Veggie garden possible at TU

Three students create community produce initiative to save resources

By Olivia Obineme

Published: Sunday, September 20, 2009

Three students are determined to form an official organization on campus dedicated to helping the environment and the community, and it’s not a typical university recycling or energy-saving initiative.

The project is called the Community Vegetable Garden.

Students Jeff Bothe, Liz Schatz and Amanda Davani began this project last semester, trying to figure out how to get the campus involved in the cause.

Their plan is for the University to have a vegetable garden, about 1,000 square feet, which would be managed by students and faculty.

“I actually started this project as an idea to fulfill my Honors College capstone credits,” Bothe said. “But now, I am going in a completely different direction with those credits.”

MICA and Goucher College currently have student-run gardens on campus and Loyola has a garden that is run by a community organization, but Bothe believes his group’s proposition is not like any others.

“No other college in the area has a student-run, sustainably-managed vegetable garden of the scope we are proposing,” Bothe said.

“Towson University could be the first in this respect, demonstrating a commitment to spreading awareness of sustainable urban agriculture practices.”

Bothe, Schatz and Davani believe having the vegetable garden on campus will not only benefit the environment, but also benefit the school’s image.

“To be competitive and current, it is necessary that Towson continually advances its position on issues of environmental [importance],” he said.

In addition, the organization will provide students with internship opportunities, allowing them to work in the garden and serve the community while receiving credit.

The garden will also serve as a place people can learn to be grateful and to become aware of the issues that surround them, in the Towson area and beyond, according to the new organization.

“So, it’s a chance to give and it’s a chance to grow, pun intended,” Bothe said.

Besides making Towson more known, if made into a campus organization, Bothe said the group would donate all the vegetables to the Assistance Center of Towson Churches’ weekly dinner for the homeless and needy families.

Faculty adviser of the Community Vegetable Garden, Ben Warner of the English department, said there is a high level of excitement when it comes to efforts like these.

“From what the officers have discussed, environmental activism seems to be a natural byproduct of the garden,” Warner said. “Of course, getting your food locally saves the tremendous expenditure of fossil fuels that it takes in getting our produce from, say, California.”

Nevertheless, in order to make this a success, Bothe said they need all the support they can get.

“We need underclassmen in on this project and we could also use the support from health sciences and biology and environmental sciences,” he said.

The students said they hope to get approval from the Student Government Association as soon as possible to begin planting in spring 2010.

They will also be presenting their proposition to the University Space Committee.

“I care about ecology and biodiversity because I care about our place in the food chain and the carbon cycle, about disease prevention and the effect that altering nutrient cycles has on human health and well being,” Bothe said. “Urban agriculture is one solution.”

Courtesy of The Towerlight

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