If you’re a student at a big-city university, you may think there won’t be opportunities to study agriculture and ecosystems. But if that university is Columbia, think again. The Summer Ecosystem Experiences for Undergraduates (SEE-U) program is an intensive course that gives students a chance to get outside the city and all over the world to study ecosystems and agriculture, earn science credits, and get fieldwork experience under their belts.
The students and administrators of SEE-U NYC 2019 pose on their last field trip with Karen Washington of Rise & Root Farm (front right, in hat) and a Rise & Root farm hand (left front); professor Amanda Caudill at far right. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
This summer’s SEE-U program was organized through the Earth Institute Center for Environmental Sustainability (EICES). The program was started around 20 years ago by Professor Don Melnick, who passed away earlier this year. The program has run in Jordan and Brazil, as well as closer to home in New York City and the surrounding Hudson Valley. Each location promises a different experience, with the focus shifting depending on the character of the environment. In Brazil, students study the tropical Atlantic Forest ecosystem; in Jordan, they delve into desert ecosystems and the resource management challenges that come with water-scarce regions.
The SEE-U NYC course focuses on the agroecosystems and food systems — both urban and rural — of the NYC foodshed. Led by Amanda Caudill, an ecologist and adjunct professor at EICES, the course is centered around a series of field trips to Black Rock Forest and Hudson Valley and NYC-area farms, giving students first-hand experience and familiarity with the operations of farms and related businesses. Students perform soil tests and learn basic statistics tools to analyze their results, and each student presents a final project at the end of the class using data and information they collect throughout the course.
The SEE-U NYC 2019 course wrapped up at the end of July, after a whirlwind month of field trips, experiments, and exercises. This summer’s class was a small group of students from all kinds of majors, including history, policy, and sustainable development. One of the great things about the course, says former EICES assistant director Kelsey Wooddell, is that it is open to all majors looking to fulfill their science credits. (It is a 6-credit course.) While some students who take the course are on an environmental or sustainability track, “Even those that don’t start as such typically leave with some more green inklings,” says Wooddell, who administered the class.
Caudill agrees, and says that her favorite part of the course is watching the students put everything together. Because the course is made up of readings, lectures, field trips, and science experiments, it gives students an experiential learning opportunity unlike what they would get in a traditional classroom environment. Caudill says, “I love when the students learn that science doesn’t have to be dry and rigid. I’ve had several students say that they never thought that they were good at science, but they had never experienced it like this and they loved it.”
The course has influenced past students to change majors, get sustainability-related internships, and in one case, a student even took a semester off to work on a farm in Georgia. “I think that [the course] really opens people’s eyes to what is going on around them and how they can be a part of that,” says Caudill.
Another positive influence that Caudill and Wooddell see is how students’ perceptions about scientists change. Caudill has had students say she is not what they think of when they think “scientist.” She and Wooddell (who is also a scientist) appreciate that they are in a position to show students all the “different faces science can have.”
It was evident at the final presentations that the course had a big influence on the students. Topics ranged widely, including: soil quality in pastures versus in gardens; urban garden soil quality in low- versus high-income parts of the city; how farm management practices affect overall farm health; and differences in food access between low- and high-income neighborhoods. Each student presented with a solid understanding of the concepts covered in the course and a solid basis in data collection and analysis.
The fall semester is in full swing and the SEE-U students are getting back to their normal class schedules. But it is unlikely they’ll forget about their immersive summer experience anytime soon.
We have compiled photos from the course in the photo essay below. Browse through to see some snapshots of the students’ experiences, as well as some tidbits of knowledge they gained from the people they spoke with.
The class’s first field trip was to the Stone Barns Center in Sleepy Hollow, NY. Co-owned by chef Dan Barber and his brother David, the center is a working farm, education center, and home to Barber’s famed Blue Hill restaurant. Here, a view of the main building from the fields next door. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
Out in the field, farmhands and apprentices pick and weed vegetables. Stone Barns practices organic, regenerative farming practices, teaching many aspiring farmers to care for the planet while reaping its harvest. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
Farm director Jack Algiere gave SEE-U NYC students a tour around the Stone Barns Center, speaking on a wide range of topics including animal husbandry, climate change, composting, commercial farming, farm diversity, and the law of return — the concept that a place can only give as much as is put into it. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
The group sheltered from the sun under an apple tree next to the field, and listened to Jack’s wisdom on animals’ roles in farm diversity and why we should be eating less meat. “It’s dangerous to suggest that we shouldn’t be raising animals,” he said. But, “nobody works hard enough to need that much protein. We shouldn’t be looking at how to replace the amount of meat that we’re eating with grass fed, we should be looking at how we can better utilize animals to manage land. If you don’t have animals in a vegetable-growing system you can’t have the balance of bacteria that’s necessary. Diversity, no waste, and integration of animals are the best lessons we can take from nature.” (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
The class visited the pigs up the hill, where Algiere explained their role in the Stone Barns agro-ecosystem and forest management strategy. After humans clear dead trees and branches from a portion of forest, the farm will bring the pigs and goats in to clear invasive species, root around, and aerate the soil. The way pigs work is “fast, hard, and infrequent,” which is stimulating to the forest ecosystem, said Algiere. The pigs eat a fully waste-fed diet with spent grain from a nearby brewery—which has the added bonus of building community. “We use fresh wood chips to absorb the waste from the pigs, and make compost with that.” The wood chips come from a local arborist, another member of the Stone Barns community. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
A pig emerges to drink some water. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
On the way back to the main building for lunch, Algiere told the group that farmers cannot make a living without a value-added product or commodity. For example, perhaps they have speaking engagements, a book, or they host events at their farm. It could even be something as simple as adding homemade shelf-stable items like soaps, jams, or tomato sauces to their market offerings. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
After lunch, the group headed out to another more remote field to do some soil tests, led by Stone Barns farm coordinator Bonnie Cherner and professor Amanda Caudill. (Photo by Kelsey Wooddell)
The group’s next trips were to Brooklyn Grange and Gotham Greens, both urban rooftop agro-businesses. One of the strengths of the SEE-U NYC course is that it shows students a range of different types of agricultural and agriculture-adjacent business models. (Photo by Amanda Caudill)
The next stop for the SEE-U NYC group was Big ReUse’s composting facility, under the Queensboro Bridge in Long Island City. This non-profit, whose main mission is to reduce waste, particularly from the home-improvement and construction sectors, partners with the Department of Sanitation’s NYC Compost Project to collect and process New Yorkers’ food scraps. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
The group’s tour was led by outreach coordinator Bella Rabinovich. Here, Rabinovich (in the back wearing leggings and ponytail) stands with the group between two piles of finished compost: the pile on the left has not yet been “scraped” for larger pieces of debris. The high visibility of the open-air Big ReUse compost operation is a plus, said Rabinovich. “People think you put [trash] in a bin and it goes away. [Big ReUse] reinforces the idea that your trash is going somewhere and someone is doing something with it.” (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
Rabinovich directed the students’ attention across the street; the compost project’s neighbor is the largest low-income housing project in the U.S. As a result of not wanting to pollute the air for this development, Big ReUse’s compost dropoff locations do not accept meat scraps, which smell bad when they break down. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
A student gets a closer look at the finished compost, preparing to take a sample for later testing. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
The next stop on See-U NYC’s 2019 tour: East New York Farms in Brooklyn. This community farming effort is a project of United Community Centers, and promotes food justice by educating about sustainable, local agriculture. They operate three urban farms (two of which are located in NYCHA housing developments) and one garden in East New York, selling their harvests at their two farmers markets. (Photo by Kelsey Wooddell)
Agricultural programs coordinator Anita Chan toured the students around one of the East New York Farms locations. (Photo by Kelsey Wooddell)
A greenhouse at East New York Farms (Photo by Kelsey Wooddell)
Here you can see a beehive hidden behind a flowering bush. (Photo by Kelsey Wooddell)
The students went on a three-day trip in the middle of July and visited three different farms in the Hudson Valley. Unlike previous locations, these were larger farms with significant dairy components. The first farm they visited on this trip was Dutch Hollow Farm (pictured) in Schodack Landing, NY. Established in 1976 by the Chittenden family, Dutch Hollow specializes in Jersey cows. (Photo by Kelsey Wooddell)
Nathan Chittenden (in green), one of the three Chittenden brothers who continue to run the farm, oversees the raising of calves and milking of heifers. The farm sells its milk to a larger milk conglomerate, and it’s then used mainly by Cabot for cheese-making. Here, Chittenden speaks with the SEE-U students in the barn. (Photo by Kelsey Wooddell)
A just-born calf sleeps in a bed of fresh sawdust at Dutch Hollow Farm. (Photo by Kelsey Wooddell)
Next up on the three-day farm trip: Hawthorne Valley Farm. Hawthorne Valley, located in Ghent, NY, is a diversified farm that has vegetable, grain, bakery, dairy, and processing operations. It’s also an educational center that offers farmer training programs. Established in 1972, the farm places an emphasis on biodynamic practices. (Photo by Amanda Caudill)
Hay that is put aside for the animals to eat during the winter. (Photo by Amanda Caudill)
Wondering where the SEE-U group stayed during their trip? They rested at the Won Dharma Center in Claverack, NY, a Buddhist meditation retreat and yoga center. (Photo by Amanda Caudill)
Here, some of the students check out an insect trap, which an entomologist from Hawthorne Valley set up as part of a night lab. The light inside the trap attracts insects and the construction of the trap makes them stay put on the side panes for easy viewing. The group got to check out and try to identify live specimens from three different insect trap tents that were set up at Won Dharma, plus the entomologist brought some additional specimens for the group to view under a microscope. (Photo by Amanda Caudill)
The class spent the final day of the three-day trip at Ronnybrook Farm, another family-owned dairy operation. In contrast with Dutch Hollow, Ronnybrook processes its milk and dairy products on-site, and sells bottled milk to local grocery stores and at farmers markets in the NYC and Hudson Valley areas. The students loved getting to know Ronnybrook’s beautiful heifers. (Photo by Kelsey Wooddell)
The group got a look inside the refrigerator where Ronnybrook stores its yogurt drinks and milk. (Photo by Kelsey Wooddell)
A gorgeous spot for a picnic! The students ate lunch while looking out at the Catskill mountains across the river from Ronnybrook. (Photo by Kelsey Wooddell)
On the final day of field trips for the course, the students took a day trip up to Rise & Root Farm and Blooming Hill Farm, in Orange County. Above, the greenhouses at Rise & Root Farm, a black-, queer-, women-owned farm in Chester, NY. The farm’s owners are Karen Washington, Lorrie Clevenger, Michaela Hayes, and Jane Hodge, who met through community gardening and involvement in Just Food, an organization that advocates for sustainable agriculture. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
Inside one of the greenhouses, the farm’s plant starts and sprouts are sheltered from the elements. Rise & Root Farm has three acres on a 10-acre plot of land they share with the Dig Inn Farm. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
Karen Washington leads the students to take a look at the tomato greenhouse. Washington says that one of her motivations in starting Rise & Root (R&R) Farm was that she was disturbed not to see many farmers that looked like her. “Look at our skin, she said, “it’s the color of soil.” Washington also started the Black Urban Growers (BUGs) organization to build support for black growers in urban and rural settings, and with R&R co-owner Lorrie Clevenger she organizes the annual BUGSs conference, which will take place in October of this year. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
Tomatoes are one of the main crops that R&R focuses on. Washington says the team learned the hard way to focus on just a few crops; when they first started they were growing everything, and they learned that’s not the way to make a profit at the farmers market. Now, they focus on cultivating and selling tomatoes, herbs, flowers, and plant starts. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
Washington shows the students R&R’s main moneymaker: lisianthus flowers. These flowers are perfect for cutting and for the Hudson Valley growing season because they’ll continue to bloom from June to September if you remove the old buds. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
After a tour of the farm, Washington set the whole group to work weeding the floor of the front greenhouse where the plant starts are. Here, she reaches for hoes and brooms through a thicket of drying garlic. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
Students hard at work weeding the greenhouse. The Rise & Root team is used to putting volunteers to work; they host a volunteer day on the last Saturday of each month. Washington says they had to institute a designated day for tours and visits because when they started they had so many visitors coming by that they weren’t able to get their work done. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
Professor Caudill got her hands dirty as well. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
After: the dirt floor of the greenhouse was cleared of weeds — for now. Rise & Root is located in Orange County, NY, which is famous for its “black dirt.” The soil really is darker than normal, due to the fact that Orange County rests on a former glacial lake. The soil is high in nutrients, fine and silt-like, and it holds water well. This combination makes it great to grow food in, but also means the “weed pressure is severe,” says Washington. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
After their weeding work, the students enjoyed a snack and asked Washington questions around the picnic table. She shared her wisdom on community gardens (make sure mayoral candidates have community gardens on their agendas), food deserts (put a cap on fast food zoning), and climate change. She voiced a worry that the recent increase in hemp farming in the area would cause land prices to spike, making it harder for new farmers to grow food in the Hudson Valley. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
The snack of the day: fresh sliced tomatoes and cucumbers with R&R’s homemade herb salt sprinkled on top. Students were wowed by the flavor of the tomatoes compared with what they are used to from the grocery store. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
The students, plus Washington, Caudill, Wooddell, and a farmhand. Washington emphasized to the students — who at this point had seen a wide range of practices and agro-businesses — that they should be wary of new ways of labeling old practices — like the term “regenerative farming.” Her plea to the students: “Give credit to the people that were here before us. It’s nothing new, people have been doing this forever.” (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
After the morning at Rise & Root, the SEE-U group headed over to the nearby Blooming Hill Farm in Monroe, NY. After a satisfying lunch at the farm’s restaurant (pictured), farmer and founder Guy Jones joined the students at their table and shared the history of his farm, his growing practices, and stories of his decades of farming. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
Guy Jones in the doorway of the Blooming Hill Farm Store. Jones, who founded the farm in the early 1980s, is proud of his 35 years on the farm. When he first started out, he sold vegetables from his stand at the still-new Union Square Greenmarket (founded in the late ‘70s). Now, Blooming Hill sells out of its own farm stores as well as the Ramsey, NJ farmers market. Jones is also one of the original members of the organic movement, although he no longer thinks small family farms like his own benefit from certification. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
Jones’s sons Austin and Travis have both returned to run the farm, expanding its value-added offerings and increasing its income by starting the farm restaurant and creating an additional events space on the premises. Out behind the event space is a picnic area where outdoor celebrations are frequently held. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
Students cross a couple of small bridges over a creek to go and see the farm’s greenhouses. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
The greenhouses at Blooming Hill Farm. The Joneses grow a wide variety of produce because, as Jones says, “diversity is our strength.” Greenhouses are also a key tool for growing in what has become a much more volatile climate. With unpredictable rains and cold snaps, it’s important to have some ground that is protected from the elements. “I’ve been standing out there for 40 years and things are changing,” says Jones. Greenhouses also allow farmers to begin planting their seedlings earlier in the spring so that the minute it’s warm enough outside their starts are ready to be planted. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
Professor Caudill and Guy Jones in the Blooming Hill Farm parking lot. Before heading back to the city, students purchased fresh sweet corn from the farm. (Photo by Phebe Pierson)
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