The Land Stewardship Project (LSP) based in Lewiston, Minnesota works under the philosophy of "promoting the best in environmentally sound farming, while exposing and stopping the worst abuses in farming."

That was why Jonda Crosby, faculty manager at the University's Circleville Student Farm, and I attended a LSP Workshop for farmers wanting to farm more profitably and with less pollution.

LSP asked Jonda to talk to these Minnesota farmers about sustainable farming, and the experiences the Student Farm has gained by trying it.

Circleville Student Farm is run by students in the College of Agriculture, and has been since 1984. In 1984, the students received the farm on Circleville road from Farm Operations.

The land was exhausted from the perennial planting of corn and oats. Besides the soil erosion these crops caused residues from herbicides sprayed on the fields still limit the growth of vegetation on some areas of the Student Farm.

The students, with the help from interested faculty, developed a well-thought out plan to make the Student Farm a place where students and community members could learn practical farming skills.

The students transformed Circleville into a thing of beauty. The students wrote and implemented a SCS approved soil and water conservation plan for the farm.

The Student Farm is the University farm with such a plan. The Student Farm was the first University farmland to have a permit to apply sludge, even though sludge was being applied elsewhere.

The students cultivate the land using techniques which require less pesticides and herbicides. From the marketing of fresh vegetables and livestock to the managing for wildlife, the accomplishments of the students are too long to list. Indeed, the key to Circleville's success is students making the decisions on how the farm operates.

The Dean of the College of Agriculture, in a memo dated 2/24/89, effectively ended the student-run concept of the farm by returning the farm's management of the farm of Office of Farm Operations.

This decision came after the dean received numerous letters from students, faculty, community members and agricultural businessmen expressing their deep concern that doing away with the farm or its "student managed" philosophy would hurt student learning and the reputation of the college.

The Dean has made concessions to turn the farm into a place where faculty can competitively bid on student research projects. But by taking the farm's management away from the students, the value of the farm has been ruined.

I suggest a more moderate approach. Keep the decision-making of the farm under the leadership of the students, but let those interested in conducting student research projects be encouraged to submit research proposals. The selection committee would be best be comprised of students, thereby giving them invaluable experience.

The students at Circleville already conduct research, and know what kind of research would be best suited to the farm's conditions.

The Student Farm also is really one big experiment to see if students left to create, can build something of value. Anybody knowledgeable about farming will tell you, the students manage the land very wisely.