Step 1. Learn all aspects of farming.
The Apprenticeship provides training in the concepts and practices of organic gardening and small-scale farming. This full-time program is held at the Center's 25-acre Farm and 3-acre Alan Chadwick Garden on the UCSC campus. Run in conjunction with UCSC Extension, the Apprenticeship course carries 20 units of Extension credit for the approximately 300 hours of classroom instruction and 700 hours of in-field training and hands-on experience in the greenhouses, gardens, orchards, and fields.
Step 2. Establish or support an urban community garden/farm in a place that needs it.
Approximately 70 community gardens are growing in Los Angles County, serving 3,900 families. Community gardens are vibrant, cooperative organizations that build neighborhood self-reliance, and reduce poverty, mitigate global warming and benefit the LA River and Ballona Creek watersheds. If your community wants to build a community garden, the LA Community Garden Council will help you do it yourself.
MASTERS Landscape Architecture (MLA)
Step 3. Get a masters in landscape architecture with an environmental planning focus.
Environmental planning is the application of natural and social science to promote environmentally sound development and management of natural resources. It is a broad field, bridging the disciplines of geology, soils, hydrology, plant and ecology, law, and public policy.
There are only three accredited programs in CA (USC, UC Berkeley, and Cal Poly Pomona wildlife). I think I'd prefer Cal.
BUSINESS Environmental Consulting
Step 4. Eventually establish an environmental consulting firm (with some real cool people) that focuses on sustainable food systems + community farms in urban areas. Hopefully I'll still be in my twenties or thirties.
It is impressive and beautiful; I would expect no less.
ReplyDeleteGood luck.