From Portland’s KATU via EnergyBulletin.net, news of a debate ranging within US colleges of agriculture: should these schools offer majors in organic agriculture? Instructor James Cassidy at Oregon State University says “yes”: “One of the only places to make money in agriculture these days is in this specialized market.” While many ag. schools do offer courses in organics, the idea of a full-fledged major is receiving a tepid response:
…hopping aboard the organics bandwagon could be a tough sell at more traditional land-grant schools, which have turned their focus to research, leaving less appetite for hands-on training.
“For some of the schools that have very conventional agriculture departments, they don’t know what to do with students that want to run an organic farm,” said Laura Sayre, a writer and researcher for newfarm.org, a Web site run by the Rodale Institute, a sustainable food nonprofit. “They can’t really assimilate them.”
In addition, starting up such a major can carry an implicit critique of traditional programs, said Matt Liebman, director of the graduate program in sustainable agriculture at Iowa State University in Ames.
“It implies that everyone else is non-sustainable, and they find that fairly threatening,” Liebman said. “It can imply a critique of traditional agriculture, and its effects on the environment, or farm size.”
As is so common these days, community colleges are taking the lead in this area. As a teacher at an 1890 Land Grant institution, I can’t imagine a better way to attract more students to the fields of agriculture and agribusiness. The field itself, from my understanding, is in decline, and something a bit more cutting-edge could prove attractive to students sitting on the fence. Also, I know that at my university (at least from my own observation), many of our agriculture majors come from Carribean and African nations. Organics could provide a way to make these poor countries much more self-sufficient, and even create more goods for them to sell in the global market. Finally, this gets the concept of organic foods and agricultural products into a larger market of ideas, which can only help the economic market for these commodities.
Technorati tags: organic, agriculture, colleges and universities, land grant
Michael
Amazing blog! I really enjoyed reading and hope you keep updating it frequently! I really liked the information on commodity brokers! I have my own commodity brokers blog if you would like to come and see what I have on mine! Also, may I put a link to this blog of yours on mine?
Stan
Do you want to grow your own House Plants, Flowers, Trees and Shrubs for FREE….Grow them to landscape your yard, grow them for fun and for profit….Growing small plants in your backyard is one of the most rewarding things you will ever do in your life. Not to mention the money you can make. Getting started in this home based business is really easy. All you have to do is start rooting cuttings of your favorite plants (I’ll show you how to do that), and you are off and running. Any time you have a few extra minutes just stick a few cuttings. Before you know it you will have thousands of plants valued at several thousand dollars.http://thehomeworkco.com/freeplants.html