Campus garden initiatives can help grow the next generation of environmental change-makers

No longer a problem of the future, the climate crisis is now driving devastating real-world impacts here in Canada and worldwide.

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. The agricultural sector is simultaneously a major contributor to Canada’s greenhouse gas (GHG) emissions and itself highly vulnerable to climate change.

Amid this crisis, students are sowing seeds of change on university campuses across the country.

In a new article for The Conversation Canada, McGill Integrated Studies in Education Professor Blane Harvey and Faculty Lecturer Emily Diane Sprowls, along with University of Copenhagen Master's Student Zoë Deskin, write about their research with McGill University students participating in student-led campus- and community-based initiatives. Their findings show how these activities can support transformative opportunities for learning about, and acting on, food security and climate change.

Here on Macdonald Campus, you don't have to look very far to see evidence of such impacts: the Macdonald Student-Run Ecological Gardens and the McGill Feeding McGill program cultivate a sustainable future while empowering students with hands on farming experience that makes a tangible difference.

With the impacts of climate change only projected to grow in the years to come, the authors argue that educational institutions urgently need to step up to the scale and scope of the challenge by supporting student-led initiatives through the allocation of funds, space or mentorship to these efforts, or by expanding experiential learning within academic courses and programs.