Designing Ecological Habitats - Gaia Education

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programming for occasional interns, or tours for Cornell University
students. What would happen, we pondered, if our non-profit educational
organization, the EVI-Center for Sustainability Education, worked jointly
with West Haven Farm to provide hands-on educational opportunities for
budding farmers?
The idea got traction at a special fundraising dinner, held in the fall
of 2008, which featured Cornell University President David Skorton and
his wife, Dr. Robin Davisson, as keynote speakers. Skorton and Davisson
each spoke passionately about local food, and recounted how Cornell was
beginning to change its buying habits to source 25% of its produce from
within 100 miles. Clearly the university, which feeds 24,000 people daily,
and has a $9 million annual grocery budget has a lot of economic clout.
(In 2009 the policy grew to include 33% of the produce purchased by the
University.) One of the issues brought up by the speakers was the need for
more local farms as the demand for locally-sourced products multiplies.
After the dinner was over, my friend and former EcoVillage neighbor
Joanna Green came up to me. “Liz, I know what I want to do with my life
now,” she told me, her face glowing with conviction. “I want to be the person
who makes this idea happen.” Under Joanna’s guidance, ‘this idea’ became
a fast-growing program, Groundswell Center for Local Food and Farming.
Joanna took early retirement from Cornell, where she had worked for over
two decades in sustainable agriculture education and research. Drawing on
her extensive network of contacts in local food and farming, she put together
a terrific advisory board, including representatives from Cornell Cooperative
Extension, Ithaca College, graduate students, farmers and more.
The Groundswell mission “is all about helping youth and adult learners
develop the skills and knowledge they need to build sustainable local food
systems. Our focus is providing hands-on, experiential learning opportunities
with real working farms and food businesses in the Ithaca, NY area. Through
collaboration with area schools, colleges and universities Groundswell offers
programs of study for beginning farmers, students, community members, and
professionals.” (www.groundswellcenter.org)
After over a year of careful organizing, Groundswell Center taught its
first ‘Summer Practicum in Sustainable Farming’ in the summer of 2010.
Fourteen young adults spent eight weeks learning through hands-on training
at three local farms – West Haven (a vegetable farm), Kingbird Farm (a
horse-powered farm that specializes in grass-fed beef, pork, poultry and
eggs), and Northland Sheep Dairy (featuring production and marketing
of gourmet sheep’s milk cheeses.) The Practicum included in-depth fieldtrips
to visit other local producers and retailers, some academic study,
and students enjoyed preparing their own local foods lunch each day of
the program with the help of a nutritionist from Ithaca College. They ate
delicious, seasonal food which they had often harvested themselves, and in
a closing dinner for supporters of the program, several students noted that