Majoring in Organics
(Page 2 of 2)
Utne Reader January / February 2007
Paul Henderson Alternatives Journal
So the program is tapping commercial organic farmers to help
students get the experience they need through the Collaborative
Regional Alliance for Farmer Training (CRAFT) program. This group
of farms, though not officially connected to the university, have
pooled their collective knowledge to give interns a more diverse
experience: different farms, different farmers, different
techniques.
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With a tray of Early Jersey Wakefield Cabbage transplants in one
arm, Kaitlin Kazmierowski walks down the tilled rows at Ignatius
Farm in Guelph, placing the seedlings one by one, evenly spacing
them on the ground. Other organic farming interns follow behind and
plant each seedling with care. The work is slow and steady, but for
those who spend their summers living and working on organic farms
in southern Ontario as part of CRAFT, it is also educational and
fulfilling.
Kazmierowski, who grew up in Toronto, never imagined a life of
toil and soil, farms and fields, planting and harvesting.
'Personally, I wasn't interested in agriculture until I took that
course, and now I'm here,' says Kazmierowski, referring to the
Guelph program's introductory course. Organic agriculture seems to
hold an interest for youths like Kazmierowski that conventional
farming can't claim. Whereas young people have been leaving farms
for the cities for decades, organic farming is not only keeping
some of them on the farm, it's also bringing aboard people who have
no background in agriculture.
The students entering organic agriculture at Guelph may not come
from traditional agriculture backgrounds, but Clark sees that as a
positive trend, in spite of the challenges.
'These students tend to have a social as well as a biophysical
interest in farming, so they see farming in a broader societal
context,' she says. 'It tends to be the more activist-type students
who are willing to make such a profound change. Because it is a big
change, from being a nonfarmer to becoming a farmer.'
Paul Henderson (www.pauljhenderson.com) is a reporter for
the Chilliwack Times in Chilliwack, British Columbia, and
a freelance writer and photographer. Reprinted from Alternatives
Journal (Vol. 32 #2), the official publication of the Environmental
Studies Association of Canada. Subscriptions: Canadian $45/yr. (6
issues) from 200 University Ave. W, Waterloo, ON N2L3G1, Canada;
www.alternativesjournal.ca.
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