MANSFIELD — An announcement regarding “significant funding” of the microfarm project being coordinated through The Ohio State University-Mansfield is expected in the next several days.
In fact, Kent “Kip” Curtis and Brian Snyder from the local campus had hoped to be able to provide the good news when they attended the Richland County commissioners meeting on Tuesday morning.
“We had hoped not to be embargoed at this point, but we are,” Curtis said.
The duo promised commissioners the news would soon be forthcoming about the project, the goal of which is to spawn 16 to 18 local microfarms (up to half an acre) in the area that eventually produce and sell enough niche crops to become fully sustainable drivers in the Mansfield-area economy.
Curtis, an associate professor of environmental history, brought the microfarm concept to the regional campus in 2017. Curtis and OSU students built a demonstration farm in a parking lot on the west side of campus, featuring two high tunnels and 20 additional raised beds on one-third of an acre.
The tunnels feature a series of hoops made of metal or plastic covered with poly plastic that use heat from the sun to raise plants beyond the typical growing season.
The farm has extended the campus growing season to year-round, crops used to produce fresh fruits and vegetables for the campus cafeteria and at a reduced cost for north end Mansfield residents through the North End Community Improvement Collaborative.
Snyder, executive director of one of the leading sustainable agriculture organizations in the nation, joined the Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation at OSU in Columbus as it pursues its mission to create sustainable and resilient food systems for Ohio and beyond.
The two were joined at the commissioners meeting by Norman Jones, dean and director of the OSU-Mansfield campus.
Known as InFACT, the Initiative for Food and AgriCultural Transformation pursues holistic approaches to ensure good food for all. Its work is based on collaboration across the sciences, engineering and humanities, as well as the engagement of external partners in government and private industry.
OSU’s leadership in Columbus has said the university will invest nearly $100 million to address food security over the next decade, both in microfarms and larger producers.
“The hallmark of our program is we’re hiring 30 new faculty members to do research on food security from all different perspectives,” Snyder said. “We have already got about 20 of those faculty hired. We also have a couple hundred other faculty across the university that are affiliated with our program.”
Two of those faculty members, including Curtis, are at the Mansfield campus.
“We’re going to be working to resolve food security problems across the state of Ohio and beyond,” Snyder said.
Curtis said, “The plan that is put together was to seed some assets into a system that assembles producers, aggregates their produce and does a consumer-oriented, value-oriented production system.
“Keeping food locally is not first priority, keeping the dollars locally is the first priority,” Curtis said.
The local producers would be part of a cooperative, which would market the crops, create the contracts and instruct producers what to grow, such as beets or green peppers, “because we have them sold at the highest price point,” Curtis said.
One such local microfarm will likely be based in Mansfield in the area of West Fourth Street and Rowland Avenue. A local couple there has purchased several lots through the Richland County Land Bank and recently asked Mansfield City Council to vacate an alley in the area to make movement by foot safer in the area.
Curtis said other local potential producers have self-identified and will be trained in the microfarm production process.
