Diversified organic vegetable production including: strawberries (Fragraria chiloensis), apples (Malus sylvestris), peas (Pisum sativum), beans (Phaseolus vulgaris), chard and beets (Beta vulgaris), spinach (Spinacia oleracea), artichokes, (Cynara scolymus), lettuce (Lactuca sativa), salad mix, radish (Raphanus sativus), tatsoi (Brassica rapa), pak choi (Brassica chinensis), turnip (Brassica rapa), sweet corn (Zea mays), broccoli and cauliflower (Brassica oleracea v. botrytis), cabbage (Brassica oleracea v. capitata), kale (Brassica oleracea v. acephala), summer and winter squash (Cucurbita spp), cucumbers (Cucumis sativus), melon (Cucumis melo), carrots (Daucus carota v. sativa), herbs, basil (Ocimum basilicum), tomatoes (Lycopersicum esculentum), eggplant (Solanum melongena v esculentum), peppers (Capsicum frutescens), potatoes (Solanum tuberosum), onions (Allium sativum), garlic (Allium cepa), cut flowers

Ecological Services: biodiversity, watershed, carbon storage in forest

Educational Services: promote food production, marketing and business skills and develop active (global) citizens who are informed, self aware, and visionary.

The interdisciplinary degree of Human Ecology at College of the Atlantic allows for multiple goals to be simultaneously pursued. The balance between economic and educational are being met by including financial viability as both an educational and a production goal. Students then can more realistically learn how production needs are integrated into market and how policy at the local, national and international level shape how a farm is managed. Discussions on and off the farm integrate college members values and test the viability of a range of ideals. Diversified, interdisciplinary programs allow for an integration and analysis of the web of decisions and factors that determine what is grown, how soil is managed, how marketing is achieved within and beyond communities, as well as the social services that arise from connecting communities to farms. Within the United States, this may prove to be more successful in New England with a long tradition of the town meeting, few commodity price supports, and smaller towns with longer family histories.

Sustainable education needs to serve a range of students and provide a mechanism for students to engage in shaping their world. Not all courses need to be directly tied to agriculture but do need to be structured enough that the resources are available for robust analysis.

Balancing educational and economic goals may be difficult and need to be reviewed frequently. Factors important for self-sustaining educational farms (1) Make economic viability an explicit part of education in addition to building production skills (2) Institutionalize a stratified labor pool in which advanced students as well as the farm mangers work with beginning students. (3) Compensate students for their labor in order to clarify their role within the farm and allow for realistic labor decisions for the farm manager. (4) Integrate the farm into specific, problem-oriented projects that address questions of equitability, biodiversity, and land use policy that enhance the understanding of the interrelationship of the farm into sociopolitical region of its operations. These projects are central to agroecological thinking and do not need compromise production activities on the farm.

Minimize Toxics

Organic production prohibits the use of synthetic fertilizers and pesticides. Diversification of the farm dampens pest pressures.

Conserve Resources

New England practicality leads to recycling of equipment e.g. the conversion of tractors to run on fry-a-lator oil.

Manage Ecological Relationships

Watershed analysis provides the context for both farm and forest management.

Adjust to Local Environments

Crop production is tailored to local demand and to a very limited growing season.

Diversify

Explore agroecological principles on different scales from gardening to ethnographic studies of alternative practices around the world.

Empower People

Empower students with co-learner models and remember that the farmers are vitally important teachers.

Manage Whole Systems

Create curricular links within local towns, watersheds and beyond. International students and intensive study in Merida, Yucatan.

Beech Hill Farm, College of the Atlantic