Wesleyan Wasch Center Seminars

51 Lawn Avenue
Middletown, CT 06459
waschseminar@wesleyan.edu
860-685-3005

Courses

Regenerative Farming: Sustainable agriculture and its ties to global well-being


Organic Agriculture: where food production and local ecology meet

Sustainability has become a watchword in a world in which a burgeoning population, global warming and political unrest are putting millions at risk for starvation. This course will appeal to gardeners, supporters of local agriculture and environmentalists who look to better understand sustainable farming and its relationship to local ecology. Essential to this core practice are other influencers: pollinator habitat and health; wetlands and drainage; soil organic matter and carbon, to name a few. Portions of this course will be offered on Zoom, but we will also visit local organic farm, Forest City Farms http://www.forestcityfarms.com/, on April 26 and/or May 6, weather permitting.

Instructor: Rachel Lindsay

Date: Thursdays, April 15-May 13

Time: 4:30 pm - 6:00 pm via Zoom + field trip

Cost: $95

  • Required Reading List

    Project Drawdown, “Farming Our Way out of the Climate Crisis,” PDF available for download at https://drawdown.org/.

    Nicole Masters, For The Love Of Soil: Strategies To Regenerate Our Food Production Systems (Waitakere, NZ: Printable Reality, 2019)

    Daniel Mays, The No-Till Organic Vegetable Farm: How to Start and Run a Profitable Market Garden That Builds Health in Soil, Crops, and Communities (North Adams MA: Storey Publishing, 2020)

    Read Chapters 1,2,4, and 14

     

     Text available at RJ Julia: https://wesleyan.verbacompare.com/comparison?id=30179

    Suggested Reading List

    David R. Montgomery, Growing a Revolution  (NY: W. W. Norton, 2017)

    Stephen L. Buchmann and Gary Paul Nabhan, The Forgotten Pollinators (Washington DC: Island Press, 1996)

    Kari Marie Norgaard, Salmon and Acorns Feed Our People: Colonialism, Nature, and Social Action (New Brunswick NJ: Rutgers University Press, 2019)

     

    Eric Toensmeier, The Carbon Farming Solution: A Global Toolkit of Perennial Crops and Regenerative Agriculture Practices for Climate Change Mitigation and Food Security (White River Junction VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2016)

     

    Robin Wall Kimmerer, Braiding Sweetgrass: Indigenous Wisdom, Scientific Knowledge and the Teachings of Plants (Minneapolis: Milkweed Editions, 2013)

     

    Charles Massy, Call of the Reed Warbler: A New Agriculture, A New Earth ( White River Junction VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2018)

     

    Douglas W. Tallamy, Bringing Nature Home: How You Can Sustain Wildlife with Native Plants (Portland OR: Timber Press, 2007)

     

    Leah Penniman, Farming While Black: Soul Fire Farm’s Practical Guide to Liberation on the Land (White River Junction VT: Chelsea Green Publishing, 2013)

     

    Films

     

    Gather, https://gather.film/

     

    Kiss the Ground, https://kissthegroundmovie.com/