About

The UBC Farm encompasses 24 hectares of integrated farm and forest lands on UBC’s South Campus. The farm is managed by the Centre for Sustainable Food Systems, which offers a wide range of interdisciplinary learning, research, and community programs on the site. Together, these programs explore and exemplify new paradigms for sustainable communities.

Situated within a 90-year old coastal hemlock forest, the UBC Farm comprises a mosaic of cultivated annual crop fields, perennial hedgerows and orchards, and successional forest stands. In the midst of a city, this landscape offers an important bridge between the rural and the urban.

Embodying UBC’s aspirations to be a “living laboratory,” the UBC Farm engages learners of all ages, from preschool through to faculty researchers. The farm is home to a range of research projects and university courses. Community involvement is integrated throughout its Children’s Learning Garden, Aboriginal programming, farm markets, and volunteer program.

The UBC Farm’s mission and vision is set forth in the document Cultivating Place, an academic plan for the South Campus area. This vision connects the Centre’s activities with UBC’s overarching Strategic Plan, Place and Promise, as well as its Sustainability Academic Strategy (pdf), International Strategy, and Aboriginal Strategic Plan.