From the Classroom to the Fields: Student Environmental Group Focuses on Sustainability, Helps Farmers

In the spring of 2008, UW-Madison sophomore Xavier Curtis sat in a crammed lecture hall anxiously waiting for class to start. As students piled into the rickety wooden seats and the chatter quieted down, Professor Jack Kloppenberg wrote the name of the class on the blackboard: “IES 112, Introduction to Environmental Studies.”

Curtis had enrolled in an introductory course, but environmental advocacy ran in his family. His father is a longtime environmental activist who has worked for Greenpeace and the World Wildlife Federation. Curtis says taking Kloppenburg’s course made him better understand his father’s passion—and moved him to become an environmental activist. By the end of the semester, he had founded ReThink Wisconsin, a student organization that encourages sustainable waste practices on the UW-Madison campus.

“[ReThink] is a really cool thing to come out of my class,” says Kloppenberg, who serves as the group’s faculty advisor. In the last few years, he says, several students have spoken to him about the lack of a unified campus recycling program. “What was interesting was that the students all came to me individually,” he says, “not knowing that there were others who shared the same idea as they did.”

ReThink now has over 30 members and has organized campaigns to send used bicycles to developing countries, collect unwanted goods for donation on student “move out day,” and educate UW-Madison football fans about recycling. Curtis, who is now a senior, serves as the group’s co-president.

Last year Curtis helped launch an initiative that expanded ReThink’s focus beyond waste management strategies. The program, called “farm mobbing,” pairs volunteers with local farms for a day of planting, harvesting and other chores. Curtis came up with the idea after volunteering on a farm to earn extra credit in Kloppenburg’s class. The name is taken from a New York Times article, published in February 2010, which describes “crop mobbing,” a trend “in which landless farmers and the agricurious descend on a farm for an afternoon.”

Curtis pitched his idea to ReThink and received an enthusiastic response. With Kloppenberg’s help, he scheduled ReThink’s first official farm mob last fall at Sprouting Acres Farm in Cambridge, Wis., about 20 miles southeast of Madison. The event was a success: 30 volunteers spent a weekend harvesting vegetables from the fields. At the group’s second “mob,” which took place in late March, over 20 people helped build a greenhouse at Scotch Hill Farm in Brodhead, Wis. Curtis says several other farms have signed up to host future events.

“Farmers always love volunteers who are eager to help out with chores,” Curtis says. “It takes a lot of coordination, though. I mean, it’s about getting people out on actual farms, devoting about four hours of their time and picking the farmers’ produce for them.”

Farm mobbing is meant to be educational for volunteers, too. Host farmers must give a talk about the farm’s production methods and provide volunteers with a meal or take-home box of produce. The idea is to express appreciation, Curtis says, but also to raise awareness about sustainable agricultural practices—and get students hooked on the goodness and quality of organic, locally grown food.

The efforts are paying off. Joe Koziol, a UW-Madison sophomore and member of ReThink, says, “Farm mobbing is awesome… It really makes students and farmers develop a bond. It made me aware of the labor and process behind farming.”

After Curtis graduates next month, he plans to remain active in environmental advocacy. He’s thought about joining the Peace Corps or moving west to help on a farm.

“A friend and I are thinking about the farm idea,” he says. “It seems like a good way to continue what I love to do and still have fun.”