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: