Peachtree – A new program at Tri-County Community college will soon teach students skills to both feed and protect the earth.
After being approved by both the Tri-County Community College Board of Trustees and N.C. Board of Community Colleges, Tri-County will premiere a sustainable agriculture program. The new associate of applied science program will teach students to sustainably raise both plants and animals, and will include an apprenticeship in a sustainable agriculture setting in the region.
The courses will be taught by James Jenkins, who has served in several administrative capacities at Tri-County prior to taking the helm of the sustainable agriculture program. The initial seed money for the program is provided by a grant.
“You’re looking to have offerings that reach abroad demographic of potential interest in the area,” Jenkins said. “The college used to offer a horticulture program.”
This will be the sole agriculture program offered at the college.
“The word sustainable is kind of, I’d go so far as to say, overused,” Jenkins said. “Everybody claims to be sustainable.”
He said sustainable agriculture focused on localizing the food supply chain, plus using less pesticides and other chemicals than traditional agricultural practices.
“There is ag here, and that’s kind of the target, but there’s also people that would like to explore it,” Jenkins said. “They may not feel at this point a vocational calling to it, but they’d like to explore it, so this would be a nice opportunity.”
He said sustainable agriculture sought to get away from the global agriculture market and keep food local. He emphasized the diversity of the field, with opportunities in vegetable and fruit growing, beekeeping, mushrooms, livestock, dairy and even flowers.
“Probably about $1 trillion of the economy has some connection with agriculture,” Jenkins said. “This program, a two-year program at a community college, growers is the first focus but somebody may not have that entrepreneurial spirit. It takes a whole different skill set to grow things than it does to market and to manage a business. Working for other growers is clearly available, but there are so many areas that are going ing to be covered.
“It would give you enough information with a fairly low investment of time and money to say ‘is the world of growing things for food what I want to spend the rest of my life in.”
Jenkins said while it’s a technical degree, it could open doors for further training and higher education for students. He also mentioned forging partnerships with local growers and producers.
The program’s initial facilities will be greenhouses that were previously owned by the Cherokee County Sheriff’s Office and used for an inmate program. The houses will soon be transferred over to the college.
“They had been sitting there for years, so they’re being transferred to the college, really nice structures,” Jenkins said. “Those will go up and be kind of the main teaching facilities.”
For details, call Jenkins at 837-6810.
Image
Body