Research is formalized curiosity.
It is poking and prying with a purpose.
— Zora Neale Hurston
In addition to producing and distributing organically-grown seeds to local partners…
…working with researchers and citizen scientists is a focus of our plan for educational programming and data collection.
Explore below to learn about our research philosophy,
and to find inspiration for what you might like to study.
A NEW KIND OF RESEARCH COMMUNITY
A recent study from the Kavli Foundation found 94% of Americans are interested in at least one area of scientific study, and that it was evenly distributed “across gender, age, race/ethnicity, income, geography, education, and political ideology.”
According to the study, subjects cited curiosity as the most common motivation for their interest in science. After curiosity followed mastery, joy, autonomy, and [to] recharge [sic].
Yet only 7% of the American workforce is employed in Science, Technology, Engineering, and Mathematics (STEM) occupations. This suggests that there are a great number of people that want to participate in science, but lack opportunity — especially women and BIPOC communities, who remain underrepresented in STEM fields. Thus we aim to engage our members and beneficiaries in studying our seeds — and our work.
By opening our work to scientific inquiry, we can also adapt our practices as we grow based on evidence. And by engaging with researchers, citizen scientists and students, we aim to normalize and democratize the collective production of environmental science.
“No research without action, no action without research!”
— Kurt Lewin
We are working to create a sustainable organizational model for urban seed farming and plant breeding that is globally replicable. To do this we need to measure our progress across all of our areas of impact — our urban environment, our community, and our members.
If you are an undergraduate or graduate student, PhD candidate or working researcher that would like to study our work, please contact us. Citizen scientists — with or without prior experience — are also warmly welcome. To collectively navigate our environmental crises on a local level, we need all hands on deck!
We aim to measure our impacts on our local environment over time, including changes in soil health, biodiversity, air quality, soil porosity and organic matter content (which helps conserve water in drought and absorb it in floods), and urban heat island mitigation.
We also want to understand our role in developing a climate-resilient food system through plant breeding program. For this, we aim to measure susceptibility to pests and diseases in our crops, as well as physical and genetic changes in our most resilient, resistant, and productive crops across growing seasons.
Last but by no means least, we want to measure our social and economic impact on our members and the communities we serve. From the impact of grassroots participation on climate anxiety or the loneliness epidemic to the multiplier effect of our seed donations, we encourage research into our work across disciplines.
If you have an idea for a research study relevant to our work, please contact us at rhythmseedfarm@gmail.com