Fields of Learning (Paperback)

Frederick L. Kirschenmann

ISBN 10: 0813187184 / ISBN 13: 9780813187181

Published by The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington, 2022

About this Item

Paperback. Where will the next generation of farmers come from? What will their farms look like? Fields of Learning: The Student Farm Movement in North America provides a concrete set of answers to these urgent questions, describing how, at a wide range of colleges and universities across the United States and Canada, students, faculty, and staff have joined together to establish on-campus farms as outdoor laboratories for agricultural and cultural education. From one-acre gardens to five-hundred-acre crop and livestock farms, student farms foster hands-on food-system literacy in a world where the shortcomings of input-intensive conventional agriculture have become increasingly apparent. They provide a context in which disciplinary boundaries are bridged, intellectual and manual skills are cultivated together, and abstract ideas about sustainability are put to the test. Editors Laura Sayre and Sean Clark have assembled a volume of essays written by pioneering educators directly involved in the founding and management of fifteen of the most influential student farms in North America. Arranged chronologically, Fields of Learning illustrates how the student farm movement originated in the nineteenth century, gained ground in the 1970s, and is flourishing today -- from the University of California--Davis to Yale University, from Hampshire College to Central Carolina Community College, from the University of Montana to the University of Maine. The first book that profiles the rapid expansion of the student and campus farm movement. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9780813187181

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Fields of Learning (Paperback)
• Publisher: The University Press of Kentucky, Lexington
• Publication Date: 2022
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0813187184
• ISBN 13: 9780813187181
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Originally published in 2011, Fields of Learning remains the single best resource for students, faculty, and administrators involved in starting or supporting campus farms. Featuring detailed profiles of fifteen diverse student farms on college and university campuses across North America, the book also serves as a history of the student farm movement, showing how the idea of campus farms has come in and out of fashion over the past century and how the tenacious work of students, faculty, and other campus community members has upheld and reimagined the objectives of student farming over time. Ranging in size from less than an acre to hundreds of acres, supplying food to campus dining halls or community food banks, and hosting scientific research projects or youth education programs, student farms highlight the interdisciplinary richness and multifunctionality of agriculture, supporting academic work across a range of fields while simultaneously building community engagement and stimulating critical conversations about environmental and social justice. Sayre's introductory chapter describes some of the dilemmas and implications of student farming, while a concluding chapter provides step-by-step guidelines to starting a student farm. Today, as institutions of higher learning face new challenges linked to the global climate crisis and public health emergency, this book holds continued relevance for readers in North America and beyond.

About the Author

Laura Sayre is a writer and translator (French to English). A part-time farmer, she manages twenty acres in western Massachusetts and is on the board of the North Amherst Community Farm. Sean Clark is Clarence M. Clark Chair in Mountain Agriculture and professor of agriculture and natural resources at Berea College in Kentucky.