Warren Wilson's Innovative Campus Farm

This is a link to the "about" section of Warren Wilson's farm webpage:
 http://www.warren-wilson.edu/~farm/Aboutour_farm.php

Common Ground CSA

The UVM Common Ground Farm is a student run CSA farm located in South Burlington at the UVM Horticulture Research Farm.

Common Ground is recognized as a club by the UVM Student Government Association. As such, they receive a club budget which supplements the costs of running the farm. The club also sells CSA shares to students to help finance their endeavors. Common Ground now offers a new $100 work share where students volunteer at the farm in exchange for a discount off of the regular $200 half share or $370 full share. The shares are available weekly for farm pickup or on campus pick up.

Common Ground has five full time student employees for the summer, and CSA shareholders volunteer as well. The club's president is Brittany Dooling, a sophomore who has plans to farm her own land after graduating from UVM. "I love CSAs," said Brittany, "its important that people want to support and see what the farmer is doing. They get to see the farm and the farmer. Transparency is important, especially when it comes to your food."

One of the most important aspects of the CSA model is getting young people on the farm. You really don't understand where your food is coming from until you've gotten your own hands dirty in the growing process. To help spread first hand knowledge about farming, Common Ground offers several organic farming courses to UVM students. Food comes from farms, not grocery store stock rooms. Hopefully anyone who gets their food directly from the farmer through a CSA share can see and taste the difference in the freshness of their food, and will come to expect the quality that only local foods can deliver.

In addition to operating the CSA, Common Ground collaborates with Campus Kitchen on Colchester Avenue to provide them with locally grown fruits and vegetables. Their seeds are sourced locally, coming from High Mowing Seeds (Walcott, VT), Johnny's Seeds (Winslow, ME) and FedCO Seeds (Waterville, ME). Common Ground Farm operates organically, but hasn't yet achieved organic certification, though they plan to. The main hurdle to achieving organic certification is records of the farms transactions and activities, and they have started the record keeping process. Passing down records and best practices is very hard due to the nature of Common Ground being a student-run club whose members rotate every few years.


Running Common Ground is a "Huge time commitment" says Brittany. When asked if the CSA model is the best solution for local food production, Brittany was very pragmatic in admitting that the CSA model is a viable piece of the puzzle, but is simply a supplement. We have a disproportionate amount of organic farming and CSA engagement in Vermont, but go to the agricultural heartlands and it's the last thing on the farmers' minds. CSA engagement may be a fad, but hopefully it is here to stay. Feeding an increasingly hungry world is going to take an effort from everyone. Regional food systems are evolving, and Common Ground is on the cutting edge, giving community members an opportunity to support and become involved in their local food systems.