Going Green
CONWAY, Ark. (June 26, 2008) – This summer, sophomore Lydia Nash got back to her roots. The Californian, who has a passion for environmentalism and sustainability, also has full Irish ancestry. Nash’s trip to the Old Country put her in touch with a lifestyle that is nearly extinct in America: living off the family farm.
Through the Worldwide Organization for Organic Farming (WWOOF), Nash and fellow Hendrix sophomore Amelia Wildenborg spent three weeks with Gillian and David Doyle, who own a five-acre organic farm in County Wexford, Ireland. In exchange for the students’ unpaid labor, the Doyles provided room, board and instruction.
In stark contrast to the enormous monoculture farms that prevail in America, the Doyles grow a wide variety of crops – onions, watermelons, eggplants, tomatoes, spinach, cabbage, leeks and several kinds of lettuce and beans. They also raise cows, chickens and ducks.
“Truly being self-sufficient off of what you have, that’s such a rare feeling,” Nash said. “It’s knowing that you have an orchard and vegetables and berries, and that you can sustain yourself without relying on anything else. It’s a good feeling.”
Such a good feeling, in fact, that Nash is hooked. The economics and environmental studies double major plans to own and run her own organic farm some day, and this experience was her first step toward that goal. The girls worked eight hours a day on the Doyles’ farm, planting, weeding and pruning the crops.
“I have a new appreciation for farmers, because you’re really exhausted at the end of the day,” Nash said. “You’ve been outside all day bending over, hoeing, doing seemingly mundane things but they’re pretty hard. Amelia and I would wake up in the mornings, and our backs would hurt.”
In order for their farm to be certified organic, the Doyles had to eschew chemical pesticides, herbicides and fertilizers. But they didn't stop there. They dry their clothes outside in the sun and drive as little as possible. They compost or recycle almost all their waste – including human waste, which is added to the compost pile.
“They were the quintessential environmental, doing-it-right family,” Nash recalled. “In every sense, they had it covered.”
The Doyles’ livestock are raised free-range: let loose in the morning, fed during the day, and herded back together before dusk. The animals were so humanely treated that Nash, a longtime vegetarian and former vegan, decided to eat the Doyles’ turkey and beef while she was there.
“I ate their meat because I felt like it was done right,” Nash said. “Agriculture is dependent on animals, so in that sense I need to support it. Now I want to have animals on my farm.”
Now back in her hometown of Fremont, California, Nash is volunteering for the organic farm run by the University of California at Santa Cruz. She spends her free time dreaming of ways to get back to Ireland. Next summer she hopes to intern with Ireland’s agricultural agency, Teagasc, to do research for their organic farming division.
“If that doesn’t work out, I have some backup ideas,” Nash said. “I just want to go back to Ireland. I’m a citizen, so I really could have just stayed there this summer. It was scarily tempting.”
Working on the Doyles' farm was just one part of the girls' summer Odyssey project, titled “A Comparative Look at Agribusiness and Organic Gardening in Ireland and the U.S.” To understand the variations in organic farming techniques, she and Wildenborg also visited one of Ireland's largest organic farms. In the United States they visited the headquarters of Earthbound Farms, the largest producer of organic foods in America, and contrasted it with a visit to the much smaller UC-Santa Cruz farm.
The pair will use their experiences to write a research paper, but the trip had a much broader impact than that.
“I feel like this project has shaped me in more than an academic way,” Nash said. “It’s helped me decide what I want to do with my life, where I want to live and what my values are, and that’s so important to me. Without Odyssey I wouldn’t have those things.”
The project was sponsored and largely funded by the Hendrix Odyssey program, a curricular program that offers funding and credit for experiential learning projects at home and abroad.
Your Hendrix Odyssey: Engaging in Active Learning” is a major component of the Hendrix curriculum. The philosophy is, “You learn more when you do more.” Each student is required to complete three Odyssey experiences selected from six categories: artistic creativity, global awareness, professional and leadership development, service to the world, undergraduate research, and special projects. Nash’s trip was Global Awareness.
Hendrix, founded in 1876, is a selective, residential, undergraduate liberal arts college emphasizing experiential learning in a demanding yet supportive environment. The college is among 165 colleges featured in the 2008 edition of the Princeton Review America’s Best Value Colleges. Hendrix has been affiliated with the United Methodist Church since 1884. For more information, contact Mark Scott at scottm@hendrix.edu or 501-450-1462.
