Members of academia and students from Bard, Pace, Marist, Sarah Lawrence, Rockland Community College and others converged on RCC”™s Suffern campus on Oct. 15th and 16th to talk about food: where it comes from, how it gets here, and how New Yorkers can partner with state farmers to make agriculture a more integral part of their daily lives.
“At the beginning of the 20th century, 40 percent of Americans were personally involved with growing food,” said Jennifer Grossman, vice president for land acquisition for the Open Space Institute. “Today, only 2 percent of Americans are involved with producing the food grown in this country.”
While those statistics might have surprised the students and faculty in the audience, it was no surprise to farmer Jean-Paul Courtens, whose Roxbury Farm on the fringe of Dutchess County in Kinderhook has a 1,400-member CSA (community supported agriculture) program with members from the north end of the Hudson Valley to Westchester and New York City.
The goal of the two-day seminar was for teachers and students interested in sustainable agriculture to learn how to preserve farmland, get the community interested in buying local, and to even to create their own gardens, whether on campus or at home. A second goal was to encourage college students to consider farming as a career ”“ something Courtens told listeners is not encouraged in the U.S. as it was in his native Netherlands, where he attended a four-year high school focused on agriculture.
Whether by bringing back World War II”™s “victory gardens” or by encouraging students to get their families involved in planting in their own yards, the goal was to bring awareness of “Where our food comes from, how it gets from the farm to the table and what it takes to get it there,” said Michelle Land, the director of the Environmental Consortium of Hudson Valley Colleges and Universities.
Students came from all over the Hudson Valley ”“ from Sarah Lawrence, Marist, College of New Rochelle and others, with the event co-sponsored by Rockland Community College and Pace University.
The popularity of CSA”™s, farm-to-table dinners, such as the one Cheryl Rogowski recently hosted on her farm in Pine Island, are hoping to highlight the vegetables, fruits and livestock available right in the Hudson Valley that is available for sale. “People are becoming more aware of what they are eating, and they want to know where it comes from,” said John Paul Courtrens. “This is one way for our academic community to spread the word and get the younger generation involved.”
Event planners also recommended that students and faculty watch the documentary, “Gasland,” saying the results of hydro-fracking on New York”™s water table could cause serious harm to local wells ”“ as well as to the farmers who use the water to keep their crops growing.
