The Valley guide to an eco-friendly lifestyleSummer 2011 A Publication of THE RECORDER

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By MAGGIE FRELENGSpecial to Going Green

A s John Gerber,Professor ofSustainable Food andFarming at theUniversity of

Massachusetts Amherst, relaxes inhis kitchen eating homemade granolaand reading the Amherst Bulletin,something grabs his eye: Matt Roth,his former teacher’s assistant, now inthe Peace Corps raising chickens forpeople in small villages in ElSalvador. A light goes off in Gerber’shead and he is seeing a student of hismaking changes in the world.

“Students are where the changecomes from,” says Gerber. “It is so

exciting watching people who canmake a difference in the world.Students have the opportunity and the

responsibility to take action when theysee something is not right. My classestry to encourage and nurture that.”

For Gerber, a distinguished profes-sor at UMass (winning theDistinguished Teaching Award in2008), member of the Board of LivingRoutes, member of the AmherstConservation Commission, formerexecutive director of the Consortiumfor Sustainable Agriculture, and afounder of the Loka Institute (a non-profit research and advocacy organi-zation), it is not about him — it isabout the students.

Gerber found his calling as a newdemand for sustainability and greenliving was on the rise. The first EarthDay was around this time in 1970,which Gerber describes as “an awak-ening in American society.” Applyinghis expertise in biology to world foodand hunger issues, Gerber becamededicated to the sustainability andgreen living movement. Post ‘70s,Gerber said he saw the movementslowly die out, but in recent years thedemand for sustainability has comeback, and in full force with concernsabout global warming and renewableenergy as hot topics.

“Sustainability represents a way of

UMass Prof.’ssustainabilitymessage hasglobal reach

Photo/Maggie FrelengSince leaving his position as an administrator at UMass and becoming aProfessor of Sustainable Food and Farming, about 12 years ago, Gerberhas seen the major grow from five students to about 55 and counting.

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thinking that guides our behaviorsuch that we provide for the needs ofall people alive today without jeopar-dizing future generations,” SaysGerber.

Since leaving his position as anadministrator at UMass and becom-ing a Professor of Sustainable Foodand Farming, about 12 years ago,Gerber has seen the major grow fromfive students to about 55 students andcounting.

Gerber believes that these stu-dents, among others, are the peoplewho are going to make a difference inthe world; he just provides the plat-form for them to get started.

“I like to orches-trate and create theopportunity for otherpeople to teach,” saysGerber, who recentlyheld a chicken work-shop at Simple GiftsFarm in Amherstwhere people wereencouraged to comehear and learn fromreal chicken ownersabout raising chick-ens. “It is more aboutencouraging otherpeople to stand up andtell their story,” hesays.

Ryan Fahey,UMass senior and oneof Gerber’s TAs in hisSustainable Living class, a class dedi-cated to understanding global chal-lenges to sustainability from econom-ic, environmental and social perspec-tives. Fahey is enthusiastic aboutGerber and his not-so-ordinary teach-ing methods.

“I’d say my favorite thing abouthis teaching method is his ability tolet others take the reins at any point,”says Fahey, who feels he has beenchallenged by Gerber to think and dothings he has never done before.

“If someone else has a great idea,and John thinks we can all learnfrom it, he allows that person to leadand become the teacher. As TAs hegives us the power to interrupt himmid-lecture and say ‘we need toswitch things up,’ which might just betaking a minute or two and taking abreath to help us come back frombeing distracted, but it’s somethingunique to his class.”

When Gerber first started teachingthe class about 10 years ago, it wasnot in a lecture hall but a normalclassroom of about 30 students. Now,Sustainable Living maxed out the 2011spring semester at 294 students, withthe enrollment capacity being 268.Gerber teaches the class with the

help of his 14 to 15 TAs and numerousguest lecturers for topics of choice.

“There is a wide variety of sustain-able topics that are addressedthroughout the semester and one ofthem is bound to hit home for justabout everyone,” says Fahey on theimpact the class has on almost all ofthe 200 plus students who take it.

Destined to farm

John Gerber’s sustainability move-ment started when he was in 5thgrade, growing up in Long Island,N.Y., and took a mandatory aptitudetest. The test results said he was des-tined to be a farmer: Gerber was

mortified when hisfriends’ results sug-gested medicine andlaw. But little did heknow it really was hiscalling and somethingthat would make himproud in years tocome.

Later, in highschool, he met a girl.His girlfriend’s moth-er kept asking Gerberif he knew anythingabout gardening,which at the time hedid not. He figured itwould be in his bestinterest to learn a bitabout gardening. Itwas then that he fellin love — not onlywith the girl, who is

now his wife, but with the earth.

“It allowed me to take my interestand skills in biology and put them touse in the world,” said Gerber.

All around campus and theAmherst community, projects withroots in Prof. Gerber’s classes havesprung up. The Garden Share Projectand the Permaculture Garden wereboth ideas from students in Gerber’sclasses.

Ten years ago, in 2001, the GardenShare garden was started because astudent told John he thought it wasnecessary and together they made ithappen. The Garden Share garden,about ½ an acre, is part of theGarden Share Project, a student orga-nization at UMass. The organizationteaches how to practice sustainableagriculture and organic farmingmethods. The garden is also used insome of Gerber’s classes, includingGarden Share, a pass/fail course for 1credit. The food from the gardenmostly feeds the participants but inthe past has donated food to theAmherst Survival Center and sold toEarthfoods Cafe, a nonprofit vegancafe on campus.

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Gerber: From an early ageContinued from previous page

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I like tocreatetheopportu-nity forotherpeople toteach.

John GerberUMass professor

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DID YOU KNOW that, inMassachusetts, our soils, climate, andwater supply make it difficult to main-tain lawns that resemble golf greens,even if we had unlimited time andmoney? Meanwhile, landscapes thatrequire lots of water, fertilizers, andpesticides pollute our water resources.

GREEN TIP: Adopt landscapingpractices that will protect our watersupply, reduce water usage andstormwater pollution, and encourage

groundwater recharge, all whilerequiring less maintenance and chem-icals to maintain. For information onhow to start landscaping this way,visit greenscapes.org

For more information about theGreen Tips program and the ValleyVision 2 Regional Land Use Plan,contact Danielle McKahn at (413) 781-6045 or djkahn@pvpc.org.

This Green Tip is brought to you by the PioneerValley Planning Commission.

Supplying campus dining halls

The Franklin Permaculture Gardenis a newer student-run garden atUMass and one of the first student-ledpermaculture gardens in the nation tosupply fresh produce to the campusdining halls. The ¼-acre garden wasstarted in October 2010 outside ofFranklin dining hall and is still in theworks, planting this April, hoping toproduce about 1,000 lbs of food when itis finished. The newgarden is an effortto bring self-grownfood to the dininghalls so studentscan know and feelgood about wherethere food comesfrom; and in thecase of the studentswho participate inthe permaculturemovement, a chanceto reap the literalfruits of their labor.

Currently, Gerberis working on a stu-dent farmers marketand a student CSA(Community, but inthis case Campus SupportedAgriculture) in South Deerfield, at theUMass Research Farm. The CSA isalso an undergraduate course inPlant, Soil and Insect Sciences calledStudent Farming Enterprise (SFE).The class is a six credit, two-semestercourse that teaches students the insand outs of organic farming: fromplanning and marketing in the springto harvest and sales in the fall. Lastyear the group had about 30 members.

Reclaiming the commons

Gerber is also working with theAmherst Conservation Committee topromote more food production andfarming locally by “reclaiming thecommons,” says Gerber, and makingmore public land accessible to farm-ers and students coming out of school

to start their farm on. He is also inthe process of trying to changeAmherst zoning laws to make it easi-er to raise chickens in the area.

When he is not trying to save thecommunity with one green thumb ata time, John Gerber’s favorite placeto be is right in his own backyard, inrural Amherst, among his chickencoops, hoop houses, and bee hives.

“That’s where I find my peace andserenity. I go home, check the eggsand see how the ladies are doing,”

says Gerber, in ref-erence to his hens.

Gerber says oneof the best decisionshe has made in lifewas to stop being anadministrator andreturn to teaching:his first love.

“It allowed me totake off my tie andbe who I am,” hesaid. “It is not exact-ly what most peoplethink of as a mile-stone, but for me itwas huge. I wouldmuch prefer to workwith students … my

preference is to highlight ‘you’.”

Which is where we find Gerber, sit-ting at his kitchen table, proud ofwhat one of his former students hasaccomplished.

“I don’t go looking for thesethings,” says Gerber. “I am just read-ing the newspaper and there is one ofmy students from a few years agowho took my Sustainable Living class,was a TA with me and is now helpingpeople. It wasn’t my doing, it wasMatt’s doing, in my class and now inhis life. That I am proud of.”

Submitted photoGerber is trying to changeAmherst zoning laws to make iteasier to raise chickens in thearea.

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Gerber: Campus ‘CSA’Continued from previous page

MAGGIE FRELENG is a gradu-ate of UMass Amherst, intern atthe U.S Fish and WildlifeService and a freelance writerand photographer focusing inconservation, sustainability,social justice and humanities.

PVPC Green Tip