CONCENTRATION in theBS or BA ENVIRONMENTAL STUDIES MAJOR

What You’ll Study

我们的可持续农业项目是深入的和跨学科的。它不仅会为你在农场管理、非盈利领导、研究、合作推广、兽医和倡导等领域的职业生涯做好独特的准备,它还会让你实实在在地播下一个更美好世界的种子。

You’ll study the principles and practices of four approaches to sustainable agriculture: certified organic, biodynamic, biointensive, and permaculture. Our entire campus becomes your laboratory. Learn and experiment with the College’s own food system, from the College Farm and Garden to Gladfelter Cafeteria and Cowpie Cafe and finally to the Composting Facility. You’ll push your limits on a capstone project involving original research with faculty guidance on a topic of your choosing from soil carbon dynamics and mycoremediation to nitrogen fixation and nutrient cycling.

The level of complexity of our farming operations is well beyond that of a typical college farm, and the commitment our students show to mastering these complex tasks is inspiring. Spanning 365 days each year – in all weather and all times of day and night – Warren Wilson students are doing the things that make our farm a leader in higher education.

Chase Hubbard '95, former Farm Manager

Get Your Hands Dirty

Your major will involve hands-on learning, both on ourFarmorGarden Crewand through an internship with an established sustainable commercial farm. You can manage a farm business, build fence lines, birth calves, manage an apiary, and learn countless other skills. Study the history of land use at the College, in continuous operation and cultivation since 1894 — the best college farm in the nation. Specialize in cattle and sheep, pigs and poultry, business management, beekeeping, draught horse maintenance, or herbalism on the Farm or Garden Crew. You even have the opportunity to apply your knowledge duringstudy-abroad coursesin Cuba and Malta.

Change the World, One Crop at a Time

Learning sustainable agriculture at Warren Wilson will broaden your horizons to the many social and ethical impacts that food production can have. As part of ourCommunity Engagement Commitment, you can collaborate with local and regional organizations committed to the building of a sustainable and resilient food system. Here are a few of our community partners:

  • Carolina Farm Stewardship Association
  • Organic Growers School
  • Appalachian Sustainable Agriculture Project
  • Buncombe County Beekeepers Chapter
  • Natural Resources Conservation Service
  • Buncombe County Soil and Water
  • NC State’sAmazing Grazingprogram
  • King’s Agriseeds
  • Hickory Nut Gap Farm
  • A Growing Culture
  • Mother Earth News Fair

Explore Classes in This Program

ENS 249

Introduction to Sustainable Agriculture

通过对美国粮食生产历史和生态农业发展的研究,探索当代农业系统的可持续性。您将了解20世纪美国农业的工业和生态形式的崛起,并考虑农业可持续性的伦理、经济、生态和社会维度。四种独特的生态农业方法——认证有机、生物动力、生物集约化和永续农业——的原则和实践作为可持续粮食生产系统的例子进行了研究。

ENS 341

Agroecology

介绍农业生态学的科学,重点介绍生态作物和牲畜生产的原则和实践。您将应用基本的生态学概念来评估农业系统中土壤、植物、动物和病虫害过程的结构和功能,并实践使用适应性管理策略和可持续决策来增强农业生态系统的恢复力。

ENS 440

Sustainable Farm Management

Learn the principles and practices of sustainable farm management using a whole farm planning perspective and adaptive management strategies. You’ll develop an understanding of sustainable farm management at the individual farm scale by completing a five-year start-up plan for a new farm business using whole farm planning principles: goal setting, resource assessment, enterprise analysis, goal-directed crop and livestock production, and marketing and monitoring system performance with sustainability indicators.

Meet Our Faculty

Teaching and learning at Warren Wilson is not for the faint of heart! And some days I wake up tired. But the strong-hearted, active-minded students and educators, busy together in this beautiful valley and beyond, send me home energized every day.

Amy L. Knisley, Ph.D.
Amy Knisely
Amy L. Knisley, Ph.D.
Dave Ellum

在当今世界,仅仅知道事情是不够的,我们需要的是会做事情的人。沃伦·威尔逊的学生在完成这两项任务时都很高兴——非常出色。

Dave Ellum, Ph.D.
Dave Ellum
Dave Ellum, Ph.D.

I believe my responsibility is not only as an instructor but as a mentor and a resource for the future. My classes are not just an experience with a grade; they are an opportunity to build social capital.

Joshua Earl Arnold
Joshua Earl Arnold
Amy Knisely
Aerial Landscape - Jones Mountain, Farm, and Garden
Fieldwork Profile

Nationally Recognized College Farm

我们的大学农场是地区和全国公认的户外教室,提供可持续农业实践的真实经验。

  • Best College Reviewsrated us at the top of their list of 20 college farms.
  • The N.C. Department of Environment and Natural Resources named usConservation Farm Family of the Yearin the Mountain Region.
  • We’ve been recognized as a “River Friendly Farmer” by Buncombe County’s Soil and Water board.
  • We received the nationalCampus Sustainability Achievement Awardfrom the Association for the Advancement of Sustainability in Higher Education.
  • Selected by the organization Sustainable North Carolina as recipient of theN.C. Sustainability Award, in the Environmental Stewardship category.

The list goes on…