An
awakening of sorts is underway—at URI and across the globe. There’s growing
recognition that the 20th century’s industrial approach to farming
and food production is unhealthy for people, animals, soil, and the environment,
and is environmentally and economically unsustainable. So what’s to be done? At
URI, where agriculture is central to our history and mission as a land grant
university, our faculty, students, and alumni are rediscovering our
agricultural roots, taking a new, interdisciplinary approach to practical
agriculture, and leading the way for a new generation of farmers and food
producers.
In
late October, a section of the University’s agronomy field is blooming with
gorgeous purple saffron flowers. Although 90 percent of the global harvest of
saffron—the world’s most expensive spice—comes from Iran, plant sciences professor
Rebecca Brown has demonstrated that the Ocean State has the potential to claim
a share of the market as demand grows in the United States.
“It’s tolerant of arid conditions,
which is why it’s mostly grown in the poor, dry soils of southeastern Iran,”
she says. “But until now, no one had tried to grow it in southern NewEngland's moist, rich soils."
With the help of postdoctoral fellow
Rahmatallah Gheshm, who grew the spice in Iran for 27 years, last year’s campus
saffron yield per acre was about triple that of Iran’s.
“It’s an attractive crop because you
don’t need sophisticated farm equipment or technology to grow it,” she says.
“It’s a lot less work to grow than vegetables, though it’s more
labor intensive
to harvest, which is why saffron is so expensive. It also doesn’t have insect
or disease problems here, and you don’t have to water it. All of that is
attractive to farmers.”
The
saffron experiment is just one of URI’s many sustainable agriculture
initiatives, which include numerous research projects, new faculty members, an
academic major, and several campus measures designed to develop agricultural
practices, products, and policies that reduce the environmental impact of food
production while also considering economic sustainability and social justice
for farming communities. The efforts attest to URI’s long history in agricultural
research and education, and its commitment to leading a new generation of growers in an effort to create a sustainable system of food
production.
Plant
Sciences and entomology assistant professor John Taylor is looking for ways to
produce more food in smaller plots by using different nutrient inputs and
tillage strategies and by cultivating several crops in the same space in a
practice called polyculture.
“In polyculture, you’re growing multiple species
together to get more production from a unit of area compared to growing those
crops in monoculture,” he says. “It’s a way to maximize the use of space. In
Chinese-origin household gardens, they sometimes double production because they
have a vine crop growing vertically on a trellis with a leafy ground layer
below. It helps the household be more food secure.”
He is also teaming with the Southside Community
Land Trust in Providence to evaluate the use of urban-adapted high tunnel
systems, temporary greenhouses that help to extend the growing season. By
pairing raised beds in the tunnel with native flower beds that capture rain
dripping off the tunnel, he is helping urban residents intensify production in
small spaces.
“If
we’re going to meet the goal of producing 50 percent of the region’s food needs
by 2060,” as proposed in a report prepared in 2014 by Food Solutions New
England, “then a lot of our food is going to have to come from small scale
production in urban backyards and vacant lots,” says Taylor, the first of
several new professors hired as part of the sustainable agriculture program. He
is finding that the yield from his... Read the rest of this story in the Spring 2020 University of Rhode Island Magazine.
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