While many student org offices within the severe, whitewashed walls of the Student Activity Center are often buzzing with activity, few abound with fruit flies. This is a characteristic unique to the headquarters of F.H. King Students for Sustainable Agriculture. The office is slightly cramped – with trowels, wheeled trailers and even living earthworms – and seems even more confining after considering that its members spend the rest of their time out of doors, working on the organization’s student farm.
F.H. King is most known for its Harvest Handouts in Library Mall, where University of Wisconsin students can receive complimentary, organically-grown produce harvested at the student farm. But the group’s outreach does not end with free eats. Workshops, guest speakers, potlucks, documentary screenings, internships and working on the garden itself help to bolster discussion on sustainability issues and reciprocal learning.
“It’s a great forum for idea exchange,” said Axel Adams, one of two garden directors for F.H. King. “Every volunteer that comes out there is going to bring something different to the table. You engage in teaching people how to do things, and at the same time you’re learning how to do things. And it’s all tangible, so you never really forget it.”
This concept aligns with the group’s tradition. It was founded in 1979, in the days of notable Wisconsin soil physicist Franklin Hiram King, as a forum for exchanging dialogue amid an unconventional movement from strictly monocultures to modern agriculture techniques.
“F.H. King pioneered [an] idea which was radical at that time,” fellow garden director Matt Covert said. “That, in order to ensure that soil remained full of life for perpetuity, you really had to care about the soil as well as the plants.”
Outreach coordinator Lea Burkenroad first discovered the idea of sustainable agriculture as an undergrad in Madison. She said while F.H. King is exceptional in that it provides a model of sustainability through action, it often partners with other groups that have a joint cause – such as a condiment-making workshop this Thursday with Slow Food. Partnering strengthens awareness of their mission, she said, as does bringing in experts from the community to speak.
“It goes along with our whole mission of the exchange of ideas and bringing in people from diverse backgrounds,” she said. “There is a new generation of farmers out there too, which is a big part of it too – we have students here who are studying whatever that might try farming even if it’s just growing food in their backyard when they’re older.”
The group’s officers emphasized that every student may become involved. Covert said they write grants whenever possible and receive occasional donations, such as compost bins from We Conserve, a UW environmental initiative. However, F.H. King is primarily funded through student segregated fees. He calculates that each student pays $1.20 out of each round of seg fees – worth about two tomatoes from their handouts – and cites this as a reason they are dedicated first and foremost to serving the UW community.
“One [service] is obvious: We provide vegetables,” Covert said. “The deeper version is experiential education. The opportunity for students from a wide range of interest levels and experiences … to learn about what it takes and what it means to operate sustainable agriculture, … [those are] perspectives we can provide you can’t put a price on.”
Covert, who considers himself and Adams to be “caretakers of the soil and the land,” is responsible for the garden year-round, even though it is only productive from early March to mid November. In the four hyperborean months that make up the off-season, they must order seeds, diagram and continue to compile gypsum, lime and compost. They use workshops and volunteer work days as both a teaching opportunity and manpower for jobs that are nearly impossible with just the two of them.
“We’re always reading esoteric little articles and old journals to find new things to try,” Covert said, explaining how F.H. King’s endeavors are an ever-evolving learning process. “[The garden] is more than just for producing food; it’s about finding new ways to manage land.”
Each project, from growing herbs to make tea to transplanting seedlings from a greenhouse, brings up a new perspective toward agricultural self-sufficiency. The group sees events like these as one way to make sustainability more accessible for the community as well as to inspire people to think about related issues and implement them independently.
“We do different things, like growing mushrooms from coffee grounds,” Adams said, plunging a hand below his chair and producing what looked like an immense Mason jar full of dirt. “We also do things with making yogurt, brewing beer.”
Burkenroad explained a new project, as of last spring, called “Full Cycle Freight!,” in which F.H. King interns ride bikes attached to eight-foot trailers around residential areas and local businesses to pick up food scraps for composting at the student farm site.
“It really connects us to the Madison community because [it is a] service to people who would want to compost but don’t know where to put their food scraps,” she said. “It’s a full ‘cycle.'”
The first official meeting for F.H. King is this Thursday, and anyone is welcome to attend and socialize. It will take place in Science Hall, Room 175, and will run from 5:30 to 7 p.m. More information on F.H. King Students for Sustainable Agriculture can be found at www.fhkingstudentfarm.com.
