This month, on a three-acre plot at the Applied Sciences Complex, several Iowa State students will plant the first seeds of a new learning technique.

The students are participating in “Heenah Mahyah,” a new student-operated farm focused on growing fresh, healthy crops without synthetic chemicals.

The organic focus makes Heenah Mahyah — a native Iowa term meaning Mother Earth — unique and interesting to students like senior in anthropology, Pernell Plath. “I think this project is a great opportunity to get involved and learn more about all aspects of sustainable agriculture,” Plath said.

Jeff Hall, a graduate student in interdisciplinary studies and one of the organizers of the project, agrees.

“Community-supported agriculture is a way to connect consumers and producers, and one of the goals of the student farm is to involve students in the local food system,” Hall said.

This type of learning is the intent of the farm, the only one of its kind in Iowa, Ricardo Salvador, the professor of agronomy who serves as faculty adviser to Heenah Mahyah, said.

The farm began over a year ago with a grant from the W. K. Kellogg Foundation’s Vision 2020 Project. With that money, the project was able to secure equipment and land. The group will start with 3.5 acres, with the goal of eventually expanding to 25 acres, Salvador said.

By practicing organic community-centered agriculture and tightly integrating with similar efforts, Heenah Mahyah will provide a unique opportunity to learn about alternative agriculture, Salvador said. Though the project now has a loose organization of volunteers, the goal is to eventually integrate it into classes and Iowa State curriculum.

The idea for the farm came after Hall and other students worked for The Magic Beanstalk, a local community-supported agriculture project. The Magic Beanstalk connects local organic producers with consumers, providing a guaranteed direct market. “Hopefully, in the near future we will be selling resources through the Magic Beanstalk,” Plath said.

The relationship with Magic Beanstalk would be a good fit. “We are looking for ways to produce that would not put us in direct competition” with commercial growers, Salvador said.

The opportunities the farm presents are not just for agriculture majors, Plath said. Heenah Mahyah has students from varied majors like landscape architecture, food science and anthropology.

For all this to come together, the plants need to get in the ground, Plath said. The first planting date, April 12, was canceled due to the snow. No future date has been set yet.

The plot is located 1.5 miles directly northwest of Agronomy Hall on the north side of the 1200 block of Ontario Avenue.

Heenah Mahyah’s web site is at http://www.agron.iastate.edu/studentfarm/index.html.