POULTNEY, Vt., Feb. 22, 2011 /PRNewswire-USNewswire/ -- Green Mountain College today announced dates for its third summer farm intensive program for college students interested in exploring traditional techniques and cutting edge research in sustainable agriculture. The 12-credit summer intensive program Farm Life Ecology: A Field and Table Intensive, runs for 13 weeks from May 23-August 19, with a July 4th break July 2-5. For the first time the College is also offering half-sessions for 6 credits from May 23-July 2 and July 7-August 19.

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"Modern agriculture is heavily reliant on fossil energy sources, and we'll need to find ways as a society to incorporate more energy-efficient solutions to growing food," said farm manager and program director Dr. Kenneth Mulder. "Students in this program get a chance to manage our campus farm while gaining a rigorous foundation in sustainable agriculture."

Green Mountain College's Farm & Food Program has already built a strong reputation as an active research center for sustainable agriculture. Over the past three years, the program has received nearly $250,000 in grant funding to further develop the College's fossil-free agriculture initiatives.

"The Farm and Food Intensive combines a rigorous classroom experience with individual research projects and hands-on farm work," explained Mulder. "Students also get a chance to participate in some pretty exciting research that will teach them to run farms that are productive, profitable, and environmentally sustainable."

Students in the program will manage all aspects of Green Mountain College's 22-acre Cerridwen Farm while receiving a curricular focus in three core areas: the fundamentals of organic crop and animal management; efficient integration and management of diverse farm systems; and development and utilization of appropriate technologies in agriculture.

Program participants live in residence halls at GMC. Their home base is the Solar Harvest Center, which features newly renovated kitchen facilities. Here students prepare communal meals that include produce they grow and harvest from the farm.

"Cerridwen Farm has become an agricultural lab of sorts, and our students contribute to that research," said Philip Ackerman-Leist, director of the College's Farm & Food Project and associate professor of environmental studies. "Like traditional ag programs students will learn a lot about agricultural practices and systems. They'll also learn how to be part of the current food revolution that is transforming farming and how we view food."

For more information about the program, visit http://www.greenmtn.edu/farm_intensive/admissions.aspx.

SOURCE Green Mountain College

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