Cornercopia is an organic farm that provides students hands-on farming opportunities, food for the local community, and a place for community building, multi-disciplinary education, and research. The organic farm produces turnips, strawberries, ginger, beets, chickens, and a variety of lettuces.
College: University of Minnesota
Location: St. Paul, Minnesota
Size: 6 acres (approximately 261,360 feet squared)
Management Structure: Seven student interns are hired yearly to help manage the farm. These internships fill the requirement of the College of Food, Agricultural and Natural Resource Sciences (CFANS) to fulfill one” hands-on, high-impact experiential learning activity prior to graduation”. Advisors to the farm interns and the farm itself come from the Horticulture, Agronomy and Plant Genetics, Applied Economics departments, and from the Animal Science Extension.
Unique features: The farm plays a unique role to researchers across the University of Minnesota as a place to test new methods of agriculture. These may range from a strip of rye used to compare brewing techniques, to a row of broccoliused to test new methods of pest control, such as novel aphids.
Small animals including rabbits and chickens have recently become part of the equation, their manure looping back into the system as it is used to fertilize the crops of the Cornercopia Student Organic Farm
Learn more: Please visit the Cornercopia blog, or contact [email protected]