Powering Healthy Food Systems and Carbon Neutrality on a Campus Farm

Climate Action to Ease Climate Anxiety

A landmark survey showed that 84 percent of young people ages 16-25 are moderately to extremely worried about climate change and that this is having a negative effect on their daily lives. This eco-anxiety is manifested in feelings of sadness, anxiety and anger.

Universities are positioned to address this climate anxiety in Gen Z by positioning sustainability as a cause beyond environmentalism and promoting events as opportunities for students to work together. Service learning projects have been shown to give university students a sense of hope and increase their sustainability competencies, such as systems thinking, creative thinking and action competence.

This project engaged students in authentic climate actions that have real-world impacts on carbon emissions. This involved building community engaged, climate-forward experiences at an existing Land Lab to produce food for local markets using sustainable practices, grow tree seedlings for reforestation and study whether student engagement in these activities reduces feelings of climate despair.

Activities

• Consulted with farmers to generate experimental ideas
• Established a one-acre biochar experiment to study its effects on soil health and cover crop growth
• Mentored seven undergraduate students in conducting day-to-day operations at the farm
• Started the student-run tree nursery at the Land Lab
• Reinvigorated the Land Lab’s sustainable agriculture mission by planting a quarter acre diversified market garden of vegetables and flowers that were sold to UMD Dining Services, campus faculty and staff, and community organizations
• Increased to two quarter acre plots in 2025
• Created and planted a biochar tree seedling experiment
• Mentored a graduate student in the creation and deployment of climate action lesson plans that were taught on and off the farm
• Created a battery of pre-post surveys that were deployed in conjunction with participation in climate action lesson plans to measure undergraduate climate anxiety, environmental self efficacy, and intentions toward future sustainability involvement in 2025-2026

Outcomes

• Installed a 14kW solar array through joint partnership which powers coolers for tree seedling overwintering and summer produce storage (with excess power generation credits supporting ongoing maintenance and operations)
• Through partnership with UMD Facilities Management, rehabilitated an on-site small (3kW) wind turbine which is now producing power for the first time in 10 years 
• Established relationships with 16 new campus & community organizations/contacts
• Raised over 10,000 climate smart tree seedlings for local reforestation projects
• Grew and sold/distributed thousands of pounds of produce & flowers within the Duluth and UMD campus community
• Survey results suggest that place-based climate action education may support students' sense of capacity and willingness to remain engaged, even while climate anxiety does not significantly decrease

Take a look into student work at the Land Lab in this video.