Education and Training Programs

The Center for Organic and Sustainable Agriculture will feature both alternative and traditional models of higher education. Time frames and costs of these three learning options are described below.

Short Courses

Spring and Fall. Training courses will focus on immediate skills needed to launch and operate small farm business. Courses will provide how-to training in the following topics:

Entrepreneurship: plan a farm business that attracts investment, requires minimal capital at startup, and produces net income in the first 6-18 months.
Farm Investment and Maintenance: choose a farm, based on farm stead, location, climate, and soil, to grow food for regional markets; evaluate and repair machinery and farmstead buildings.
Directly sell products to existing markets, and create additional opportunity through advertising, retail outlets, and Internet sales.
Crop Production: grow feed for livestock, using methods consistent with organic certification.
Vegetable and Berry Production: grow vegetables and berries for direct-markets, both outdoors and in low-cost, low-energy greenhouses.
Livestock Production: raise animals for direct-market meat or eggs, using pasture and woodlots.
Agroforestry: cultivate, harvest, and market syrup, ginseng, fuelwood, and timber from woodlots.

Courses will typically include one hour of lecture and two hours of hands-on training per week. Courses will be scheduled according to market demand, e.g. once-per-week sessions that minimize travel to campus.

Summer Workshops

Short courses will be offered in condensed, one to two week programs, for students who are unable to attend once-per-week short courses because of schedule conflicts or distance from campus. Students will live on the College Farm or in dormitories during the workshop, and attend up to 6 hours of class per day.