Lexington, KY - The University of Kentucky is one of only 12 land grant universities that have degree programs in sustainable agriculture.
Land grant universities were founded to serve the residents of a state, to share knowledge and solve problems. At UK, that purpose is especially evident in agriculture, a major sector of the state's economy. With the increasing emphasis everywhere on sustainability, the university's College of Agriculture is at the forefront of this new and expanding area of knowledge. The students it serves now by offering this specialized major will be better equipped to serve Kentuckians in the future.
"It's safe to say that, in the land-grant arena for programs that have majors or minors in sustainable ag or one of its variants, agroecology or organic farming, we're certainly in the lead group,"
said Dr. Mark Williams, director of UK's Sustainable Agriculture degree program.
With the support of Scott Smith, dean of the College of Agriculture; Michael Mullen, associate provost, and other UK officials, Williams started the sustainable agriculture degree program about five years ago. The number of students has increased each year. Currently there are 25 majors and eight minors.
UK's program has some distinct advantages, compared to the programs of other universities. The classes are cross-disciplinary. Students have the opportunity to learn by working in an apprenticeship program on a real organic farm, at UK's Horticultural Research Farm by Man o' War and Nicholasville Roads.
Williams admitted that he was not aware how advanced UK's program is until the recent conference of the Sustainable Agriculture Education Association (SAEA). The conference was co-hosted here by the colleges of agriculture at UK and Virginia Tech.
"It really made me realize the group of players that we have here ... from our departmental chair Robert Houtz to Scott Smith to Mike Mullen to the president," he said. "Then you throw in these farms that we have, ... with incredible soil and passionate students."
Williams noted that "when you get a lot of feedback, you realize that not every place has all this."
He emphasized that the support the program has received is a major factor in its rapid growth.
"It goes all the way up to Mac Stone (Kentucky Department of Agriculture's executive director for marketing) and the Kentucky Department of Agriculture," he added.
The SAEA conference drew about 200 educators, students, and community agriculture organizations from as far away as Hawaii and Norway. Presenters included people from Michigan State University, the Maine Organic Farmers and Gardeners Association, University of Minnesota, and the University of California-Davis.
Topics discussed included programs for new farmers, integrating community gardening groups and K-12 schools with universities' working farms, renewable energy in farming, teaching about bees and how the humanities can enrich sustainable agriculture education.
A presentation about the summer intensive program at Green Mountain College included information on how the students learned to use draft horses and learned how to work together to raise most of their food. Berea College's presenters spoke of how the college had produced its own food, particularly during the Depression years. In later years, the college gradually phased out its dairy, cannery and other food operations. In the last few years, students' demands for local food have resurrected the College Farm to supply produce and meats for the dining hall.
A sustainable agriculture program reaches beyond its students. UK's has already assisted several community organizations, including the Montessori school (establishing their gardens at their new Stone Road campus) and LaRocca church (a student manages its community farm).
"We have helped with Seed Leaf, giving advice and labor. One of our graduates is the farm manager for the Bluegrass Domestic Violence Center, and we are involved in the setup and operations of that farm. We donate produce to various group like the Hope Center, God's Pantry, Faith Feeds," Williams said.
The UK program has one student who graduated from the Fayette VoAg program. It hopes to attract more students from Fayette County's new agriculture-centered vocational school.
"Our programs should be connected such that students could visit or maybe intern on our farm," Williams said. "We feel that our program at UK will be a logical step for students from Locust Trace, and as such we would like to increase our connections and interact in a way that will educate their students about what we are offering at UK."
Williams would like to add to UK's sustainable agriculture program "a farmer training program/apprenticeship. This could run for an entire growing season (maybe 9-10 months) and would be open to people outside the university. Michigan State and the University of California Santa Cruz have such programs, and they are very popular."
He continued, "This would be more of an intense immersion experience than our current undergraduate apprenticeship and would be geared specifically for people trying to become commercial organic farmers. This would be a great way for us to spread the collective knowledge regarding organic farming that we have amassed over the years."