Finding the linkage between agricultural economics and environmental stewardship

Annabel Ivey, an undergraduate Environmental and Water Resource Economics (EWRE) major, had the opportunity to intern with the infamous Tucson Village Farm (TVF) in Tucson, AZ, during her spring semester. Read here about Annabel's experience at the farm that led her to understand her true interests for her academic and professional career options. 

Over the past 16 years, TVF has established several workshop programs that involve young generations of the community to live healthily and learn the process of how to do just that. 

Annabel worked alongside TVF employees and volunteers as an educator and environmental steward, providing lessons to groups of elementary students on field trips.  

Annabel explained that the field trip programs that she was involved with were called ‘Growing Forward’ and ‘Dig In!’. These two programs are the first of their kind to be introduced to TVF and were started with the support of the University of Arizona’s Cooperative Extension team. Each of the field trip programs targets certain age groups and provides farm-based education involving classroom-like lessons, interactive stations, and hands-on activities. 

Annabel credits her ability to deliver lessons to the field trip groups and enhance her experience as an intern at the farm to her varied AREC courses. She explained that her coursework about utilizing “agricultural economic policy solutions and moral suasion as an economic tool” was easily applicable to her involvement around the farm and provided the lessons in effective ways. 

Specifically, she explained that her study of the egg market in an AREC course supported her comprehension of the impacts on the TVF and made it easy to explain this issue to her younger audience.  

She also shared that, “other small insights like this led to great connections, even when I was weeding the rows of crops and observing the irrigation systems. The Tucson Village Farm is an exemplary instance of adaptation and technological innovation, as an urban desert farm takes a lot of work and consideration to function.” 

Overall, Annabel had an enjoyable and impactful internship with the TVF. She found her joy in teaching and being involved in the community in ways she was not able to before.  

She explained, “The hope is that the students and families we worked with will carry these lessons with them into their homes, their communities, and eventually pass them down to their children. That is how environmental change happens: not all at once, but slowly and meaningfully, one experience at a time.”