Erin Paige Mirrett's Sustainable Agriculture Independent Study at the University of California at Davis

Hello!  I would like you to join me on my newest sustainable agriculture experience.  Currently, I am a Graduate student at North Carolina State University doing my Masters in Natural Resource Management and Policy. My passion lies in sustainable agriculture, which in broad terms means the production of food without chemicals.  NCSU's program allows me to merge sustainable agriculture with environmental policy.  After finishing my BS in Environmental Policy and Biology I traveled to Vancouver Island, British Columbia, where I completed an amazing apprenticeship with the President of the Canadian Organic Growers Association, Mary Alice Johnson.  A continued interest to learn more about sustainable agriculture practices developed within me.  Upon completion of my first semester of graduate school, I began investigating summer programs that complement my academic and personal interests.

The Investigation

There is a wonderful program called Willing Workers On Organic Farms (WWOOF) that allows one to travel all over the world exchanging 5-7 hours of labor for food, shelter and a learning experience!  Interested in something more formal, I continued my quest for a fulfilling academic summer experience in organic farming.  One of my strongest passions within sustainable agriculture is a practice called Permaculture which stems from the words permanent agriculture.  Permaculture was developed by an incredible man named Bill Mollison.  He has produced several publications and videos on the subject.  One of the videos shows him in a unique community called Village Homes, which is found in the quaint town of Davis, California.  This community is lush with edible vegetation and the residents work together to live sustainably.  Intrigued and inspired, I investigated this town on the internet and was amazed by my findings.  The University of California at Davis has a world renowned veterinary and agriculture school with a strong emphasis on sustainable agriculture.  As I followed the links of interest from the UCD home page, I discovered their Sustainable Agriculture Research Farm, which has a summer internship program.  This discovery filled me with excitement and relief; now that it was clear where I would be spending the last summer of the millennium!

UC Davis Sustainable Agriculture Internship Program

UCD's sustainable agriculture summer internship program allows students or volunteers the opportunity to learn about organic farming practices.  There are three areas to choose from; a market garden, an ecological garden, and mechanical operations and maintenance department.  I find interest in all three areas, but most especially, the ecological garden.  The ecological garden deals with the soil, plants and animals and their interactions with one another.  I am, however, interested in the market garden (provides fresh organic produce for the Community Supported Agriculture program (CSA) and for the campus coffee shop)), as well as an interest in the mechanical operations (deals with learning how to operate basic farm equipment such as a tractor).  In addition, there are several interesting research projects regarding sustainable agriculture practices which welcome assistance and broaden the experience of the summer internship program.

 My Chosen Research

There are several research projects in progress at UC Davis regarding sustainable agriculture practices.  My chosen research topic is dealing with a soil-borne pest called Symphylan.  This pest has been popping up on organic farms and creating problems in the field.  This is a very interesting arthropod found in the soil and have extreme similarities to centipedes, millipedes and collembolans.  The three distinguishing characteristics are their long and very active antennae, the presence of 6-12 pairs of legs, and their visible appendages and digestive tract.  Young Symphylan have six pairs of legs, with the addition of each new appendage there is an new set of legs (not exceeding 12 pairs).  Although classification is difficult due to their fast pace and tiny size.  They are delicate, soft bodied, white in color, and range from 1/8"-1/3" in size.  They feed on soft tissues, such as root  and shoot hairs (decreases the plants ability to absorb water and initiates bacterial and fungus rotting), seeds and tubers, microbes, and dead plant material in the soil.  Humus soils are their common residency.  They move up and down throughout the soil to maintain their preferred moisture and temperature levels.  They can be found in the top soil and as far down as six feet.  Evidence of Symphylan damage are patches with no vegetation, including weeds, found throughout a crop.  Due to the incredible similarity of this species with many others that share the same habitat, their diverse range of prey, as well as there small size and fast pace, the Symphylan have been extremely difficult to sample and study, which is only the first step on a long road to finding a healthy solution.  I will be spending much of my time outside the initial summer internship program researching the Symphylan with a small team of students and faculty.  Please click Here to follow me along in my research on this interesting research topic.

Leisure and Travel
 
 

The opportunity to study in Northern California is especially wonderful because of the amazing terrain of this area.  One to two hours in any directions will take you to the coast, the mountains, wine country, lakes, festivals, and the list goes on and on!  This section of my web page is dedicated to sharing my experiences outside the internship and research work I am doing at UC Davis!  Click here and enjoy!
 
 

Hot Links

University of California, Davis Home page

Permaculture Institute

ALL GOOD THINGS MUST COME TO AN END.....

It is amazing to think about how fast the time went. When the ninth and final week came to an end I was nowhere near ready to leave. Not only was this a great learning experience academically, but it also taught me the components and joys of living a sustainable and healthy life-style. It opened up doors within myself that have changed my life forever! This made it even harder to leave. So, I changed my plane ticket to stay an extra week!

It worked out really well. Will Hooker, an admirable and inspiring professor from NC State, was starting his year sabatical to travel to numerous sustainable agriculture sites around the world with his wife one and one-half year old son! He began his trip in Northern California to see Davis' Sustainable Agriculture Student Farm, one of the North Wests leading Permaculturists, as well as Village Homes ( the sustainable community in Davis, CA). In addition, two of my peers that took the Permaculture course with me, that Will taught, also arrived in Davis that week on their post graduation travels. It was wonderful to see all of thesel people and share my experiences as well as see Will and his family off on their exciting adventure around the world! Finally, I came to terms with the fact that my Masters Degree awaits me in North Carolina. The opportunity to study in Northern California was a memorable, educational and invaluable in my academic career. Time to move on. It was a difficult transition, and has taken me a while to accept the more traditional life-style of the Raleigh-Durham-Chapel Hill area. I do know that I will return to Northern California, at least to visit if not to live. The farming internship taught me many fundamentals of farming at various levels. Not only did I learn some basic ecological aspects both in the soil and the surronding environment, but the essentials of marketing organic produce and the operation of related and useful machinery. Additionally, I was able to play a somewhat small but essential role in a large research project at the University.

I would recommend this program to anyone. I worked with people of all ages and backgrounds and each and every one of them found a it rewarding and beneficial to their lives both personally and professionally. Its a great hands-on learning experience with wonderful people and environment to work in. Thank you for following me along in this wonderful chapter of my life.