About this Travel Course
Course Description
Agriculture is a problem-solving endeavor and a fundamental system design challenge. How and why have farmers sought to mimic natural systems while simplifying production? What are the dominant modes that have led to industrial farming and what problems do alternatives address? Most importantly, how will we engage in food production in a changing climate and increasing demand, while respecting our nearly universal need for cultural connection to this, our most intimate relationship to the natural world?
This summer course will introduce students to a broad spectrum of agricultural traditions from first principles and long-held practices to unconventional regenerative farming and digital precision technologies. Through farm-visits we will see the ecology of farms in Maine. Tours and interviews with farmers develop our line of inquiry as we take in a wide variety of production, from no-till organic to oyster ocean farming and vertical urban farming. We will develop a working understanding of soil, plants, animals, and the physical and conceptual labor which a farmer brings to the landscape.
Summer in Maine can be idyllic and we will spend time connecting the rigors of farm life to an aesthetic experience of living close to nature. Every farmer must consider how their small business economy intersects with values of care and regeneration. We will explore cultural models which evolve from human engagement in natural ecology, delving into biodynamic farming, carbon farming, permaculture, precision, hydroponic and robotic agriculture. Each trend represents a designed solution to the on-going challenges of coaxing food from nature.
Broadturn Farm
Learn more about Broadturn Farm here.
Maine Farmland Trust
Learn more about Maine Farmland Trust here.
The Greenhorns, Smithereen Home Farm
Learn more about The Greenhorns here.