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CENTRE FOR SUSTAINABLEFOOD SYSTEMS AT UBC FARMSowing the Seeds for the FutureFor the past three seasons, The Centre for Sustainable Food Systemsat UBC Farm has offered aspiring growers, educators and agriculturalprofessionals the opportunity to further their education through apracticum in sustainable agriculture.The Sowing Seeds for the Future program is a part-time, eight monthpracticum that offers instruction and daily work experience in smallscalesustainable farm management. In a balanced, hands-on learningapproach, students work alongside staff in the greenhouse, gardens,fields, and orchard, and attend lectures, demonstrations, and visitsto other local farms. They also participate in a variety of practical andreflective educational activities.“This program offers students the opportunity to develop skillsthrough daily and seasonal activities like planning, production, cropcare, harvesting and marketing,” said Mark Bomford,the Centre’s Director.The program runs from March until November. During the growingseason, the students spend between 7-21 hours a week on the24 hectare UBC Farm, gaining experience in the production anddirect marketing of a wide range of horticultural crops and animalenterprises in a mixed farm setting.Brittany Buchanan, an undergraduate in Applied Biology and oneof ten students enrolled in the 2010 program, blogged about herexperience as part of her directed-studies learning objective.“Being a farmer is hard work,” she said. “It’s a job that demands a hugebreadth of skills and knowledge. I wanted to learn more about theinter-workings of an organic farm system, and this program seemedlike a good fit for me.”Bringing Flavour Back to the TomatoTo many consumers, the tomato has become an indicator of foodsystem health. Or – in the minds of foodies everywhere – theembodiment of a food system that’s lost its flavour. Indeed, thishigh-value crop is in great demand and tastes best when grown closeto where it’s consumed. However, use of conventional fertilizers isthought to have robbed the tomato of its true taste.Plant Science graduate student Greg Rekken and Dr. Andrew Riseman,Associate Professor in the Faculty of Land and Food Systems, havetaken their quest for the perfect tasting local tomato to the Centre forSustainable Food Systems at UBC Farm, where they have embeddedtheir research into the Farm’s existing production system.With the goal of developing a sustainable organic nutrientmanagement system for tomato hoop house production, a range oflocal and farm-derived fertilizers were assessed. Alternative fertilizersincluded a green manure (i.e., hairy vetch), composted poultry manure,and a kelp-based liquid fertilizer.Preliminary results indicate these sustainable fertilizers producedhigh-quality tomatoes in sufficient quantities to be economicallyviable. Additional analyses on fruit traits will include sugar and proteincontent as well as total soluble solids.Through this research, Rekken and Dr. Riseman hope to inform farmersabout the options available regarding alternative fertilizers that canimprove their production systems and farm-wide sustainability whilekeeping costs down. Additionally, this project demonstrates howresearch and production goals can be synergistic, enabling farmersand researchers to quantify ways of improving their farming practiceswithout a loss in production.20 Faculty of Land and Food Systems Annual Report 2009 | 2010