In every region, we’re seeking out people and institutions facilitating smart and fertile solutions for REAL Grass-fed change. In our search, we were happy to find Sterling College in Vermont, which boasts a 4-year sustainable agriculture major. Angus had already mentioned Hardwick, their self-sustaining neighbor town, so I wasn’t surprised to find out about Sterling’s unique agriculture program. As a small liberal arts college with a little over 120 students and 26 miles to Canada, Sterling offers students an integrated and extremely hands-on education in sustainable agriculture. On the college farm, students gain experience in managing a small-scale diversified farm or homestead. A purposeful diversity of livestock is used within pastures, gardens, permaculture area, and forest where students raise animals, grow and process food, and tend trees. The program supports a mixed power model, using both draft horses and machinery. Grass-fed practices are utilized for the beef and dairy cows. The dining hall kitchen has its own environmental mission, where food from the farm is eaten, composted, and shared, just as wood from the surrounding forest is used to build farm structures and tools. Students study theory, literature, science, and applied science to complete their four-year degree, giving the students a breadth of knowledge to take with them into the world. Sterling also offers a Sustainable Agriculture Semester course for anyone interested in exploring ecological management of plants, animals, and the land. We invited Sterling students to join the conversation here at the Grass-fed Party, so look for upcoming student member blogs and photos from the farm.
I recently had the chance to interview Mitch Hunt, the sustainable agriculture farm manager (pictured above), about the program and opportunities available for students.
You mentioned that you are supporting a Homestead model on the college farm. Can you tell us about the concept of the Homestead model and why you teach it?
The homestead model is based on the full cycle of nutrients, energy, and water. To be sustainable one must be very keen on these areas. The Homestead model is a micro example of a system that tries to close as many input loops as possible. For example, we compost approximately 10 ton (20,000) pounds of food scraps each year. Included in this compost mix is approximately another 40-50 tons of manure and carbon. We return the compost to our gardens and pastures. We also use extensive rotation with our grass-fed animals. It is our belief that through the micro example of a Homestead Cycle, we can give our students a rich education, a full vocabulary, and hands-on know-how to take with them and spread the concepts throughout the world.
How are grass-fed systems a part of your curriculum?
We teach it in an array of courses. Some of those courses are hands-on in the pasture, and others theory based. They see and hear it a lot. Our curriculum focus is a blend of our academic program and our Federal Work Program. The academic curriculum offers an array of grass-fed livestock systems and management courses. We have a course called Agricultural Techniques which is offered in the fall and spring semester. In the fall course we have an on-farm pig harvesting component. This course allows me to talk about basic physiology, meat quality, and the homestead system of on-farm harvest.
During the summer I teach a class called Livestock Systems Management. In that course the students have hands-on experience managing a cornucopia of livestock on grass. We focus on the many different trains of thought on how to effectively rotate and use the animals to their greatest capacity. Grazing is not only an activity of eating, but also as a crucial keystone tool for forage health and land fertility.
I also teach a course in U.S. Agriculture Policy. This course focuses from the Reconstruction period to the present. The most important objective in this course is to outline how agriculture shifted from small, natural livestock management to more corporate driven, high production based livestock empires. Students are also directly involved in policy making and policy makers during the Vermont State legislative session.
The second part of our curriculum is embedded in our Federal Work College Program. I manage approximately fifteen students ranging from farm hands to chore supervisors. Students can close the learning loops by applying directly what they learn. Students often become passionate about particular issues or management strategies they can then pursue through guided independent study or final senior project.
What is extremely exciting is more and more of my students are researching and applying ideas in areas that are not widely researched. Meaning, a student who says to me “I cannot find much (if any) information on this subject,” tells me that they are on the path of becoming leaders in the field of sustainable agriculture.
How is your Sustainable Agriculture Program unique among Ag programs?
Sterling bases itself as an experiential based college. Students at Sterling have opportunities abound to be connected with the farm. It is plain hard work that closes many loops for students. I like to say that here at Sterling, students can see first hand when romance and reality of farming connect and dance in symbiosis. I could go on, but we focus not only on what, but how to!
What kind of opportunities do your students have when they graduate from Sterling's program?
Students graduate and become farmers, cheese makers, policy workers, homesteaders, non-profit workers, and the list goes on. It is our hope that students can at least be positive role models in the world at large, in whatever they do! It is the rich and full environmental education that we send each graduate off with.
