New Ground Logo
OVERALL PROJECT
During this short 2 week "blitz," my group and I were able to achieve a very interesting project! An artist named Marc O'Brien, previously a professor here at SUNY Fredonia, came back to conduct a "Blitz" with a few of the design classes in Fredonia's VANM department. The goal of this project was to create something that would contribute to a healthy utopia of 2040. My group decided to focus on the soil health of Fredonia, and that's how we created "New Ground."
SPECIFICS
While doing extensive research, which can be seen here, we were inspired to encourage the community not just within the walls of SUNY Fredonia, but Fredonia as a whole, to get involved in the mission to bring local farming and agriculture back. From our research, and from being a part of the community anyway, we knew that the amount of farms in our area were continuously decreasing. We wanted to do something about this, not just for the project but for our community. When we realized that the lack of soil health was such a huge factor into the lack of our farms and fresh produce, we were driven to make our soil healthy again by creating a communal composting system.
The soil trafficability in Fredonia is extremely low, if at all trafficable (able to use for growth). According to the National Agricultural Statistics Service, in just 10 years (from 2007 to 2017), the growth and harvest of vegetables alone had decreased by ≅ 66%. The farming community as a whole has decreased exponentially in Fredonia. There is also a substantial amount of toxic waste being dumped around Fredonia according to its city data page.
To start the process, my group and I bounced back and forth ideas on what we could do to improve the soil and bring back farming to our town. We agreed that composting could be used to a much higher degree, and our idea was to put compost bins placed around campus to inspire students to reduce food waste, give nutrient soil to farms, and encourage the community to follow in the campus’ footsteps. This could also start new job opportunities by transporting the compost bins to and from campus and from homes around the town that choose to participate in our "mission."