The University of Oregon’s Urban Farm is a nature lover’s paradise

“There are many students who never got dirty or picked up a shovel,” Keeler said. “They never had the opportunity to think about where their food comes from because that is the pace of our society. We have seen a paradigm shift in students saying this class has changed their mind.”

By Brandon Roth
Daily Emerald
Oct 7, 2021

Excerpt:

Urban Farmer director Harper Keeler has maintained a community of students with an interest in sustainability and learning ancient customs of producing resources since his promotion to his current title in 2008. He said the complexity of the current food system is “horrific,” and causing “global climate change effects.” Keeler explains the program demonstrates how people can work together to solve global catastrophes such as food insecurity and wasting resources to distribute food across the country.

“Ask the question: ‘Where does our food come from?’” Keeler said. “And then the human stories start to talk. It is obvious that food comes from 2000 miles away. There is little chance people know where their food comes from.”

Industrial agriculture thrives on calling itself modern based on its maximized product efficiency methods, mechanization and scientifically engineered species of crops. Keeler disagrees with this idea because it’s only 75 years old. The modern methods have proven to be disastrous from the existence of mass scale farms producing chemical and biological runoff that create toxic water systems. He believes food should be sourced from local farmers and grown organically.

“There are many versions of something organic still grown in the industrial scale,” Keeler said. “Lots of people argue local is more important than organic. Local-organic is most likely the best because we are assured there are no pesticides or genetically modified seeds.”

During Keeler’s childhood, he spent time in his grandfather’s garden. He came from a long line of dairy farmers on his paternal side but did not pursue working with agriculture full time until he received his bachelor’s degree in landscape architecture at UO in 1995. Keeler became involved with the Urban Farm as an undergraduate and has continued to be a part of its team ever since. Keeler encourages students to question society’s harmful practices and discover food alternatives to have a lower environmental impact.

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