Ecological anthropology class visits the Brook Farm Project

Photo by Candace Parkman, student, ecological anthropology

Dan Guenther, manager of the Brook Farm Project, located off Butterville Road in New Paltz, explains composting to students of ecological anthropology class.

By Lourdes Giordani

I had just wrapped-up all the grading and paperwork for the Spring 2004 term when a letter from Dr. David Clark, (associate dean of the School of Science and Engineering) arrived and caught my attention. In it Clark notified members of the faculty about a non-profit organic farm that was under construction near our campus, on Mohonk property off Butterville Road.

According to the letter, the 70-acre farm sought to serve as a model of small-scale, sustainable agriculture. Under the management of Dan Guenther (alias "Farmer Dan") and Gerow Smiley, Clark explained that it also sought to provide hands-on, educational, and research opportunities for New Paltz faculty and students. Because I teach ecological anthropology, a course that explores how humans and the cultures that they create both fashion and are fashioned by their environment, I jumped at the chance to explore this educational opportunity.

The farm was "a natural" for my class since one of the main topics that we examine is the transition humans have made from foraging to food production and how the latter has changed over time. Given that the farm is still in its early stage, and that the world of farming is new to some of my students, I decided that a field trip early on during the term would be a good idea.

As the class is large and some students had conflicts with scheduling, I went to the farm on three separate Saturday mornings to accommodate everyone. During these visits the students learned some of the history of the property and how land use had changed over time; about the crops that had been grown this summer and some of the difficulties encountered (e.g., powdery mildew); the basics of composting; the connection between nitrogen fixation and legumes; and about the use of an electric fence and frequent paddock changes for grazing cattle (instead of keeping them in a barn). In addition, students were able to relate what they saw to technological, demographic, social, and nutritional changes. They also learned a little "hard science" along the way; in fact, most knew nothing about aerobic and anaerobic bacteria, nitrogen fixation, or heavy soils. Perhaps they had studied some of these topics before but had forgotten them because they could not relate them to something tangible.

The trips to the Brook Farm were, above all, an interdisciplinary experience for my students. And they learned, in a concrete way, that farming indeed is a milestone in human evolution.

Colleagues who wish to contact Dan Guenther can do so at farmerdan@hvi.net.

~Lourdes Giordani is an assistant professor of anthropology at New Paltz.

OCTOBER 11, 2004
Volume 2, Issue 18

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