03/30/06

Faculty:                 Martha Rosemeyer                         Steve Scheuerell           

Office:                          Lab I 1012                               Lab 1 2012  

Phone:                          x6646                                           x7645                             

Mailbox:                 Lab I                                       Lab I                                            

E-mail:                rosemeym@evergreen.edu .            scheuers@evergreen.edu           

The Ecological Agriculture program provides a holistic, interdisciplinary study of agriculture, from a critical perspective of social and ecological sustainability. We will emphasize developing “systems” thinking, expository and scientific report writing, library research and quantitative reasoning skills.  Lectures will focus on ecological principles applied to agroecosystems, soil science and fertility management, crop and livestock management, as well as agricultural history, socio-economic aspects of agriculture and the regional to global food system.  Labs will provide a hands-on introduction to soil ecology and fertility, experimentation, energy flow and nutrient cycling through farms, and cover crop production at the farm.  Field trips (4-day) will allow students to visit farms working toward sustainability, interact with farmers and attend meetings/workshops, such as the Washington Tilth conference and Eco-Farm conference in California. 

Fall emphasis: The Agroecology portion of fall quarter will emphasize energy flow and biodiversity as applied to agricultural systems, using Gliessman’s Agroecology. The social science approach will focus on the role that ideas and institutions have played in shaping the US agriculture and food system as a basis for thinking about the social sustainability of agriculture. There will be an emphasis on scientific report writing based on lab work.  Seminar readings in order are: Becoming Native to this Place, Buffalo Bird Woman’s Garden; Changes in the Land: Indians, Colonists and the Ecology of New England; The Conquest of Bread; and Fast Food Nation/Food Politics, Genetic Engineering in Agriculture. Suggested reading for background botany is Capon’s, Botany for Gardeners.

Winter emphasis: The Agroecology portion will focus on soil science, soil ecology and nutrient cycling.  We will use Brady and Weil, The Nature and Properties of Soils, 13^th Edn.  The intent of winter seminar work is to critically examine possible futures of agriculture in the 21^st century.  Seminar readings will include:  The Essential Agrarian Reader, Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California, The Subsistence Perspective, scanned chapters from Amish Society, The Farm as Natural Habitat, Eat Here or Fateful Harvest and Gaviotas: Village to Reinvent the World.  There will be an emphasis on engaged citizenship through writing letters to the editor and Congresspeople, as well as critical analysis and expository writing through an individual library research study and final seminar synthesis paper.  We plan to attend the Eco-Farm conference January 19-22 in CA.  Students who remain in Olympia for this week will complete an annotated bibliography.

Spring emphasis: Students will have a choice of Tropical Cropping Systems/ Sustainable Development or Advanced Compost Science.  In addition Practice of Sustainable Agriculture and Internships will also be offered. 

Summer:  If student interest warrants, in first half of summer session tropical agriculture will be experienced first hand through a visit to Costa Rica and Nicaragua.

Winter Program Structure

·        Seminars, lectures, field trips, workshops and films - The format of class time will vary considerably.  We will visit compost facilities in Puyallup and farms in California, for those who are able to attend the field trip.

·        Soil Science Labs – We will sample soil, explore soil chemical, physical and biological characteristics. 

·        CAL exercises- We will continue learning excel and how to work with nutrient cycling calculations based on data collected last quarter and spreadsheet exercise on nitrogen release from organic soil amendments.

·        Study Questions and Group Activities – Much of this quarter’s learning will be collaborative and the success of this work depends on clear communication, good planning and regular constructive feedback.  We will form triads and your colleagues are depending on your hard work on the study questions and nutrient cycling lab calculations, so take your group activities seriously.

·        Writing - There will quite a bit of writing this quarter including five writing exercises, a final seminar synthesis paper and library research paper on a topic of your choice.

·        Oral presentation – We will give each person the opportunity to present their library research paper to the group in a PowerPoint week 10

Winter Learning Goals:

We have articulated several learning goals for Ecological Agriculture.  In steps throughout the year, we will provide you with the opportunities to learn these skills.  We also plan to work closely with you to help you articulate and work toward your personal learning goals. 

By the end of the program, we expect that you will have developed skills for...

·        Working collaboratively.

·        Communicating clearly and articulately through writing and speaking.

·        Critical and integrative thinking as demonstrated through written work and discussions.

·        Basic understanding of experimental design.

·        Observation or place and weed seedlings.

·        Basic quantitative reasoning and Excel spreadsheet skills.

…as well as a good understanding of:

·        Systems thinking and its application to agriculture

·        Potential future of agriculture and the food system

·        Soil ecology and management

·        Practical nutrient management

·        How nutrients cycle through a farm

Academic Standards

·        Late Work Policy

This program requires self-discipline, individual work and teamwork.  Please follow the schedule closely and punctually attend all seminars, workshops, lectures and team meetings.  It will be hard to achieve the program goals of working collaboratively and communicating clearly without actively attending and contributing to class. 

We expect all work to be submitted on time.  Late submittals communicate to us that you are not keeping up with your work. In all but the most extenuating of circumstances, work that is submitted past its due date will not be read by faculty and your evaluation will state that your work was not submitted in a timely fashion.  Failure to attend all program meetings, or to submit all work could result in a loss of credit. We will pay more attention to late work this quarter, especially as we near the end.

·        Credit Policy

Students should recognize from the outset that faculty will evaluate their work, not by comparison to the work of other students, but by looking for evidence of growth in skills, creativity, discipline, and commitment from the beginning of the quarter or year to the end within each individual student. That is, you are not evaluated in competition with your peers. You are judged in terms of your own intellectual development. Faculty will award each student 16 credits per quarter for doing work to their best capabilities, for good attendance at all program events, and for completing all assignments. Faculty may award less than sixteen credits for work that fails to meet these criteria, but they will do so only after consultation with each other.  

Credit is not the same thing as high quality work. Full credit is given when students fulfill the minimum requirements and standards of the program. The evaluation is used to describe the QUALITY of the student's work. Thus, a student could actually receive credit, but also receive evaluations that reflect poor quality work. On the flip side, a student could attend regularly but receive partial or no credit because of poor quality or missing work.

·        Honesty

In an academic community, sharing and taking responsibility for our own ideas is vital. At the same time, acknowledging our use of other people's ideas is equally important. The work we submit must reflect our own ideas. When we are incorporating the views of others, be those published authors or our seminar mates, we must acknowledge our sources. Since much of the work in this program will be collaborative and the ensuing ideas will reflect the contributions of more than one person, we must get into the habit of acknowledging the people and ideas that have influenced us. There will be many times when we will be asked to take individual positions--in essays, research projects, and seminar discussions--and we must assert our own distinctive interpretations and judgments. The final work we do must reflect our own judgment and analysis while also recognizing the contributions of people who have influenced our learning.  Failure to make such acknowledgments or to present the work of others as our own is plagiarism. Any student who plagiarizes material could lose credit, be asked to leave the program and may be required to leave the college.   Ask your faculty members if you have any questions.

·        Alcohol and Drug Policy

Absolutely no use of alcohol or drugs will be allowed in any class activity, whether on or off-campus.  Attending class events under the influence could result in loss of credit, expulsion from the program, and possibly expulsion from the College.

Books and Readings*: All are present in the TESC bookstore except as noted.

We will be using the following text for our study of soil is: Nyle Brady and Ray Weil. 2001. The Nature and Properties of Soils, 13^th Edn.  Prentice Hall  ISBN: 0130167630

Seminar books in chronological order are:

Norman Worzba, Barbara Kingsolver. (Eds.) 2004. The Essential Agrarian Reader: The Future of Culture, Community, and the Land ISBN: 1593760434.  

Julie Guthman, J. 2004.  Agrarian Dreams: The Paradox of Organic Farming in California University of California Press, ISBN: 0520240952 

Bennholdt-Thomsen, Maria Mies. 2000. The Subsistence Perspective: Beyond the Globalized Economy Zed Books ISBN: 1856497763  ** Not available at bookstore, see www.addall.com ** 

Dana Jackson and Laura Jackson. 2002. The Farm as Natural Habitat Island Press. ISBN: 1559638478

Brian Halweil.  2004. Eat Here: Reclaiming Homegrown Pleasures in a Global Supermarket.

World Watch.  Norton Publishers. ISBN. 0-393-32664-0.  OR, if you have already read this:

Duff Wilson.  2001.  Fateful Harvest. ISBN: 0060931833

Alan Weisman, 1999.  Gaviotas: Village to Reinvent the World. Chelsea Green, ISBN: 1890132284