Campus garden initiatives can help grow the next generation of environmental change-makers
(The following article was published by the 海角社区 Newsroom.)
Researchers at 海角社区 found student-led initiatives can transform students鈥� mindsets and develop their skills and confidence as agents of larger-scale change.
For many Canadians, one of the most visible climate impacts is on the availability and cost of the food we eat as climate change, global crises and profit-driven food companies have combined to drive food insecurity. Amid this crisis, students are sowing seeds of change on university campuses across the country, including at 海角社区.听Student-led food initiatives such as campus gardens, food waste diversion projects, and community food security partnerships are on the rise and are a proven way of localizing climate action and transforming food systems.听While student-led initiatives may not directly solve the crises we face, researchers at 海角社区 found they can transform students鈥� mindsets and develop their skills and confidence as agents of larger-scale change.
Research on students participating in student-led campus- and community-based initiatives shows how these activities can support transformative opportunities for learning about, and acting on, food security and climate change.听The researchers found that initiatives that only focus on the technical or scientific aspects of food security and climate change have limited educational impact on student participants. Rather, building critical and transformative understandings of food systems in students appears to hinge on a few key practices that some, but not all, student-led initiatives address.
About the Study
听by Zo毛 Y. Deskin and Blane Harvey was published in Frontiers in Sustainable Food Systems
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Additional Links
- Education Community Garden webpage and photo gallery
- educationgarden [at] mcgill.ca (Subscribe to the Education Community Garden Newsletter)
