Scale & Sustainability: Food, Farms, and Technological Limits Pod: Foundations of Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems, Draft Animal Power Systems I & Introduction to Fiber Arts

Enrollment Requirements and Options:

Students in this pod may enroll in online coursework. Students may enroll in two of courses in this pod.

This pod includes the following courses:

Introduction to Fiber Arts 3 cr

Wool and other natural fibers invite students to explore technical aspects of fiber arts and the broader cultural influences thereof. Discussion and supplemental materials may include but are not limited to topics such as plant and animal fiber properties, sources and cultivation of fiber, fiber in history and tradition, economic and social impacts of fiber production and manufacture, and global and local fiber connections.

Draft Animal Power Systems I 3 cr

This course introduces students to the systems required to safely manage and work a team of draft horses or oxen. Topics include the natural history of draft animals, functional anatomy, physiology, and care methods including both conventional and alternative medical approaches. Following extensive practice with ground driving maneuvers, draft animals will be hitched to a variety of carts and implements to learn safe hitching and operational procedurals to do farm and forest work.

Foundations of Sustainable Agriculture and Food Systems 3 cr

Using readings from prominent thinkers, innovators, and scholars in sustainable and alternative agriculture and food systems, as well as through films, field trips and on-farm projects, we will explore the major ideas and practices that have driven the development of agricultural philosophies and practices aligned with long-term ecological health and community resilience. Following a model that alternates deep, subject-specific explorations of primary and secondary literature in sustainable food systems with practical on-farm projects, this class provides students the intellectual and embodied foundation necessary for engaging meaningfully in alternative agricultural systems at Sterling College and beyond. Surveying the history and evolution of major problems in agriculture through time and space, we will direct our attention to alternative models that are more compatible with the ethics of land stewardship and a renewed agrarianism for the twenty-first century. We will develop a working knowledge of sustainable agriculture and food systems, while also exploring the environmental, economic, social, political, and cultural dimensions of these systems.