Student Organic Farm

The mission of the MSU Student Organic Farm is to cultivate knowledge and human capacity in organic and sustainable agriculture for students, farmers and educators.

The foundation of all of our programming is a 15-acre certified organic teaching and research farm that is also a working production farm. The farm serves as a living, learning laboratory where students and visitors can see and experience organic and year-round production techniques.

The farm and its markets include:

20,500 square feet of passive solar greenhouses
7 acres of field and garden-scale production
48-week Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) Program
7 month On-Campus Farm Stand
Sales to MSU Campus Dining
Additional resources at the farm include an edible forest garden, cut flower garden, bee hives, and a small mushroom production area.

Major Program Areas

Training New Farmers: The Organic Farmer Training Program

The OFTP is an 8-month intensive training program in year-round organic farming focusing on diversified production of vegetables, flowers, fruits, and herbs for local markets. Workshops, lectures, readings, assignments and field trips help to build participants knowledge and understanding of organic farming principles and practices. The program is designed to give participants a strong background and working knowledge of farm production, management, marketing, and business operations necessary to operate a diversified small farm. Program participants include new and beginning farmers, urban and community farmers, educators, and community organizers working with food systems and food production.

Farmer Field School

The MSU Farmer Field School is comprised of intensive one and two day hands-on workshops. They are tailored to deliver in-depth, practical information built upon the foundational work of the MSU Organic Farmer Training Program and the wealth of knowledge in Michigan’s farming community. Experienced farmers and premier agriculture educators from our region are teaming up to co-lead and deliver workshops in the Farmer Field School. Each workshop also includes group-based learning processes where diverse approaches to farming challenges can be shared and discussed by participants and workshop presenters and demonstrated at host farm sites. For the current cycle, workshops will take place on select farms in southern Michigan with a goal of expanding the workshops to other regions of the state as the program develops.

Educational and Research Partnerships

We partner with a number of groups and individuals to create educational and research opportunities in organic and year round production at MSU. Activities through our partnerships include:

Research in: on-farm hoophouse production; organic small fruit production under 3-season greenhouses; integrating pork production with organic crop production and forest management
Sponsorship of Biosystems Agriculture Engineering and Mechanical Engineering student projects to develop tools and systems for small scale growers in the U.S. and West Africa
Development of statewide beginning farmer training programs
Undergraduate courses in organic production
Collaboration with the Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems Specialization
Integration of interdisciplinary experiential education opportunities for students
Organic farmer training scholarships through Feast in the Field fundraising event

We are honored to be working alongside our MSU partners: