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Farming goes uptown as prep schools add ag programs"We recognized that students don't know where their food comes from, what a squash looks like or how to dig a potato," said Jennifer Wilhelm, sustainability coordinator at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H. Exeter, a boarding school similar to St. Andrew's, is starting its first student-run garden this year, with potatoes, beans, corn and carrots on the menu. MIDDLETOWN, Del. (AP)--It's a safe bet few students at the exclusive St. Andrew's School plan to become farmers. It's a boarding school where chestnut trees tower over Tudor-style buildings, so crisply manicured they filmed "Dead Poets Society" here. But on the edge of campus, just beyond the tennis courts and soccer fields, sprout rows of green peas, sunflowers, zucchini and squash. It's a 2-acre organic garden tended by students as St. Andrew's joins dozens of upper-crust prep schools across the country reviving agricultural programs. Environmental concerns and a local-produce trend are inspiring gardens and farms at schools that haven't focused on agriculture in decades, if ever. Now, farmers are on the faculty at some schools, and the title "sustainability coordinator" is becoming common at schools that likely never had Future Farmers of America clubs. "It's actually pretty cool," said Kai Xin Chen, 15, a sophomore from Brooklyn, N.Y., who signed up to help this year with the St. Andrew's garden. Recalling her efforts in recent days to haul in peas that seemed to ripen faster than she could pick them, Chen said, "It involves more physical work than I expected. I had to hoe! It's so hard! My arms were, like, ugh. But it's a good experience." Founded in 1929 in then-bucolic northern Delaware, St. Andrew's once had a student-run dairy and required all boarders to help with farm work. But sometime after World War II, students starting spending more time indoors, and student farming was abandoned. Two years ago, students returned to the soil to experiment with growing organic produce for the dining hall. The farm is also used for science classes. Many schools are joining the trend. "We recognized that students don't know where their food comes from, what a squash looks like or how to dig a potato," said Jennifer Wilhelm, sustainability coordinator at Phillips Exeter Academy in Exeter, N.H. Exeter, a boarding school similar to St. Andrew's, is starting its first student-run garden this year, with potatoes, beans, corn and carrots on the menu. Even elementary schools with little land are getting their hands dirty. St. Hilda's and St. Hugh's, a day school in New York's Morningside Heights neighborhood that teaches toddlers to the 8th grade, is finishing work on a rooftop greenhouse where students will start gardening this fall. "We sort of regard it as a moral imperative," said school spokeswoman Megan O'Hare. "It's one of our goals to teach children to be stewards of our planet. And this is a great way to teach them a farm-to-table philosophy." School farms teach nutrition, too. At Scattergood Friends School, a Quaker boarding school in West Branch, Iowa, students have been required to spend several hours a week on farm chores since the school's founding in 1890. Farm manager Mark Quee says Scattergood's 4-acre garden encourages students to try foods they may not have considered until they raise them. "They learn to eat differently. That's our goal, to teach them to eat well and eat close to home," Quee said. Scattergood's farm curriculum is well established--students also raise grass-fed beef, lamb and free-range turkeys--but Quee says the agriculture program is not aimed at producing farmers. "I don't imagine anyone going out and entering the world of factory farming. That's not our goal," he said. "Mostly we want them to know, getting dirty's OK, you know, chicken manure washes off." If students know how food is produced, they'll become healthier eaters and more aware of the environmental impacts of conventional farming, said Linda Halloran, garden program director at the Colorado Rocky Mountain School, a boarding school in Carbondale, Colo., which offers an elective called "Politics of Food." "There's been so much more awareness on the sustainability issue," said Halloran, who oversees student work crews that spend four hours a week tending the garden. The campus garden trend, also seen on college campuses and public schools, is likely to keep growing, said Myra McGovern, spokeswoman for the National Association of Independent Schools, a Washington-based industry group. The group doesn't have an exact count of prep schools adding farm programs, but the number is likely in the dozens, McGovern said. "There's been a huge growth in the number of schools, even urban schools, using organic gardens as outdoor classrooms," McGovern said. "Many, many schools are now really excited about this. Not only does it allow the to teach about sustainability, but it allows them to teach about good nutrition and science, too." It's a lesson schools are teaching even when their students are unlikely to work in agriculture as adults. At St. Andrew's, sophomore Nancy Kim wants to be a scientist and is in her second year working on the school farm. She now eats green peppers and fresh tomatoes, foods she avoided before. "I really like plants," said Kim, 15. "Studying plants can help us depend on other things than the supermarket. We can't live without plants." 10/8/07 Date: 10/2/07
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