Project Overview
Commodities
- Agronomic: potatoes
- Vegetables: beans, greens (leafy), greens (lettuces)
Practices
- Crop Production: cover crops
- Education and Training: demonstration, extension, on-farm/ranch research, participatory research
- Farm Business Management: cooperatives, feasibility study, agricultural finance, market study, whole farm planning
- Pest Management: field monitoring/scouting, row covers (for pests)
- Production Systems: agroecosystems, holistic management
- Soil Management: composting, soil analysis, organic matter, soil quality/health
- Sustainable Communities: new business opportunities, partnerships, public participation, social networks, social psychological indicators, sustainability measures
Proposal summary:
This project seeks to educate high school students on Lopez Island – where most food consumed by the 3,000 residents must take the 50-minute ferry ride from the mainland – about the principles of ecological food production. Project coordinator Henning Sehmsdorf and Jennifer McFarland, the high school math and science teacher, will teach a four-month elective class at Sehmsdorf’s S&S Center for Sustaining Agriculture and Homestead Farm, a half mile from the school. The goals are to teach the students how to produce nutritious vegetables year round using low-cost, environmentally friendly techniques; develop school menus with the school chef that use island produce year round and to teach students how to prepare the food; and to provide the students with hands-on learning in ag science for credit.