When most people think of a farm, they may imagine it being in a rural area surrounded by fields that touch the horizon. But some people may be surprised to find out they can find one in the middle of the city at Pierce College.
The Pierce farm offers a unique opportunity to educate people on crop cultivation, animal husbandry and where their food comes from. A place to learn about farm work may not be easily accessible because farms are usually located quite some distance away from cities.
Many people in the Los Angeles area may not know that the school has a farm, and even some Pierce students don’t know it exists. To increase awareness about the farm and the services it provides, Pierce should host a Farm Day when people are invited to observe and learn more about what the farm offers.
Having a Farm Day is important to spread awareness of these resources. In addition to raising awareness of what the Pierce farm can offer, a Farm Day can also help bring in additional funding through donations, a farmers market selling the crops the school grows and charging a fee for a petting zoo or horseback riding.
The school first opened in 1947 as the Clarence W. Pierce School of Agriculture, according to the Pierce Academic Pathways website. Despite the school branching out into other fields such as automotive technology, nursing and physical and planetary sciences, the farm is the foundation of the school and should be given a bigger spotlight.
Raising awareness through a Farm Day can help increase enrollment in agriculture-related classes by making people aware that the farm as a learning tool is here. A Farm Day would open the doors to people who want to get some farm work experience, even if they are not fully committed to pursuing a degree in agricultural studies or adjacent disciplines.
Being able to secure additional funding through a Farm Day can also prevent the need to sell further acreage of the farm to feed back into it. A 2014 article by the Roundup details how historically, parts of the farm that were considered surplus or unnecessary were sold to continue to fund the agriculture department, but little profits were actually seen. The chair of the agriculture department at the time of the article, Leland Shapiro, said the continued sale of the land made it harder to maintain the animals and crops, and train students.
Beyond the educational services the farm provides, it also benefits the community during times of emergency. According to the Roundup, the Pierce farm served as a large animal evacuation center during the Franklin and Palisades fires that broke out this past winter.
Agriculture was at one point Pierce’s signature field of study, although it has dwindled. A Farm Day should be held to potentially bring in money to help sustain the farm, and raise awareness about the opportunities it provides.