Page 6 - Impact - Winter 2021

Emerging farmers
JULIE GROSSMAN, PH.D., ASSOCIATE PROFESSOR, HORTICULTURAL SCIENCE
SCIENCE STUDENT, SOCIAL JUSTICE STEWARD
Bryant Jones believes in the power of community — and the power of plants. This enterprising CFANS plant science senior has done volumes
of impressive work in horticultural
science — and has supported and uplifted his community through personal social justice initiatives — all as an undergraduate.
To Jones, food is community.
Food is self-determination. “It's
very practical and pragmatic,” he
said. “And I feel the skills taught in CFANS should be mandatory to all humans. Having an in-depth knowledge of plant life cycles and how they impact your life is a skill that should never be overlooked.”
Plant science has given Jones the infrastructure he needs to complete research approved by the U of M Board of Regents on the medical and cosmetic use of Cannabis sativa.
“Through CFANS, I have been able to explore the things that excite me in horticulture and in many cases have taken me outside the classroom,” said Jones. One of his research projects focused on testing new methods of plant management to drive down costs for the Minnesota Medical Cannabis Program.
His work extends to the community. Following George Floyd’s murder, Jones and others founded the Twin Cities Relief Initiative. “We were a group of friends who noticed the need to keep people's bellies full and provide hydration to people protesting,” he said. “Our goal is continuing to provide high-quality food and essential products to people that need to focus on everything else in life.” He hopes to someday build a Minneapolis food jungle in collaboration with Horticultural Science Professor Tom Michaels and local business.
The story of how Big River Farms and the U of M are improving soil health, pollinator habitat and landscape cover has several “plots” centered on cover crops and intended to make the science of environmentally-friendly farming accessible to emerging farmers.
Big River Farms, a non-profit incubator farm in Minnesota, offers education in organic agriculture to farmers who have historically been discriminated against in the food and farming system, such as BIPOC, Latinx, women, and New American farmers.
For several years, Big River Farms has partnered with Julie Grossman, associate professor in Horticultural Science, and her team, using science to enhance soil quality, improve nutrient management and increase productivity.
Last summer, farmers collaborated with Grossman’s
team to plant cover crops, including legumes and grasses. Planting between cycles of main crops is used for soil health and other land benefits.
“Working with the Grossman Lab helped make the practice of cover cropping much more approachable,” said Molly Schaus, farm director at Big River Farms at the time. “The research they conducted is in a real farm setting, and they focus on studying practices that are actually realistic for farmers to implement.”
For Madison Moses, a Ph.D. student in applied plant sciences and DOVE and CFANS Diversity Fellow, the summer was all about testing which cover crops perform best at different times, such as “after spring greens” and “before fall broccoli.”
“We’re particularly interested in trade-offs between nitrogen provision and pollinator benefits in cover crops,” said Moses. “It has been exciting to see the differences in growth patterns between some of the cover crops we’re using."
apply science, explore
soil-improving crops