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With energy costs up and electricity demand climbing, Stanford researchers are leading efforts to make clean power affordable and reliable for all while cutting the emissions that drive climate change. Their work ranges from deep underground heat to solar on farms, renewable fuels, and upgrades for the power grid and batteries.

A new solar-powered microgrid at the O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm will meet on-site energy needs while providing students with hands-on experience in agroecology, energy systems, and the clean-energy transition.

A decade ago, the O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm was established after years of student advocacy. Today, it thrives as a hub for teaching, research, and campus life.

Dozens of faculty members at Stanford are working to transform the way the world grows, distributes, and consumes food, with research and scholarship spanning topics including sustainable food systems, food security, health equity, culture, and diet.

A new anthology of environmental justice storytelling from the Environmental Justice Working Group at Stanford addresses topics including childhood lead poisoning, extreme weather events, and connection to nature.

Acacia Lynch is enthusiastic about farming, food systems, and inviting others into these efforts in the field and the classroom.

Artists Kim Anno and Gao Ling discuss the role of the humanities in environmental justice work during an evening of conversation and community art-making.

Stanford Earth’s 2020 photo contest drew 156 photographs from faculty, students, and staff. The images captured experiences coping with COVID-19 and more, as well as close encounters with nature from activities before the pandemic.

Jennifer Saltzman discussed her role in the Bright STaRS program, which has been influential for scholars at Stanford Earth including Farm intern Claire Valva, local high schooler Michael Wucher and alumni Daniel Ibarra and Jason Stuckey.

“I think it’s harder for us knowing people are not able to be here when they want to be here," said Allison Bauer, facility and production coordinator at the O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm. "We get calls from our volunteers all the time, and so I think hearing that is hard for us. We want them to be able to experience this place like us, too.”

Although the farm still sends produce to Lakeside Dinning and Stanford Catering on campus, its main beneficiary is now Loaves & Fishes Family Kitchen – a local nonprofit soup kitchen.

The student group’s new name comes with a refocused mission to center the importance of human connection to land and indigenous knowledge in agricultural systems.

Mechanical engineering students use the Stanford farm as a testing ground for environmental solutions.

Earth Systems alumna Riya Mehta turns hands-on experience into a career in public policy as legislative assistant for U.S. Congressman Jimmy Panetta.

Bay Area residents have the opportunity to learn firsthand about organic farming by pitching in as volunteers.

"Slowing down and working with your hands and being connected to the earth in that way is very important," says farm volunteer Mark Ferguson. "It's easy to forget that nature is all around us."

Americans like their burgers. In 2016, they ate an average of 55.6 pounds of beef per person, according to the U.S. Department of Agriculture, up from 54 pounds the year before.

Stanford Earth received a 2019 American Institute of Architects Design Award from the San Francisco chapter for the barn at the O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm.

Ever wondered why Stanford is affectionately called “The Farm?” Stanford actually has its roots in farming. The Stanfords’ founding grant decreed that “a farm for instruction in agriculture” should forever be maintained on university lands.

Projects in The Senior Reflection mix science with art. They have included documentaries, sculptures and performances and expressed students’ views on nature, health and personal experiences. Earth systems student Alex Nguyen-Phuc, ’18 was featured for the eight-course dinner she served at the O’Donohue Family Stanford Educational Farm.

Stanford Earth aims to draw more than 1,000 students from multiple majors for field learning every year at its working farm, complete with animals and crops.