SUSTAINABLE AGRICULTURE
Durring the Spring Semester Charlie teaches a seminar class in Sustainable Agriculture at William and Mary.
Below is his syllabus for the class.
Below is his syllabus for the class.
"A healthy farm culture can be based only upon familiarity and can grown only among a people soundly established upon the land; it nourishes and safeguards human intelligence of the earth that no amount of technology can satisfactorily replace. The growth of such a culture was once a strong possibility in the farm communities of this country. We now have only the sad remnants of those communities. If we allow another generation to pass without doing what is necessary to enhance and embolden the possibility now perishing with them, we will lost it altogether. And then we will not only invoke calamity - we will deserve it."
-Wendell Berry
The quotation above summarized well the themes of this course. We will explore the necessity of bringing sustainable principles and practices into agriculture "to embolden the possibility" that we will develop "a healthy farm culture." Some of the questions we will ask:
Students will develop their skills in analytic reading, writing, and verbal presentation of ideas through frequent response papers, class discussion questions, and a final project. Field trips will provide the ground of experience within which the readings and discussion may take root, they also will allow students the opportunity to experience local, sustainable agriculture.
Required Course Readings:
Past Projects:
This tells the story of Student Activism in Williamsburg, including how Charlie Maloney encouraged students to “do something” real and the results of that challenge.
http://realfoodwilliamsburg.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Gillespie-Tommy-student-activism-in-local-food-movement.pdf
Click here below to see 2011's Urban Farming Zine by Dylan Reilly, Hailey Lankowski, and Hannah Fuerhoff.
- What does it mean to be sustainable and agrarian?
- What has happened to our culture and agriculture that endangers sustainability?
- What are we eating these days, and where is it coming from?
- What systems and values do our food and material choices support?
- what is at stake as we rely more on corporate food production?
- What doe we need to enhance a more vital agrarian way of life?
Students will develop their skills in analytic reading, writing, and verbal presentation of ideas through frequent response papers, class discussion questions, and a final project. Field trips will provide the ground of experience within which the readings and discussion may take root, they also will allow students the opportunity to experience local, sustainable agriculture.
Required Course Readings:
- The Art of the Commonplace by Wendell Berry
- The Essential Agrarian Reader edited by Norman Wirzba
- The Soil and Health by Sir Albert Howard
- The New Organic Grower by Eliot Coleman
- The Omnivore's Dilemma by Michael Pollan
- Animal, Vegetable, Miracle by Barbara Kingsolver
- Hannah Coulter by Wendell Berry
- Bringing it to the Table by Wendell Berry
Past Projects:
This tells the story of Student Activism in Williamsburg, including how Charlie Maloney encouraged students to “do something” real and the results of that challenge.
http://realfoodwilliamsburg.org/wp-content/uploads/2010/06/Gillespie-Tommy-student-activism-in-local-food-movement.pdf
Click here below to see 2011's Urban Farming Zine by Dylan Reilly, Hailey Lankowski, and Hannah Fuerhoff.
Photos of past classes and activities below!
