Sometimes college can come down to a laundry list of assignments that need to be completed by certain dates. These assignments promote learning and show that the student completing the homework has actually learned something. Perhaps one of the easiest assignments I have had to do all year was an assignment given in my natural resources class. The assignment was to attend the showing of “Small Farm Rising” in the Adirondack Room. In class we happened to be covering the topic of sustainable agriculture, so the showing of this documentary came at just the right time. From what my professor, Brett McLeod, said about the documentary, I thought it would actually be a homework assignment that might not be too painful.
Fortunately for me, I was right. The documentary was very interesting and the spread of breads and cheeses provided by Asgaard Farms was also very enjoyable. I definitely think that a presentation like this more than fits the bill for a campus connection. Like I mentioned earlier, the presentation perfectly coincided with my studies, so it was much easier to get absorbed into and likewise to understand. This helped me to truly realize some of the issues that the campus community is facing. It’s no secret that the campus community, like just about every other community in the world, is trying to become more sustainable, and therefore have less of an impact on the environment. The documentary brought up this issue by showing several local farms, and how they approach sustainability through supplying the local region. The documentary showed that being sustainable isn’t impossible; it just requires some work. Ian Ater and Lucas Christenson from Fledging Crow Vegetables are living proof that while a little hard work can go a long way, a lot of hard work can go even longer. The two talked about their CSA (community supported agriculture) and how it’s growing, which shows that other people are realizing that they need to become sustainable, and a great way to do so is to join a CSA. I think this event was great because it spread knowledge of sustainable agriculture to people who may not have known much about being sustainable, or that it is currently a problem. Spreading the knowledge of an issue and how to possibly solve the issue is probably the most important way to solve an issue, and I think that’s just what the presentation did.
I think that the event also helped me to connect with other students in the college community because it represented a common interest between those of us who attended. I think that it’s safe to say that everybody that attended shares a belief that we need to do whatever we can to preserve the Earth and it’s resources. The people who attended the presentation represent a niche in society, and everybody needs a niche or two in order to be comfortable in day-to-day life. I know for a fact that a good portion of the students there are majoring in natural resources management and policy, just as I am. It feels kind of cool, because it’s almost like a brotherhood, or something that makes us different from the rest of the students on campus.
The documentary conveyed a great message, because it provided a glimpse of life outside of college that isn’t normally seen. Whenever someone talks about how money comes into the Adirondacks, the talk usually comes down to state/government jobs and tourism. The documentary showed that there is much more to the region than that. There are still plenty of hard-working farms, such as Fledging Crow and Asgaard Farms, that don’t rely on the state/government or tourism. These farms show that the region is more than tourism and the glamorous Adirondacks; they show that people around here are willing to get down and dirty. For people who live here year-round, the Adirondacks isn’t just a romantic vacation destination; it’s home, or a place where they need to work hard to make a living just like anywhere else. I think that I even got caught up in thinking of the Adirondacks in such a romantic light, when the region is really just filled with hard-working people trying to make a living and become sustainable just like anywhere else (if not more).
Small farm rising was definitely a great experience. It made me feel like part of the Adirondacks, and even helped to make the Adirondacks feel more like home. Back home, the land is much more flat than in the Adirondacks, and there are fields with crops left and right. It was nice to be able to connect my new home (the Adirondacks) with my actual home. Not only did I make connections with the land, but more importantly I made connections with the work ethic and way of life. This is a short clip of a preview for the “Small Farm Rising” documentary, but like what one of the boys from Fledging Crow says in the video, “Guys like me… they’re making it”. It shows something unique: pride in the Adirondack way of life and work ethic, which no other place in the world can lay claim to.
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