Re: ag education

cjb32@cornell.edu
Sat, 6 Feb 1999 14:11:45 -0500 (EST)

Hey there SANet folks- I've read with interest this thread on ag.
education, especially at the land grant colleges. I've attended two now,
and while I'm still learning about Cornell, there was something really
interesting going on at UVM. The (undergraduate) student population in
crop sciences was, by and large, interested in organic and LISA methods,
and some of the teachers were as well. There were classes in agroecology,
composting, and Economics of sustainable ag, and even one of the veg.
crops classes was tought by an organic farmer (with a masters in veg.
crops from Cornell.) The paradigm seemed to be pretty dominant. Not to say
that there weren't some old guard professors who continued to spout the
conventional line. But not too many.

The student run farm is becoming a really interesting project at UVM- an
organic CSA, paid positions, etc.- and a good way for students to get
their fingers dirty, if you'll excuse the cliche. I wonder if any students
who are currently involved in student run farms are currently on line?
There's a really large CSA at Rutgers, and I know there's a farm here at
Cornell too. I'd love to hear about faculty reception of and support for
these programs- where they got seed money, whether or not there is
on-going financial support (or needs to be,) what markets students are
selling in, whether or not they get college credit, etc.

In response to David's posting, I've always been of the mind that you can
do more good by trying to change the dominant institutions from the
inside than by ignoring them from the outside. Does that make me
hopelessly optimistic? I'm usually talking about Development Banks (WB,
IDB, CDB, ADB etc) when I say that, but land grant colleges should be no
different. Demand driven supply response, right David? Even at
educational institutions. I'm keeping my fingers crossed.

Take care alll, Caitlin

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