From In Business Magazine
September/October 2000, Page 16
teaching change
Preserving Rural Roots
Classes, internships and outreach by Central Carolina Community College program lead to more organic farmers and sustainable agriculture proponents.
Robin Kohanowich
SOARING land prices are making it very hard to save family farms in Chatham County. Located near Research Triangle Park and the cities of Raleigh, Durham and Chapel Hill, Pittsboro is a small community struggling to maintain its rural roots. The Pittsboro campus of Central Carolina Community College (CCCC), home to the Sustainable Farming Program (SFP), sits on land that was once a family-owned dairy farm. With much of the land surrounding the campus still being used for hay production, the five-acre Land Lab — the program’s outdoor classroom — is used to demonstrate sustainable agriculture. Training is led by instructors Tony Kleese, executive director of Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, and Alex Hitt, a farmer who has been promoting sustainable production.
MAKING THE ENTERPRISE WORK FINANCIALLY
Hitt and his wife, Betsey, own Peregrine Farm, where specialty lettuces, peppers, tomatoes and cut flowers provide an income for them and three students they hire each season. “The first challenge was making this whole enterprise work so that we could support ourselves; the payoff was actually getting there,” says Hitt. The sense of being involved as part of a community is a common thread with many of the farmers in this program.
Several factors contributed to forming alliances, which became the basis for SFP. Piedmont Market Gardeners had been receiving requests for help and information about how to start a market garden. The group responded by helping individuals on their own farms, but it was clear that there was still a great need for information and an organized method of delivery. In 1995, Harvey Harman, a local farmer, began teaching classes at CCCC that focused on marketing and organic production methods. The popularity of these classes, along with the existence of an established community of local growers and a community desire to preserve farmland, led to formation of SFP.
Harman contacted interested persons from CCCC, the extension service, American Livestock Breeds Conservancy, North Carolina State University, North Carolina Agricultural and Technical College and other individuals for a series of meetings. The result is a program that uses successful farmers, entrepreneurs and extension personnel as instructors, with the emphasis on giving students the practical skills and knowledge they need to develop a profitable, environmentally sound, community-based farm enterprise.
“It was real hard starting from scratch,” Jim LeTendre says of the beginnings of SFP. He and Harman were working together on other projects at the time, including getting local farm markets started. Still involved with the program, LeTendre teaches in the fall semester, when his full-time business of raising greenhouse tomatoes gives him a little break.
LeTendre owns Sunny Slope Greenhouses with his partner David Densen. “We didn’t start out with the idea of being sustainable,” he notes. “We were just trying to farm.” But, they wanted something that would agree with their philosophy, and neither was willing to handle agricultural pesticides. “Our business has thrived because we care — we sell only the highest quality, consistently,” says LeTendre.
Their business is the kind envisioned by the originators of SFP, who sought to promote a way of farming that is both environmentally sound and economically profitable. A close association was formed with the Small Business Assistance Center on campus and a collaboration with Rural Entrepreneurship through Action Learning (R.E.A.L.), which fosters entrepreneurship through interactive classes. Students are urged to find their own niche market, working with other local growers.
Steven Moize, a recent R.E.A.L. graduate, has been farming since 1998 on land that has been in his family for seven generations. “The R.E.A.L. class puts the fantasy of going into business for yourself into a real world perspective.” At Shady Grove Farm, Moize uses organic methods, selling his crops through community supported agriculture subscriptions, and local farmers markets.
ACCESSIBLE SCHEDULING
SFP classes are offered in the late afternoon and evenings, generally meeting once a week, to make them more accessible to those still in a 9-to-5 world or who can’t leave the farm while there is still daylight. Rebecca Tucker, a nurse and new mother, rearranged her full-time work schedule to be able to take the classes needed to earn a Certificate in Farm Stewardship. After buying 53 acres, Rebecca chose SFP to help her to learn holistic, sustainable farming practices to provide extra income as well as food for her family.
While many SFP students work full-time in careers unrelated to farming, there also are full-time students. Erin Lunsford, who moved to Pittsboro from California, learned about SFP from the Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas website. She has completed the requirements needed to earn a Certificate in Farm Stewardship, and plans to use her farming skills, along with a master’s degree in linguistics, to work with indigenous populations in developing countries.
Ryan Romeyn moved from Michigan with his wife and young son. He enrolled in SFP after looking at other programs in sustainable agriculture because the instructors at the community college do more than research sustainable farming — they live it. Romeyn spent his internship time working at Sustenance Farm, where he gained experience tending bees, sheep and milk goats in addition to learning about vegetable production. Sustenance Farm, owned by Harman, has been a temporary home to many of the students interested in immersing themselves in the sustainable agriculture experience.
EARNING A CERTIFICATE IN FARM STEWARDSHIP
There are five classes that give students the basic skills needed for a farm, four elective classes, plus a 300-hour internship to round out the program. The basics include classes on topics such as agricultural mechanics, where equipment from tractors to tillers is studied, and students get the opportunity to take apart and rebuild an engine. Farm construction offers hands-on instruction by building structures; a tool shed was completed this year for the Land Lab. Students can choose among courses such as Small Livestock Production, Plant Identification for Southern Landscapes, or Permaculture, as electives.
Attracting traditional farmers — including tobacco growers — and providing them with a way to make the transition to sustainable farming is another objective of the program. By working with the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association, the program educates those open to transition through workshops and classes that provide practical, field-tested ideas.
As SFP enters its fourth year, the goals are to continue to reach out to the farming community — on both a local and national scale — to provide affordable, practical training in sustainable methods. One major addition to the course offerings this year is an on-site internship. The interns will spend 20 hours per week for 16 weeks in a program that is both academic and experiential. Practical skills will be emphasized, with the study of a variety of approaches to planning and maintaining a successful market garden.
Unique in its community college setting, SFP continues to receive support and guidance from Karen Allen, the provost and an original program collaborator. Dr. Allen sees SFP as an excellent opportunity to work collaboratively toward the goal of community education. Funding for the program is provided through a grant from the North Carolina Rural Economic Development Center and through CCCC.
Robin Kohanowich is coordinator of the Sustainable Farming Program at Central Carolina Community College in Pittsboro, North Carolina. For more information, visit the program’s website at www.centralcarolina.org, the Carolina Farm Stewardship Association at www.carolinafarmstewards.org, the Chatham County Cooperative Extension Service at www.chatham.ces.state.nc.us and Appropriate Technology Transfer for Rural Areas at www.attra.org.
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