Williams Colleges students help build a compost pile.
In January Farm Discovery hosted students from Williams College in Williamstown, Massachusetts for two weeks of working and studying sustainable farming at Live Earth Farm. Their work in the fields lead to high level discussions about the serious issues surrounding our food system. The students explored the effects of globalism on our food system and economy, they weighed the higher nutritional value of organics foods against their higher cost to consumers, and they performed a cost benefit analysis of animals in the food system and farm ecology.
Our job at Farm Discovery is to empower youth to make healthy choices for themselves, the environment and their community. Through real work, we build real understanding of the true value of local, sustainable farms and food systems. Now, when these students visit the market, they know the physical, financial, environmental and economic costs of growing the food they purchase, they have skills to grow their own and they understand the real consequences of their choices.
Most of the students and visitors to Live Earth are young children who are being exposed to the source of their food for the first time. It is a refreshing change for us to interact with college students, who are able to make their own choices about what role they play in their local, national, and global food system.