Karen R.M. Joslin and Rhonda Graef - "The Evolution of the Iowa State University Student Organic Farm"

Rhonda Graef is a graduate student in the Iowa State University Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture. She is a native of Wisconsin and received a BS in Agronomy from the University of Wisconsin - Madison. She moved to Ames, Iowa in 1999 and has been an active participant with the ISU Student Organic Farm. Rhonda currently serves as the farm organization’s treasurer. Through her studies and work, Rhonda has been involved with a variety of organic research projects. After graduation this summer, Rhonda hopes to be in a position that uses both education and research to support and promote sustainability and alternative agriculture systems.

Karen RM Joslin is a graduate student in the Horticulture Department and the Graduate Program in Sustainable Agriculture at Iowa State University. She is a recent transplant from the east coast where she received a BS in Sustainable Agriculture from Cornell University in Ithaca, New York. She has worked on organic farms in Norway and Pennsylvania and will be utilizing those experiences to co-manage the ISU Student Organic Farm. She is also the education coordinator for the farm and is currently working on putting together The Student Organic Farm Handbook.

The ISU Student Organic Farm offers hands-on experience in organic vegetable production to students of any discipline. Its members come from a variety of majors and a variety of backgrounds, but we share the concern that conventional agriculture may be depleting the soil, the fossil fuels, the genetic diversity, and the water that our ecosystems need to be sustainable. Our organization is dedicated to exploring more sustainable, environmentally friendly ways of growing food, and its 6-acre farm provides a perfect setting to experiment with some of these methods.

www.agron.iastate.edu/studentfarm/