News

“I think it’s harder for us knowing people are not able to be here when they want to be here," said Allison Bauer, facility and production coordinator at the O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm. "We get calls from our volunteers all the time, and so I think hearing that is hard for us. We want them to be able to experience this place like us, too.”

Although the farm still sends produce to Lakeside Dining and Stanford Catering on campus, its main beneficiary is now Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen – a local nonprofit soup kitchen.

The student group’s new name comes with a refocused mission to center the importance of human connection to land and indigenous knowledge in agricultural systems.

Mechanical engineering students use the Stanford farm as a testing ground for environmental solutions.

Riya Mehta, Earth Systems ’18, is using her degree to help inform agricultural policy in Washington, D.C.

Bay Area residents have the opportunity to learn firsthand about organic farming by pitching in as volunteers.

"Slowing down and working with your hands and being connected to the earth in that way is very important," says farm volunteer Mark Ferguson. "It's easy to forget that nature is all around us."

Americans like their burgers. In 2016, they ate an average of 55.6 pounds of beef per person, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, up from 54 pounds the year before.

Stanford Earth received a 2019 American Institute of Architects Design Award from the San Francisco chapter for the barn at the O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm.

Ever wondered why Stanford is affectionately called “The Farm?” Stanford actually has its roots in farming. The Stanfords’ founding grant decreed that “a farm for instruction in agriculture” should forever be maintained on university lands.

Earth systems student Alex Nguyen-Phuc, ’18 created an eight-course dinner as a final project for The Senior Reflection, a year-long course that culminates in a work of art that explores a scientific topic.

Stanford Earth aims to draw more than 1,000 students from multiple majors for field learning every year at its working farm, complete with animals and crops.