The Potential of Campus Food Gardens to Achieve Student Food Literacy and Security in Australia

Abstract

The chapter highlights the growing phenomenon of hunger in affluent nations among vulnerable groups, such as university students. It draws on the results of two studies on food insecurity in the student body at an Australian university in Sydney. It highlights the need and desire of students for increased food literacy at a formative stage of their lives, noting the absence of food growing skills as a recognised part of current understanding of food literacy. The chapter discusses the way in which urbanisation and modern food systems have created such a profound disconnect between people and food production that it no longer occurs to governments and institutions in the Global North that people could grow their own food. The chapter explores historical and global examples of urban agriculture producing meaningful quantities of supplementary food, particularly in times of crisis. Urban agriculture can augment access to safe and nutritious foods (SDG2.1), increase productivity of small producers through knowledge dissemination (SDG2.3), create resilient agricultural practices, maintain ecosystems (SDG2.4), and genetic diversity of seeds through seed-saving practices (SDG2.5). The chapter concludes with a case study of a campus food garden used to increase student food literacy, providing an exemplar for higher education institutions that want to engage with the aims of SDG2 in the context of their own campus.

Citation

Lin, S., Sherry, C., Milstein, T., Mihrshahi, S. and Grafenauer, S. (2024), "The Potential of Campus Food Gardens to Achieve Student Food Literacy and Security in Australia", Cripps, K. and Thondre, P.S. (Ed.) Higher Education and SDG2: Zero Hunger (Higher Education and the Sustainable Development Goals), Emerald Publishing Limited, Leeds, pp. 117-136. https://doi.org/10.1108/978-1-83608-458-720241006