If ALES professor Debra Davidson is successful at raising $100,000 through a crowd-sourcing campaign, Edmonton's students and teachers will soon have a novel and effective new tool for learning how to grow food indoors.
The Farm on Wheels project aims to convert a shipping container into a combination indoor farm, education centre and research laboratory, which can be driven to area elementary and high schools for extended visits, starting this fall.
The 12-metre long container will contain a hydroponic vertical growing technology called ZipGrow. It consists of modular and scalable growing-towers, light racks and LED lighting designed for growing salad greens, herbs and vegetables indoors. The inexpensive setup will allow students to build and operate indoor gardens themselves, growing produce in a mini "food factory." Farm on Wheels will also offer lesson plans and other educational resources that adhere to provincial curriculum, and teacher training by University of Alberta agriculture experts.
"It's a vehicle, literally and figuratively, for bringing agriculture and food awareness, skills and excitement into schools," said Davidson, an environmental sociologist and the director of Prairie Urban Farm, a community-teaching garden on the University of Alberta's South Campus.
In 2015, the farm hosted more than 1,000 visitors eager to learn how to grow food in the city, but could not meet the demand from teachers keen on having their students experience it, too.
Farm on Wheels is the answer to that demand, but it's much more than a nifty classroom addition. If Edmonton is to ensure food security in the face of climate change, its citizens need to explore many strategies, including extending the growing season in this northern climate by growing food indoors, said Davidson.
As a society, we also need to nurture a much deeper awareness of how we relate to food, especially among our youth.
"We need a shift in thinking," said Davidson. "It is the alienation of each of us from our food - where it comes from, the impacts of agriculture, how food affects our health - that translates into a lack of citizen involvement in food issues and in the perpetuation of unsustainable farms and diets."
If the $100,000 is successfully raised, Farm on Wheels will visit approximately 10 schools during its first academic year. During the summer months it will be stationed at the Prairie Urban Farm.
The IndieGoGo campaign to build Farm on Wheels and get it operational this fall was launched March 14 and runs only until mid-April.
Among the perks for donors are seed packages with enough traditional and exotic heirloom seed varieties to fill a 1.2-metre-square garden plot and a half day of training in urban agriculture at Farm on Wheels for everyone who sponsors a teacher in the training program.
The Farm on Wheels project aims to convert a shipping container into a combination indoor farm, education centre and research laboratory, which can be driven to area elementary and high schools for extended visits, starting this fall.
The 12-metre long container will contain a hydroponic vertical growing technology called ZipGrow. It consists of modular and scalable growing-towers, light racks and LED lighting designed for growing salad greens, herbs and vegetables indoors. The inexpensive setup will allow students to build and operate indoor gardens themselves, growing produce in a mini "food factory." Farm on Wheels will also offer lesson plans and other educational resources that adhere to provincial curriculum, and teacher training by University of Alberta agriculture experts.
"It's a vehicle, literally and figuratively, for bringing agriculture and food awareness, skills and excitement into schools," said Davidson, an environmental sociologist and the director of Prairie Urban Farm, a community-teaching garden on the University of Alberta's South Campus.
In 2015, the farm hosted more than 1,000 visitors eager to learn how to grow food in the city, but could not meet the demand from teachers keen on having their students experience it, too.
Farm on Wheels is the answer to that demand, but it's much more than a nifty classroom addition. If Edmonton is to ensure food security in the face of climate change, its citizens need to explore many strategies, including extending the growing season in this northern climate by growing food indoors, said Davidson.
As a society, we also need to nurture a much deeper awareness of how we relate to food, especially among our youth.
"We need a shift in thinking," said Davidson. "It is the alienation of each of us from our food - where it comes from, the impacts of agriculture, how food affects our health - that translates into a lack of citizen involvement in food issues and in the perpetuation of unsustainable farms and diets."
If the $100,000 is successfully raised, Farm on Wheels will visit approximately 10 schools during its first academic year. During the summer months it will be stationed at the Prairie Urban Farm.
The IndieGoGo campaign to build Farm on Wheels and get it operational this fall was launched March 14 and runs only until mid-April.
Among the perks for donors are seed packages with enough traditional and exotic heirloom seed varieties to fill a 1.2-metre-square garden plot and a half day of training in urban agriculture at Farm on Wheels for everyone who sponsors a teacher in the training program.