Our Mission:
ASU Farm is dedicated to fostering a vibrant and inclusive community, cultivating character through sustainable practices, and educating students as whole people. We strive to reconnect people to the land, deepen our understanding of our interdependency with the natural world, and strengthen ecological relations. Our mission is to heal and enrich our relationships with each other and the environment, promoting a future of collective well-being, sustainability, and growth.
Rooted in Principles: ASU Farm & Principled Innovation
Cultivating Beyond Crops — Nurturing Values
ASU Farm transcends mere agriculture; it fosters community and cultivates the character of those who participate in farming practices. As a demonstration project in Principled Innovation, we imbue the cultivation of character and values into the fabric of sustainable farming. At ASU Farm, students and communities participate in a hands-on lab where students and communities come together to shape a more just and sustainable future.
A growing number of universities and colleges in the United States and beyond have begun to focus on the cultivation of character and virtue among undergraduates in universities and colleges. For example, there is the Oxford Character Project, Jubilee Center for Character and Virtues, The Program for Leadership and Character and The Human Flourishing Program. However, no one to our knowledge has proposed to establish a robust network of farms with the explicit mission to cultivate both plants and people. ASU Farm aims to fill this gap by creating shared space for the cultivation of civic, moral, and intellectual virtues among ASU students and community members.
This project aims to achieve a variety of goals that are consistent with PI, such as integrating this design aspiration into our various initiatives that will reach ASU’s faculty, staff and students; introducing faculty, staff and students to the PI framework; creating novel and experiential classes for ASU students that are designed to develop character, which results in individual and community flourishing.
Many people know what it means to cultivate plants but what does it mean to cultivate character? Cultivating character is the intentional and continuous effort to develop and strengthen positive qualities – virtues – in individuals and communities. Cultivating character involves the deliberate practice of, for example, honesty, integrity, responsibility, empathy, perseverance, humility, that contribute to moral behavior and attitudes. Cultivating character goes beyond simply acquiring knowledge in the classroom; it focuses on building a strong moral and ethical foundation through practices over time.
This process of character formation often involves self-reflection, self-discipline, and a commitment to personal growth. It may also include learning from experiences, both positive and negative, and using them as opportunities for self-improvement. Cultivating character within the agricultural context, whether through plain speech or metaphorically, has been endorsed by many thinkers over millennia, including Confucius, Thomas Jefferson, and Wendell Berry.
ASU Tempe: A Living Arboretum
On Nov. 20, 1990, the ASU Tempe campus was officially dedicated an arboretum by former ASU President Lattie F. Coor. The grounds of the Tempe campus are open and accessible to the public.
The Arboretum is managed by the Facilities Management Ground Services department.
This project is sponsored by
