Aarushi Ganguly is a recent MPhil graduate from the University of Cambridge’s Department of Land Economy. Her research explores the intersection of food systems, urbanization, and land use planning. She attended the AUC (Agricultural Universities Council) Summer School in June 2025.
As the dirt crumbles beneath my hiking shoes, I take a second to look around me. On the right are rows and rows of carefully planted plots, the result of thousands of trials over a century and half.Strangers, soon to be friends, dot my vision to the left of me. London air out of the system, this is us at Rothmasted Research.
Approximately 2 hours before that moment, I had never heard of this facility. Coming from the United States, my understanding of on-farm research was limited, since I had previously only worked on small scale, urban farms. My curiosity to better understand rural farming led me to apply for the AUC (AUC) Summer School on a whim, and that is how I found myself amongst the historic fields of Rothamsted Research.
Let’s take a step back. My name is Aarushi, and I just finished my MPhil in Planning Growth and Regeneration at the University of Cambridge. Before that, I studied Public Health at the University of Michigan, and sustainable food systems have become a passion of mine, starting with a summer in Detroit. I became so excited about urban food systems and began to explore the interactions between the built and natural environment. Both really impact our health, especially when considering how we grow and access food.
Starting this one-year MPhil in the UK, I was excited about how agricultural practices might differ from what I knew in the US. I took the opportunity to really dig into environmental planning and law to build a stronger foundation. I even decided to channel this interest in a larger research project: my dissertation. Focusing on allotment provisions in Cambridge, I was curious how policy might impact the relationships between local authorities and allotment societies. Right before the summer school, I had collected all my data and was in the homestretch of the project.
This Summer School came at the right time. Needing to get out of the library, the week was the perfect opportunity to challenge myself, meet new people, and open my mind to a whole new world. Touring farms, research projects, and historic universities, our cohort of around 20 students met and learned from the leaders in the field of food and farming research and practice. Here is the overview:
- 5 days.
- 4 nights.
- 4 farms:
Countless speakers and memories from: Rothamsted Research, British Beet Research Organisation (BBRO), Agri-TechE, Harper Adams University, University of Nottingham, and the Royal Agricultural University.
I had so much to harvest from the incredible week. Keeping in mind my interests, I loved heading to research and organic farms to compare how different people conduct research in the soil and among the crops. From speaking with Green Acres, a small organic farm, I realized that there is an almost immeasurable value to heritage farming. Knowing your land gives you a strong advantage to experiment for a better and more resilient future.
I was also drawn to the medium and small-scale farms as well because they are increasingly overlooked in national conversation. Here, I could draw parallels to my beloved midwest in the US, where industrial and large-scale farms have taken over and made it difficult to drive real and innovative change. Our time spent on these farms actually enabled me to ask farmers how they handled these difficult realities and formed interesting questions for future exploration.
Lastly, of course, my perspectives in urban and peri-urban food systems were challenged and broadened from this experience. We visited many rural places across the Midlands and the South, but these crops grown here often travel across the country. As our populations move more towards cities, we may lose these connections to the countryside, but it remains to be seen how the research we discussed may address those concerns.
That Friday afternoon, I felt so invigorated on the train back to Cambridge. There were so many thoughts rushing through my head, primarily on the possibility of bringing this energy to my dissertation and future career developments. This week was the final push to draw together all the interviews I had conducted and the policy I had analyzed in the previous months. Reflecting on people and perspectives, I focused not just on the abstract of my findings but what it meant for the people working on these allotments. The plot holders may not have owned much land like those we had met through the Summer School, but there was a shared love for food and protecting the future of growing.
Opportunities like the AUC Summer School don’t come around often, especially for young people and especially in this field. Months later, I am still so grateful that AFCP and the AUC were generous and willing to make such an incredible week come to life. In those five days, I learned that no matter what brings you to food and farming, there is a place for your research, your ideas, and your questions. Your perspective is critical to pushing the conversation forward, no matter if your background is in engineering, policy, biology, or planning.
The AUC Summer School was supported by the Sylvia Waddilove Foundation, alongside 9 AFCP charity members: Chadacre Agricultural Trust, Clan Trust, Dartington Cattle Breeding Trust, Douglas Bomford Trust, Farmers Club Charitable Trust, Felix Thornley Cobbold Trust, Harper Adams University Development Trust, The Morley Agricultural Foundation, and Perry Foundation.
