Over the past few days I visited the Center of Ecological Living and Learning (CELL) on the Campus of Evergreen State College in Olympia, Washington. The main campus of the college features many elements of green building, including LEED certified lecture and lab halls, an extensive recycling program, green roofs, native gardens and rainwater harvesting. The CELL Center is located away from the campus on the Evergreen Organic Farm and includes the production fields, orchards, the compost center, community gardens, a permaculture garden, a biodiesel shed, and a farm house. The farm area totals 5 acre: one acre in cultivated fields of annual vegetable, one acre in pasture, one acre in fruits and nuts. The remainder consists of various structures such as two large (90x30) and 3 smaller hoop houses for vegetable production as well as one heated and one unheated propagation greenhouse. The farm is run by a farm manager supported by several student farm aides as well as the faculty who is teaching the Practices in Sustainable Agriculture (PSA) Program.
The PSA program is where each of three quarters 25 students are trained in small scale, market farming. Besides the field production aspects students are instructed in farm planning and management, food preservation (canning and pickling), and marketing. For marketing students run a 23 member Community Supported Agriculture (CSA) program and a farm stand twice a week from April through October. Students can self select to be more involved in one of four areas: annual vegetables, fruits and nuts, permaculture perennials, or animals. The farm currently has layer eggs and layer ducks but broilers and pigs have been there in the past.
Besides PSA there are other academic programs making use of the farm, namely “Ecological Agriculture” and the “Food-Health-Sustainability" program. Having watched these agriculture programs at Evergreen for the last 20 years it seems that there is a strong move toward exploring the connections between food production, human nutrition, and the natural and social environment.
The strength of the agriculture programs at Evergreen lies in the fact that students can learn on the farm from spring through summer and fall. The students receive plenty of hand-on training in crop and animal production as well as marketing, farm planning and food preservation. At the same time there are many opportunities to explore the scientific, historical and social underpinnings of contemporary agriculture. All of this is supported by first rate faculty and farm staff. Another strength is the diversity of structures on the farm, including a farm classroom and kitchen, a heated greenhouse, a walk in cooler, and in the very near future a lab building with food grade labs equipment.
A weaknesses of agriculture at Evergreen is that until now there has not been a dedicated faculty for the farm training program which meant that farm operations and management are continuously changing, creating at times a chaotic work environment. The lack of adequate farm, and specifically tillage machinery, also is a limitation and a stress for soil quality. Finally the lack of control over several farm areas (which operate under student activities groups) severely limits the ability of the farm management to create a comprehensive plan for the entire Center of Ecological Living and Learning.
Based on my visit at Evergreen, I can see a number of changes in the near future for the LBCC Hort Program. We need a year round (including summer) program if we are going to teach students how to farm. We also need to strengthen the farm planning and marketing aspect. I also feel encouraged to keep pursuing a closer connection with LBCC’s Culinary Arts program to create an understanding in students for the entire food system and the connections between production, personal health and environmental sustainability.
I am very grateful for the stimulating exchanges of ideas I had with farm managers Melissa Barker and Stephen Bramwell as well as faculty Martha Rosemeyer, Steve Scheurell, David Muhleisen and my friend and Dean Paul Przybylowicz.
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