Farming & Food Systems

The global demand for food and fiber will continue to increase well into the next century. How will this food and fiber be produced? Will production be at the cost of soil loss, water contamination, pesticide poisoning, and increasing rural poverty? In this course, we examine the fundamental principles and practices of conventional and sustainable agriculture with a primary focus on crops. By examining farm case studies and current research on conventional and alternative agriculture we develop a set of economic, social, and ecological criteria for a critique of current agricultural practices in the United States and that will serve as the foundation for the development and analysis of new farming systems. Evaluations are based on two exams, class presentations, participation in a conference on potato production, and a final paper.

This course will take an in depth look at the art and science of fermented and cultured foods. The first half of the class will focus on the microbiology of fermentation with a specific focus on products derived from milk and soybeans. Each week there will be a laboratory portion in which students will explore how the basic fermentation processes and products change with different milk and soy qualities. These small-scale experiences and experiments will be complemented with field trips to commercial enterprises in Maine and Massachusetts. In the second half of the term students will explore the differences in flat, yeast, and sourdough breads. Final projects will focus on a foodway of choice and will culminate in presentations that explore the historical and cultural context in which these different cultured foods were developed and how these microbial-mediated processes enhance preservation, nutritional and economic value, and taste. Evaluations will be based on class participation, short quizzes, a lab report, journal, and a final project.

Just three aquatic species account for most seafood consumed in the US: shrimp, tuna, and salmon. But worldwide consumption is more diverse, including an array of finfish, invertebrates, aquatic plants, algae, and other animals. These ‘blue foods’ are fished, collected, gathered, or grown in the sea or freshwater and play essential roles in supporting human health, nutrition, livelihoods, and culture. Recent studies have shown that the top 7 categories of nutrient-rich animal-source foods are all aquatic in origin. So why do food policy and science still heavily focus on terrestrially produced foods, overlooking blue foods? This course will unpack this conundrum and examine blue food systems from ‘bait to plate’ by analyzing food production, provisioning, and consumption as interlinked activities. Blue food production includes small-scale and industrial harvesting and wild capture and aquaculture systems. Provisioning activities link production and consumption: the offloading of catch, storage and transportation of highly perishable foods, transformations from raw fish to the final product, and the marketing and distribution affected to reach consumers. Finally, consumption includes how we acquire our food, cook and eat it, and dispose of waste, as well as our nutritional and health outcomes. While conventional food policy and science have focused on food production in isolation, a food systems framework sheds light on dynamics that impact the flows and distribution of foods with equity implications: which foods are made by whom, where does food go, and who benefits? This course will introduce students to key changes in the goals and means of food policy, focusing on how the emergent dialogue on food systems in fisheries is reframing how we know and govern aquatic resources. A significant portion of the course will be dedicated to examining blue food case studies, which may include: seaweed farming in Tanzania, fishing cooperatives in Mexico, tuna longliners in the Mid-Atlantic, and Lobster fishing in Maine. Students will work in teams to analyze one of these case studies in-depth, applying a food systems lens to examine each case’s sustainability and equity challenges. Students will be evaluated through their participation in class discussions and in-class activities, weekly writing reflections, and co-leading a class with your case study team. The final project will be a group policy proposal outlining how stakeholders could better govern from a ‘food systems’ perspective in your blue food case study.

Introductory chemistry and biology are explored in the context of food and drink: the biology of crops, culinary chemistry, and the biochemistry of brewing. Major chemistry topics include atomic structure, periodicity, bonding, acid base chemistry, kinetics, equilibrium, colloids, and solubility of gases in liquids. Major biology topics include photosynthesis, respiration, plant and yeast life histories, cellular reproduction, and metabolism. We will also explore agricultural chemistry from a systems perspective: examining strategies to for keeping pace with the demand for nitrogen and phosphorous in soils. This course is meant to offer important, fundamental chemistry and biology through the framework of food, a universal human experience. These fundamental topics in Chemistry and Biology will be explored from the ground up, so no prior experience is required. Meanwhile, the culinary and agricultural framework should offer enough new content for students with a background in natural sciences. Students will be evaluated based on participation in classroom and laboratory sessions, projects, and quizzes.

This course uses food as a lens to explore human origins, cultural diversity, social structure, and human/environment interactions. Through academic articles and films, the course exposes students to the different ways anthropologists think about food and the frameworks they use to answer questions concerning the human experience. The course also engages other disciplinary perspectives—including history, economics, and political ecology—to make larger connections between food and society.

Designed as a survey course, this course introduces students not only to writing as process—prewriting, writing, and rewriting—but also to the broad and dynamic subfield of food anthropology. The course is organized around four themes. The first—human origins, diets, and biocultural evolution—explores the uniqueness of cooking to the human species, and how the co-evolution of human diets and culture has shaped different groups’ dietary needs, practices, and restrictions. The second—globalization and international trade—looks at the flow of foods and food practices around the world, from sugar to sushi. The third—hegemony and difference—considers how race, gender, and class are constructed and expressed through food. The final theme—consumption and embodiment—considers the relationship between eating and the body; readings in this section focus on body image, eating practices, and critical studies of the rhetoric around hunger and obesity. Students are evaluated based on class participation, a series of reflection papers, a dietary analysis, and a recipe project involving a prepared meal, an audio-visual presentation, and a critical analysis paper. This course meets the first-year writing requirement.

This course explores the rich history of capitalism through the lens of two of the most ubiquitous and valuable crops in the world: corn and coffee. The crops provide insight into the global and local dimensions of both historical and contemporary reality in the countries where they are grown with a focus on Guatemala, Mexico, and the United States. Corn and coffee provide a convenient vantage point from which to examine the social, economic, and cultural dynamics of community-based production of both crops on the one hand and their globally-connected production as commodities. The course moves from a broad macro perspective on each crop to an intensive exploration of how both are produced in Guatemala. In this way, class participants will be able to look at how global historical trends in consumption have played themselves out in local communities. The class will simultaneously be able to look at the processes at work in pueblos throughout Guatemala that root the corn economy into rich cultural and social dynamics that are at the core of communal life. Using these two crops as a starting point, the class will allow students to develop a holistic and synthetic understanding of how global food systems land in places. The course emphasizes attention to the broad global dimensions of corn and coffee’s production as well as the fine-grained study of Guatemala’s socio-cultural life in historical and anthropological perspective. Through discussions of the books, this seminar-style course seeks to provide students with deep insights into the history of a specific place while maintaining a sense of the global and regional context. Intensive readings will provide students with a snapshot of trends in both history and ethnography while broader synthetic analyses of both corn and coffee will embody more popular approaches to the topic. Students will lead discussions of the readings, write short synthetic essays, and undertake a research project for the class. Evaluation will be based on short writing, course participation and the final project.

Environmental harms and benefits fall in predictable patterns across our bodies and landscapes, tracing lines of inequality that are embedded deep within our colonial history and modern societal structures. Environmental justice as a field of study represents an attempt to uncover and understand those patterns by drawing connections between harm and broader practices, laws, and procedures by state and private actors. It is also a study of resistance to harm, often led by those in marginalized communities, but increasingly led by more reluctant activists who find themselves on the losing side of capitalism’s growing list of externalities, from pollution, pipelines, and extraction to land degradation and climate collapse.

In this foundational course, we will navigate frustration and accomplishment, despair and hope, and the boundaries around what’s broken, and what may still be fixed, in our movement toward a more desirable future for life on earth. The course will draw on philosophy (e.g., John Rawl’s Theory of Justice), history and contemporary politics (e.g., Nina Lakahni’s Who Killed Berta Cáceres), and sociological theory (e.g., Naomi Klien’s Shock Doctrine) to ground specific case studies and bring context to their development so that students may begin to see what drives environmental injustice and response.

This course will be of value to students at all levels interested in bridging social theory with contemporary problems so that they may develop deeper analysis of and more sustainable solutions to ongoing environmental and social problems. Over the course of the term, we will pair readings and in-class discussion with the development of a “braided narrative” that brings together lived experiences and deep research. Students will be evaluated through a combination of self-assessment, written assignments, and in-person engagement.

Farming has always operated with a degree of tension in relation to wild things and wild places. Agricultural tradition has often embraced the idea of “taming” nature or driving back the wilderness in order to meet human needs. In the 20th Century, an increasingly competitive economy, coupled with rising human populations emphasized massive monocultures that had serious impacts on wildlife and native vegetation. There is no question that conflict can exist between the wild and the curated, however there are also real possibilities for a more harmonic interface between humanized and non-humanized landscapes that can benefit both. In this team- taught course an experienced livestock farmer and a seasoned field ecologist will lead students in exploring the complex and nuanced relationships between managing land for production agriculture and land conservation. By utilizing Peggy Rockefeller Farm (PRF) as its primary case study students will be able to explore the complex histories of land conservation and the current practices of farming on the edge of nature. Students will also explore how farms can enhance native wildlife by providing key habitats and food sources. Students will be expected to learn through course lectures, extensive readings on farming, and wilderness, and practical, hands-on experience on the farm in making domesticated plants and livestock “wild safe”. Evaluation will be based on class participation, two short “problem sets” and a comprehensive final exam. Intermediary. Interdisciplinary. Students will be evaluated based on class participation, weekly quizzes, assignments, and a final project and presentation.

Downeast Maine, from the Penobscot River east to the Canadian border, includes Hancock and Washington Counties, a region of extremes between high levels of tourism, like Mount Desert Island, and many coastal towns that are heavily reliant on fisheries for their economic existence. This long history of cultural and economic dependence on fisheries makes the region particularly vulnerable to fisheries decline, such as the collapse of the sardine and cod fisheries. Recent trends in the lobster, clam, scallop, and elver fisheries, as well as aquaculture, show various levels of instability and risk. At the same time, numerous initiatives in the region focus on revitalizing and stabilizing fisheries, while enhancing community resilience. This class uses a variety of interdisciplinary approaches to examine the relationships among marine resources, fisheries policy, harvesters, and communities. In this course, we will examine the relationships within this linked social-ecological system, and use historical data, current documents, interviews and oral histories to examine the human-ecological relationships among residents, policy, and resources. We also will examine relationships between other industries, uses, and values placed on the coast and their relationships to fisheries and aquaculture. The course will include guest speakers and field trips (including an overnight to the Cobscook Bay area) to Downeast communities. Evaluation will be based on several assignments during the term, including journals, analysis of oral histories, and research on a Downeast fishery. Students will also work on a final project examining a research question using multiple information sources and ways of knowing with a presentation due at the end of the term. Active engagement during class, with guest speakers, and on field trips will be expected.

It feels like pizza has always been considered American, but we know that it was originally brought to the US by Italian immigrants. Both the US and Italy claim pizza as a national dish, and this type of debate about where food comes from—and who it belongs to—is highly connected to our national and local identities. As humans continue to migrate across borders and blur the boundaries in digital spaces, our identities continue to develop as we interact with each other and different types of food. We will consider how this movement shapes our ideas of ‘foreign’ and ‘local’ and how one becomes the other, as well as the line between honoring a culture and appropriating it.

We will examine the intersections of the genre conventions, rhetorical situation, and the writers’ identities to understand how these elements work together when producing texts. We will learn key composition concepts (genre, rhetorical situation, and multimodality) and support the development of your genre research skills. We will use these concepts and conduct genre research to examine various food writing genres, such as narratives, recipes, and social media posts to understand how writing is an activity that goes beyond putting words together on a piece of paper. These activities will support your overall genre research skills and deepen your understanding of writing, which can be transferred to other writing activities beyond this course. Classes will be based on genre analysis activities and group discussions. We will read works that address food writing genres and identity, and we will watch documentaries that explore the intersections of food, identity, and migration. Course assignments include your reproduction of a food writing genre, weekly reading responses, reflections and narratives to document your learning trajectory, which will also be used for assessment purposes.

This class offers a good foundation of knowledge for a gardener to begin the process of organic gardening, as well as an understanding of what defines organic gardening. The information presented focuses on soil fertility and stewardship, the ecology of garden plants, soil and insects, and practical management of the above. The garden is presented as a system of dynamic interactions. Emphasis is given to vegetable crops and soil fertility. Laboratories include soil analysis, tree pruning, seedling establishment, weed and insect identification, garden design, covercropping, composting, and reclamation of comfrey infested area. Evaluations are based on participation in class and lab, written class work, exam, and final individual garden design.

This course will explore the history of agriculture from the vantage point of Downeast Maine with a focus on apples. The premise of the course is that by exploring this fascinating crop in detail from the local vantage point of Downeast Maine students will be able to grasp the many historical processes at work from the introduction of the fruit in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries to the age of agricultural improvement in the eighteenth on to the rise and fall of commercial orcharding as a major component of Maine’s farm economy in the early twentieth century. Using sources ranging from secondary sources, historical atlases, aerial surveys, and diaries, we will explore how the culture of apple agriculture in Maine develops over time as part of an interconnected Atlantic World where crops flow back and forth between Britain and the colonies/U.S. over hundreds of years. Course activities will include fruit exploration and fieldtrips to track down and identify antique varieties, as well as visits to the local farms where a new generation of apple culture is taking shape. The course will also engage students with the process of cider-making, both sweet and hard, as well as exercises in the preparation, storage, and processing of apples. Students will be evaluated on their participation in discussion, how they collaborate with others in class projects, and a final individual or collaborative project. This course is designed for students interested in history, farming and food systems, community-based research, and policy/planning issues. It is also very appropriate for students who like apples and just want to know (a lot) more.

This course examines homesteading as a food systems, cultural, and economic practice. Maine is a center of homesteading activity in the United States and an ideal place to study the theory and practice of homesteading. From a food systems perspective, homesteading represents a means of divesting from the global food system through the practice of subsistence agriculture and food preservation. Viewed from an anthropological perspective, homesteading raises interesting questions about why some individuals eschew conventional lifestyles and seek significant degrees of self-sufficiency, various forms of intentional living, and commitments to non-commodified production. A critical examination of homesteading raises questions about privilege and the benefits and limits of social movements founded on personal choice and private property. And viewed through political economy, homesteading can be seen as a choice to resist the intrusion of market-based relationships into social life and an attempt to restore social relationships and normative values other than efficiency to production and consumption.

Applying these lenses, this course will examine the conditions that influence contemporary homesteading practices. Three key questions frame the course: (1) What motivates self-identified homesteaders to resist normative lifestyles and seek self-sufficient, non-commodified ways of living? (2) How do variables such as class, education, race, geographic location, and property-ownership shape homesteading practices? (3) What are the benefits and limits of homesteading as a form of resistance to commodified production and consumption? Through classroom discussions, readings, and fieldwork students will attempt to answer these questions. Readings will include personal and ethnographic accounts of homesteading as well as critical studies of non-commodified living. We will be joined for several class meetings by guest discussion leaders with additional expertise in food systems, anthropology, and related areas. Field work will include visits to several homesteads. Students will be evaluated based on participation, interviewing exercises, a field journal, and a series of reflection papers.

This course provides an introductory lens to understand the economy as a whole – the macroeconomy – and how its various parts interact. We will study topics such as (i) the short-term fluctuation of the general price level, employment level, and total output level, (ii) the linkages between structural unemployment, economic inequality, and government policies, and (iii) the long-term trajectory of economic growth and the unevenness of capitalist development. Some of the key questions we will explore include: How do we measure the macroeconomy, and what do our conventional measurements often leave out? Why do cyclical economic booms and busts exist and what drives them? What can governments do to limit the costs of job loss on workers? Looking globally, why are some countries rich and other countries poor? How have global living standards improved over the long run, and at what cost to humans, non-human beings, and the environment?

This course aims to increase your ability to use abstract, quantitative models to describe and articulate the various ways in which macroeconomic factors frame the condition of possibilities for people, their families, and their communities. Upon completion of this course, you will have developed practices of thinking critically and politically about public policies and debates. You will also expand your capacity for numerical literacy and quantitative skills such as drawing valid conclusions based on data and communicating your reasoning and results effectively and clearly. The course is especially valuable for students with interests in civic engagement, social justices, political transformation, and sustainable development. Previous knowledge in economics, calculus, statistics, and linear algebra is not necessary. Familiarity with elementary algebra will be helpful but not required. Students’ learning will be assessed through problem sets, and take-home exams.

Economics has a popular reputation as a field of study centered around making money and getting rich. However, for most of its history, economics has been about understanding and changing the way the world works. How do we get our dinner every night? What does it take to transform coffee beans harvested in plantations in Costa Rica to the morning cup of Starbucks across their 38,000 global locations? Why do some individuals amass unfathomable personal wealth while others face daily struggle for material survival? These questions are what economists primarily study. Whether seemingly straightforward or seemingly unfathomable, at their core these issues are about the process of social provisioning. It can be further broken down into the following questions: (i) As a society, how do we determine what to produce and how much? (ii) As a society, how do we distribute what we produce? And (iii) Who benefits from and who are harmed by our production, distribution and consumption? In this course, we will examine these questions from the perspective of individuals and firms, and we will consider the ways an individual’s preference and decisions are shaped by social institutions and how they, in turn, affect other beings, both human and non-human. You will be introduced to topics such as: individual’s decision making under constraints, social coordination dilemmas, firm’s wage-setting and labor discipline, supply-demand and price setting, market’s successes and failures, and the limits of economic growth. This course aims to increase your ability to use abstract, quantitative models to approach complex, real-world problems such as worsening economic inequalities and global climate change. Upon completion of this course, you will have developed practices of thinking critically and politically about public policies and debates. You will also expand your capacity for numerical literacy and quantitative skills such as drawing valid conclusions based on data and communicating your reasoning and results effectively and clearly. The course is especially valuable for students with interests in civic engagement, social justices, political transformation, and sustainable development. Knowledge in calculus, statistics, and linear algebra is not necessary, and familiarity with elementary algebra will be helpful but not required. Students’ learning will be assessed through problem sets and (take-home) exams.

This course provides an introduction to small-scale farm production and planning with an emphasis on organic vegetable production practices. This course includes lectures from professionals in the field, tours of local farms, and hands-on learning at COA’s Beech Hill Farm and Community Garden. Students will explore all aspects required to successfully plan and grow produce for an organic, small-scale market farm. Topics covered in the course will include soil health, crop botany, crop planning and rotation, pest control, disease and weed management, tractor safety and operation, farm budgeting, and farmland access strategies. Student evaluation will be based on attendance, participation in class discussion and activities, problem sets, and a final project focused on the development of a profit-oriented farm plan.

In this course students will learn content and skills so that they can participate effectively in sustainable energy projects, make personal and community decisions that reduce carbon emissions, and work in ventures in sustainable energy. Additionally, this course will be useful for those interested in energy and climate policy, either internationally or domestically. We will begin with a quick overview of current CO2 emissions levels and look at how this is related to energy use. We will then turn our attention to basic ideas from physics, including the definition of energy and the difference between energy and power. The bulk of the course will consist of a survey of different forms of energy consumption and generation. Throughout, we will quantitatively analyze technology from both a local and global point of view. For example, we will calculate how much electricity one can generate on a rooftop, and we will also examine the role that solar PV could play toward the goal of eliminating fossil fuel use worldwide. In a unit on financial mathematics, students will learn about the time value of money and several ways of quantifying investments, including ROI (return on investment) and IRR (internal rate of return). Students will apply these financial tools in several short case studies. If time permits, we may also cover negative emissions technologies and the electrical grid, including grid stability issues and the potential of smart-grid technology. This will be a demanding, introductory, class. Evaluation will be based on weekly problem sets.

Food is central to the human experience. It can bring us profound joy and a sense of belonging to a place, to a people, and to ourselves. And yet, food is frequently used as an additional form of punishment for the nearly 2 million people incarcerated in jails and prisons across the United States. In this course, students will learn about different kinds of prison food systems, from those using food to dehumanize incarcerated people, to those using food as a tool to help promote rehabilitation and support successful reentry. We will explore this topic through readings, lectures, field trips, and interviews with folks working to transform prison food systems. Simultaneously, students will learn how to produce a podcast from start-to-finish in order to share the stories they gather.

To understand the U.S. carceral system, we will read works by Michelle Alexander and other scholars, using as our primary text Eating Behind Bars: Ending the Hidden Punishment of Food in Prisons, published by the organization Impact Justice in 2020. The audio production skills students will learn include recording, importing, mixing, editing, mastering, and exporting sound. Students will be evaluated based on their participation in class discussions, performance on a series of audio-production exercises, preparation for and completion of interviews, and production of a short podcast episode.

How will students in this course be evaluated?: Students will be evaluated based on their participation in class discussions, performance on a series of audio-production exercises, preparation for and completion of interviews, and production of a short podcast episode.

This is an intermediate/advanced reading seminar focused on contemporary, experimental, and speculative political ecologies. Readings will include books, dissertation manuscripts, and scholarly articles. The course is designed to allow students to explore intersections between their own individual and collective intellectual interests and endeavors and political ecologies. The course will be a collective intellectual endeavor conducted through conversation and written reflections, including through regular interaction on an online blog. Evaluation will be based on participation in real-time and blog conversations, including twice-weekly reflective blog postings; leading several class discussions; and a final synthetic essay on a topic of their choosing.

Sheep play profoundly important roles in human societies. This course is a human ecological exploration of sheep and wool, combined with a hands-on component in which we will work with sheep and learn fiber arts. This class will meet for one studio session and two lecture/discussion sections per week, plus at least one Saturday field trip. In the studio sessions, we will study sheep husbandry through visits to Peggy Rockefeller Farm, and learn a variety of techniques for working with wool, from the preparation (shearing, washing, and carding) to spinning and working with yarn (including knitting, crochet, and weaving). The lecture/discussion sessions will cover topics such as the ecological impacts of sheep in different parts of the world, the physics of spinning and the chemistry of dyes, and the symbolism of sheep in the mythology of different cultures. The course will draw on a wide range of material and intellectual approaches, with sheep and wool as the unifying theme. Students will be evaluated based on participation, short written assignments, and a final oral presentation.

No prior knowledge of fiber craft is necessary, but students who come in knowing one of the basic techniques may be able to explore advanced techniques like lacework or design in three dimensions. Students should meet with the instructor before spring break to discuss goals and equipment needs for the studio sessions. Some basic supplies will be provided, but students should plan to purchase additional equipment such as knitting needles depending on the projects that they choose.

The aim of this practicum is to pursue a collaborative project with seed workers at the local, national, or international level. A basic background and interest in seeds will be critical to a student’s success in this course. The course will examine key readings in the field of seed systems and investigate the practice of different seed workers. This course will involve fieldwork outside of class time. In the first few weeks of class, we will review the foundation of angiosperm seed biology and develop skills in plant trials, evaluation, harvesting and processing. The term-long project may include an expansion on the Maine Heirloom Seed Project, a seed library serving Hancock County, archival research of the rich history of the beans and their uses across Maine, or a project proposed by one of the participants in the course. Evaluations will be based on research, participation, and sustained engagement with peers and stakeholders in the larger community, and a final presentation to the stakeholders of the project.

This course explores politics of the terrestrial, of the earth and its defenders, through lenses of both theory and practice. Through their writings and, where possible, in direct conversation, we interact with activists and movements involved in struggles to protect earth, land, livelihoods, and community, and those actively working to build alternatives to ways of being in the world that they are struggling against. We also read theoretical reflections on these struggles, drawing from scholars in the fields of political ecology, political ontology, and political economy, among others. Locally rooted activities take place within global economic and political contexts – markets, international treaties, and other spaces and places where local and global come into contact, where ontologies collide, and where different forms of power are produced and interact across distances. Course materials and discussion will explore these global contexts, concrete ways and means by which economic and political power is contested in these spaces, and ongoing experiments with and strivings toward a different world, one where many worlds may fit. Topics explored include resistance against mining and other extractive industries, pipeline fights, land grabbing for agro-industrial expansion, carbon and biodiversity offset markets, and geoengineering. Evaluation in the class will be based on preparation for and participation in class discussions, regular reflective essays on readings, and a final extended essay, presentation, or podcast on some aspect of terrestrial politics.