Robert Barker/University Photography

John Bokaer-Smith, co-owner of West Haven Farm, gives a tour of the fields during a visit by conference participants July 13.

More than 150 faculty, staff, students, administrators, extension educators and farmers from over 50 academic institutions and organizations descended on Cornell's campus to attend the Second National Conference on Facilitating Sustainable Agriculture Education, July 11 to 14. The conference aimed to help define how agricultural educators might address the growing need for sustainable practices in today's environmentally challenged world.

The unique participatory format of the conference encouraged participants to share their approaches to teaching and learning about sustainable food systems, says Kathi Colen Peck of Cornell's horticulture department and the conference coordinator. Conference themes included pedagogies for sustainable agriculture; how to start and maintain a sustainable agriculture education program; developing a curriculum for sustainable agriculture; putting educational theory into practice; and student farms.

The conference also included field trips to the Dilmun Hill Student Farm to demonstrate hands-on approaches to teaching about small-scale farming, and a visit to nearby West Haven Farm, a community-supported organic farm, where growers led a workshop on integrating working farms into a sustainable agriculture curriculum.

Robert Barker/University Photography

The trip to West Haven Farm included discussion sessions in the orchard.

Conference attendants also participated in a resource exchange for educational materials, the launch of the recently formed Sustainable Agriculture Education Association and a concert by sustainability advocate and singer Adrienne Young.

The event highlighted many sustainability-related initiatives already in practice at Cornell, including meals by Cornell Catering made with locally grown foods and use of the Alice H. Cook House, one of the first residence halls in New York state that was granted green-building certification under the U.S. Green Building Council's Leadership in Energy and Environmental Design (LEED) program.

The conference was organized by faculty, staff and students from Cornell, Penn State University, the Rodale Institute, Delaware Valley College and University of California-Davis.