to learn about NRCS programs available for growers in Kansas and Missouri, either virtually or in-person.

 

Gaining Ground Webinar

Save-the-date for our next Gaining Ground webinar at 1 p.m. CST on Oct. 30.

The root of Global One's enthusiasm to bring healthy examples of produce and its wholesome preparation to the needy is based on the personal medical history of Anthony Nealy, Global One's co-founder, who suffered from years of poor eating habits.  He aims to educate others on how to maintain healthy immune systems and extend their lives and health through the avoidance of empty calories, and the consumption of fresh, homegrown organic vegetables. Join us to learn about their community engagement efforts in Kansas City, Missouri.

 

Cultivate KC's Annual Farmers and Friends Meeting

Each year, Cultivate KC's Annual Farmers and Friends Meeting (AFFM) convenes local and regional farmers and food activists to connect, converse and contribute ideas regarding issues affecting our city's urban farming community. We hope to see you on Saturday, Feb. 1, 2025.

 

Great Plains Growers Conference

The 2025 conference will be held in-person from Jan. 9 -11, 2025, at  Missouri Western University in St. Joseph, Missouri. 

 

Urban Food Systems Webinar

Curious about our graduate programs in urban food systems? Join us on Zoom at noon CST on Nov. 13 for a lunch and learn webinar to learn more about the program. You will hear more about the graduate program options — masters with two tracks and a graduate certificate — from program staff and faculty.