Organic Agricultural College - Kalo, Denmark

From the Eco-School in Kleeve I went on to Denmark to visit the Kalø Organic Agricultural College. I had planned a full day visit to talk to faculty, students and staff and look at the school farm. Unfortunately, the overnight trip was a nightmare series of late trains and missed bus connections and I didn’t arrive until the afternoon.

The setting of the school on the bay of Kalø is stunning even in the winter and certainly in the summer. The Kalø College is one of nine agricultural schools in Denmark that provides a formal farmer education. All schools follow a standardized curriculum but those who come to Kalø receive a much greener version of it. The faculty is currently working on a separate organic curriculum. It is not clear yet if they will deliver that program within the existing standardized curriculum framework or if they will have a completely new approach. One of the problems in the existing framework is that after the basic course modules, students have to specialize and choose between animal and plant production. That approach does not work in organic agriculture because of the close integration of plant and animals on farms that are based on ecological principles. It will be interesting to see which course of action they will take when the organic curriculum is completed.

A few years ago the College received EU grant money to translate and deliver the curriculum in English. The goal was to develop an organic farmer training program for international students based on the Danish model. They got the program off the ground a few years ago, however, a truly international mix of students never materialized. Currently, 90% of the international students in the program are from Poland and only few other nationalities are participating each year. According to the instructors, the lopsided ratio in favor of the polish block appears to make it difficult for students from other cultural background to fit in. There is, on the other hand, still an international feel at the school because on campus is also a community college that draws students from around the world. Most of the 50 community college and 50 agricultural college students live on campus and are mixed in the college dorms.

The agricultural education leads to either a “Farm Assistant” or a “Certified Skilled Farmer” degree. There is a good demand for graduates of both degrees on Danish farms and both are very well paid € 2,500 and € 3,000+, respectively. Students of both degrees start with some learning modules at the school, continue with a paid internship of up to 12 month on a Danish farm, return to the college again for some learning modules before finishing the degree with another paid internship on a farm within the European Union (including Denmark). The length of the learning modules and internships vary so that it takes usually about 24 months to finish the Farm Assistant and 27 months for the Certified Skilled Farmer.

You can watch this YouTube video for more details.

There is no college tuition because, as in most European countries, vocational and higher education is free. When you live at the school there is a monthly fee of about $ 570 for lodging, food, books and field trips. To keep the room and board cost so low, students are asked to help with kitchen and dorm chores. Spouses and kids can also live in the college dorms. The internships are well paid and you end up making almost $ 50,000 during your education.

The learning modules at the college cover a diversity of topics and I didn’t think that there were major gaps in the curriculum. The basic module covers botany, basic livestock husbandry, soils, workshop and machine skills as well as courses in economics, communication, computers, job seeking, and first aid. The main course modules include specific training in crop production, animal science, technology and finance.
I was not able to visit the college farm (because of my late arrival) or the fields (covered with a foot of snow). However, the photos of the farm look promising and seem to provide a great learning lab for the students. Most of the 125 ac farm lands are used for feed and pasture. There are also two and a half acres of organic vegetables, providing healthy, local food for the campus kitchen. The animals on the farm include dairy cows, some Icelandic horses as well as a few steer and sheep.

The Kalø program is unique but also has a number of elements that they have in common with programs I have visited in the past. With the program in Kleeve, Germany it shares the European traditions of a standardized curriculum and tuition free education. With some of the American programs it shares the community aspects of being on a farm and in school with a cohort of students for an extended period, participating together in both the social life and class room learning. It is unfortunate that the college has not been able to attract a diverse international group of students. This might be because they have not created a curriculum that is entirely devoted to organic farming. It is clear that the instructors are committed to organic ideas. However, potential applicants only have the college’s name (i.e. Organics Agricultural College) and a single course on the course list (i.e. “Sustainability in Farming”) to see the commitment to ecological farming principles. Larger issues (e.g. on-farm energy production, sustainability of food systems, etc.) seem not to be covered in the curriculum, at least not yet.

I want to thank Helge Buelow for organizing my stay as well as Morten Erbs and Claus-Ebbe Junker for spending time with me at the college.

PS: More impressions from Kalo in this slide show:

Ecological Agriculture School, Kleve

On a cold winter day a 5 o’clock morning train brought me from southwest Germany to Kleeve, a town which is far north and only 10 miles from the border to the Netherlands. I love riding the train so I didn’t mind the early ride. Kleeve is not a likely place for one of only two government funded Eco-Ag schools, but here was a farmer who had the idea and some dedicated faculty who made it work. The School of Ecological Agriculture in Kleeve offers a 2-year program for students who want to manage and organic farm. All students who are admitted to the program must already have a vocational degree in a green job (achieved with a three year apprenticeship) and a year of job experience after they received the degree. The goal of the degree is to give participants the education to become managers of an organic farm. There are about 30 students in the two years combined. The program first admitted students in 1996. Most of the students are 20-30 years old, about 50% from the state where the school is located and the other half from other states across Germany. Not many international students make their way to Kleeve, which maybe in part because of the language requirements and in part because of the perquisites of a finished vocational degree.

The school is funded by the state of Nordrhein-Westfalen, which in Germany means that there is no tuition. There are some fees, about $2000 over the course of the two years. Parallel to the Eco-Ag school, there is also a (larger) program for conventional farm managers. Many classes are shared between the two programs. Also on site are an agricultural research station, an extension office, a conventional farm and an organic farm. The Eco-Ag students benefit greatly from this diversity of institutions. For example, several instructors have both teaching and extension responsibilities. I used to have a split extension, research and teaching appointment and know how this keeps an instructor always up-to date on emerging issues in agriculture.

There is a good diversity of classes offered with an emphasis on entrepreneurship and business management but also many aspects of animal and plant production are covered thoroughly. This program covers also many important topics that are neglected in many others I’ve visited so far. For example, there are courses in value-added food processing and alternative nutrition. I feel that those are vital topics for adapting an organic farm to an ever-changing consumer and business environment. Other interesting courses cover on-farm energy (such as biogas, biodiesel, etc.) and building (with topics such as farm building design and energy conservation). Yet another set of courses deal with leadership skills because students who finish this degree are officially certified to take on their own apprentices and interns.

If it were a standard organic farming program one would find some gaps in the curriculum topics. For example, there is no further training in machinery maintenance or shop skills. However, many students have covered these topics during their apprenticeship and it is assumed that students are proficient in those skills. On the other hand, I noticed that students also come from non-farm green jobs (including bee keeper or landscaper) and they may or may not have had an opportunity to practice things like welding or maintaining diesel engines.

To have two working farms on site is a great plus for this eco-ag program. Any issues that come up on the farm can be immediately observed and discussed. There are, however, several limitations in the way the institution is organized. Farm and school are completely separated. That means farm decisions are based not on the education needs of the students but on farm management and economics (and also on the need of the research station). Also, the farms are both focused on animal agriculture not offering any opportunities in vegetable and flower production. As animal farms (dairy cows) they are great enterprises, showing a closed circle of production where all feed is produced on the farm and all manure is used to either fertilize the fields of produce biogas. I also found it unfortunate that students are not required to do any regular work on the farm (but some choose to do so). It is again assumed that students have had the farm work experience from their apprenticeship and job experience.

Overall this was a great visit for me. The school offers some courses that I certainly would like to integrate into future LBCC programs (e.g. on-farm energy, nutrition etc.). The visit also showed me how beneficial it is for the students when instructors have experience in commercial production be it through extension appointments or being producers themselves. I greatly appreciate the time that the instructors Ralf Grigoleit and Christian Wucherpfennig spent in setting up my visit, discussing the program with me and showing me the farm and fields.

Dottenfelder Hof - Biodynamic Agricultural School

"We do not want to condition someone’s thinking nor accumulate knowledge, but help to develop the excitement of all human powers, so they can recognize their own imprinted biases, acquire knowledge about the world to grow personally, and to let them develop their individual strength and personalities" (my translation of a quote by by Alexander von Humboldt, German Naturalist, 1769-1859).

This quote is the introduction to the year-long training in biodynamic agriculture at the Landbauschule Dottenfelder Hof. I visited this school to see how a biodynamic education compares to a more standard eco-ag program and I wanted to learn specifically how they organize the one-year course and various one-month modules.

The school is in Bad Vilbel, just north of Frankfurt. It is on a working farm with 350 acres of land on which pasture, fodder crops, grains, vegetables, and pulse crops (legumes) are grown. 80 dairy cows, breeding and meat hogs, and chicken are also core part of the farm. The farm has first been officially documented over 1000 years ago. It used to be owned by a monastery and later became property of the state. In 1950 a group of 5 farm families leased the farm and started a communally owned business. Since then a bakery, a dairy, a café and a health food store were added to the farm. The direct marketing of high value farm products is key to the economic well being of the farm and school.

In 1968 the agricultural school was founded and 12 years later they bought the farm building and some land around it (while the fields are still leased from the state of Hessen). The school offers courses in biodynamic farming since 1974. Today there one-month long winter courses and a one-year course. The January course gives students a broad introduction to biodynamic farming and includes (besides the technical information of farming) also exercises in anthropsophical art, observation (phenomenology), and eurythmy. There are no prerequisites to participate in this course. The February course is an advanced course for students who want to deepen their understanding of biodynamic farming. It builds on the January course and focuses either on plant production (course I) or animal production (course II). The February course is for those who are seriously considering becoming biodynamic farmers. It is highly recommended that participants have worked in a green job for at least two years. Rudolf Steiner’s texts related to agriculture are also covered during the February courses. The February course gives participants a good opportunity to see how the year long course works. The 4 week-long winter courses cost € 800, which includes meals and accommodation.

The year long course is the core educational event at the agricultural school. Twelve to 15 students live on the farm and are immersed in biodynamic farming lectures, seminars, projects, field experiments and daily farm chores. Most students are from Germany but there were also a number of international students (this year from Oregon, Italy, Romania and Japan.) All instructions are in German and a solid foundation in this language is essential to get the full benefit of the education. It is possible to live at the farm a few months before the course starts and go to language school. Students are instructed by managers, researchers, artist and others who work permanently on the farm as well as staff from other farms, research institutes, universities and schools. As in the Advanced February course it is highly recommend that students have at least a 2 year education in agriculture or related field before they start the one-year course. The cost of the course is € 8400 (€ 700 per month) which includes meals and accommodation (small dorm rooms).

In addition to the courses taught by the school, the farm also offers various internship and apprenticeship opportunities during which biodynamic farming is taught. Apprentices are either part of the regular 3-year government licensed general agriculture apprenticeship program (which is what I participated in before my academic studies) or they participate in a 4-year biodynamic apprenticeship. They may also be interns (of variable length of time) or conducting an ecological service year (instead of the mandatory army or civil service).

The diversity of learners and enterprises at the Dottenfelderhof makes farm and school management a real challenging task but it seem to be a real plus for the education. While apprentices and students usually focus on a particular aspect of farming (e.g. dairy management, vegetable crop production, etc.) there are chances to switch and look into other areas of farm production. Some of the students feel overwhelmed by the complexity of the tasks and opportunities. I talked to some who mentioned that not even the year-long course is sufficient time to get a good handle on biodynamic farm management. That in part is due to the fact that a portion of the time is spent on non-technical issues (e.g. art, astrology, philosophy, human health and nutrition, etc.). After visiting Emerson College and this farm school I am starting to believe that offering a little less technical information but including more opportunities to gain awareness of your social and physical environment as well as to learn about yourself might be a good trade-off in the education of the future producers of our food.