{"id":2949,"date":"2016-05-13T16:49:44","date_gmt":"2016-05-13T16:49:44","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/hvfarmhub.org\/?p=2949"},"modified":"2021-08-13T14:54:37","modified_gmt":"2021-08-13T14:54:37","slug":"profarmer-curriculum","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/hvfarmhub.org\/es\/profarmer-curriculum\/","title":{"rendered":"ProFarmer: An Innovative Curriculum to Train Future Farmers"},"content":{"rendered":"

Walking through a waist-high field of rye with buckets, shovels, and a measuring contraption called a \u201cpenetrometer,\u201d the Farm Hub ProFarmer trainees<\/a> set out in the rain last week to take soil samples from fields across the farm. Led by Conrad Vispo from the Hawthorne Valley Farmscape Ecology Program, our ProFarmers, Jess, Andrew, and Jesse, joined members of the Farm Hub staff in digging and mixing samples from each field. They then plotted the site\u2019s location using GPS and measured soil compaction with the penetrometer. The final samples were shipped off to Cornell University for the Comprehensive Assessment of Soil Health, a test that goes beyond the usual chemical analysis of a soil sample by looking at biological and physical characteristics.<\/p>\n

As part of an ongoing soil-monitoring program that will track the impact of the Farm Hub\u2019s ecological farming methods over time, ten samples were taken from each of one hundred different fields over the course of two weeks. One of many projects the ProFarmers have jumped into since arriving at the Farm Hub in early April, the soil sampling typifies the ProFarmer program\u2019s approach: project-based learning centered around the ecological health of the farm in the context of LEP\u2019s larger mission in the Hudson Valley food system.<\/p>\n

\u201cProject-based learning uses real life experience to teach,\u201d said Sara Katz, Associate Manager for Education Programs at the Farm Hub. \u201cWe are creating an alternative educational environment where people are learning by doing while also exploring the context and future implications of what they are growing.\u201d This approach will no doubt prove rewarding as the ProFarmers, along with the farm crew, take on the farm\u2019s thirty-two acres of vegetables this season – a five-acre market garden as well as four major vegetable enterprise crops (edamame and green beans, root crops, sweet corn, and broccoli and cauliflower). These vegetable enterprises provide a platform for intensive practical training in organic production through the season\u2019s progression: from crop planning to budgeting, growing methods, harvesting, and marketing.<\/span><\/p>\n

In addition to using project-based learning as a primary training method, ProFarmer team leaders are incorporating the principals of another alternative educational concept, \u201cpopular education.\u201d In the words of Pancho Arguilles of Paz y Puente, an expert in participatory education who has provided curriculum guidance to the ProFarmer program this year, \u201cPopular education is a methodology of participatory techniques and exercises used to create a space where people can share their experiences, learn from one another, and acquire the skills and knowledge to help them transform their realities.\u201d<\/p>\n