New growth: regenerative farm sprouts on Rowan's West Campus

A hundred yards from Rowan University President Ali Houshmand's pepper and vegetable fields, and within view of the new Shreiber School of Veterinary Medicine, an organic, regenerative farm operation is taking root.

There, on the University's West Campus, Assistant Teaching Professor Cynthia Hall is blending science, passion, grit and determination to grow a wide variety of fruits, vegetables, nuts and, one day soon, chickens (maybe even goats) in a sustainable farm operation.

Hall, who teaches in the departments of Geography, Planning & Sustainability and Environmental Science within the School of Earth & Environment, expects the one-acre farm to produce not just a healthy crop this fall but bountiful lessons for years to come.

To maximize production, she's working with Corianne Tatariw, Ph.D., in the Department of Environmental Science, who is analyzing soil conditions, as well as Hiew Nguyen, Ph.D., in the Department of Mathematics, whose drones surveil the crops and growing environment.

"Using drones, we can gather an array of data, including information on photosynthetic radiation - how much sun the plants get," Hall said.

Though much of what's required for a successful harvest is, by nature, physical, sweat-on-the-brow, dirt-beneath-the-nails farm labor, Hall said it was conceived as a high-tech operation in which the latest technology helps ensure abundant crop yields.

"The whole point is to be regenerative," Hall said. "Everything we do is intentional so we're not wasteful, not even with water."

To that end, she and her student workers plant in a variety of ways, from raised beds to crops sewn directly into the soil, where rows of plants are separated by, and insulated with, layers of straw to minimize weeds and keep the ground cool and moist.

Hall, who holds a doctorate in geochemistry, is deeply immersed in both the science and practice of agriculture, which she deployed over several years of home gardening before starting the experimental farm.

Maximizing output

While this summer's farm operation is, to an extent, a trial run, it is also a means of showing how on a relatively small plot many things may be grown at once, from tomatoes, peppers and melons to cherries, pears, figs, goji berries and hazel nuts.

Hall hopes that with the addition of chickens this year or next, and a robust compost operation fueled by spent plant matter, the farm will be truly regenerative.

"This is a demonstrative farm site, a training ground, a way for us to show by example how much you can grow in small spaces," she said.

That is especially important as many sprawling corporate farms, driven by the nature of modern agribusiness, deploy mass amounts of synthetic fertilizer and herbicide to feed a hungry planet but often produce less nutritious crops than can be grown at home organically, Hall said.

"When I started gardening, we could grow enough outside a rowhome in West Philly to feed our family," she said. "More communities can and should grow for themselves and that's what we want to empower."

A volunteer on the farm this summer, senior environmental science major Paige Sanders said she's especially concerned about the amount of pesticides and herbicides industrial farms routinely use.

According to the National Institutes of Health, there is, in fact, a correlation between some of those chemicals and farm worker illness.

Sanders, who was born into a family of dairy farmers, said she doesn't yet know if a career in the business is for her, but she'll always grow something.

"At the very least, I'll have berry bushes and some chickens," she said.