Overview

Photo Gallery

How the Program Works

• General
• Training
• Housing
• Program Dates
• Activities
  

Applying the Program Skills

• International Agricultural Development Worker
• Living History Interpreter
• Small Farmer

Who Should Apply

Multinational Exchange for Sustainable Agriculture

Applying Program Skills

For the International Agricultural Development Worker

Because Howell Farm depicts a time period when agricultural technology was changing rapidly, it is a natural setting for training people who will be working with change. Although oxen have almost disappeared from North America , there are hundreds of millions of them working worldwide, mostly in developing countries. Millions of small farmers have yet to replace their hand hoes with animal-drawn plows, and others are having to replace tractors with draft animals when foreign aid no longer provides the fuel and parts to keep the tractors running. Our history is not just a curiosity to be studied, but can provide practical information based on decades of experience to those who are adopting systems that were in common use in our history.

For the Living History Interpreter

There is increasing interest today in the history of ordinary people as opposed to the presidents and generals who dominated the history texts of twenty years ago. Farms played a large role in the American economy in 1900. Our great-grandparents are as likely to have been farmers as anything else. The American of the late 20th century, cut off from the farm by several generations, is probably as uncomfortable trying to cut grass with a scythe as the hay mower of the turn of the century would be in trying to use a computer. While learning to use simple tools like a scythe or a walking plow, one learns that our great-grandparents were not so simple after all, but possessed a great breadth of skills and knowledge, most of which would be considered extraordinary today. By practicing these skills, and studying the ways of the past, we make it possible for people to experience what life was really like a hundred years ago.

For the Small Farmer

For a variety of reasons, many people are interested in small-scale farming and home food production. Those who wish to grow crops without a lot of purchased inputs like fertilizers, pesticides, and seeds, whether for reasons of health or economy, can apply many of the techniques practiced here. The techniques and tools used here fit the scale of the small family farm. The integration of livestock and crops helps recycle nutrients and provide a broad range of products for the family to use.