‘No social justice without food justice’: VSU’s urban ag program whets appetite for farming
A certificate in Sustainable Urban Agriculture is part of the Virginia State University’s curriculum, and some go to Randolph Farm or Petersburg’s Harding Street to do it
By Zoe Collins Rath
The Progress-Index
June 30, 2021
Excerpt:
Dr. S. Aisha Steplight-Johnson earned her Ph.D. from Temple University in African-American studies but has a great interest in agriculture. To combine the two as a push for more racial progress, she enrolled in Virginia State University’s College of Agriculture’s Sustainable Urban Agriculture certificate program.
“Agriculture is a part of our roots, it’s a part of our humanity,” she said.
The certificate program is for people who want to further their studies in agriculture and learn how to do urban farming. Before graduating a student must complete 80 hours of work on an approved urban farm. The professor in charge is Dr. Leonard Githinji who has been at VSU for the past seven years.
“Here students are walking as they are learning,” he says.
There are three elements to the College of Agriculture. First is the academics. The second part is research which is also done on the farm. The third is the Cooperative Extension which includes Randolph Farm in Chesterfield and the Harding Street Urban Agriculture Center in Petersburg.
