Lessons from the Land

Lessons from the Land
Dani Seiss

Getting into the field is necessary when studying ecological processes and understanding humans’ impact on the land and our food cycles. That’s why High School science teacher C.A. Pilling’s Upper Level Environmental Science class visited Potomac Vegetable Farms earlier this month, where they got a chance to see firsthand how food production can be approached with a greater level of sustainability in mind.

In class, the students were learning about nutrient cycles and various soil types and compositions, as well as their relationship to agriculture, food, food waste, and composting.

The students met with farmers on site and discussed sustainable farming practices that use the very processes they were digging into in class. Students witnessed the agricultural method of crop rotation in which cover crops are planted in order to restore the health of the soil, replacing the carbon and nitrogen that had been removed by the previously planted crop. In addition to other benefits, adding more carbon to the soil also helps it retain moisture, which in turn is helpful in preventing erosion of topsoil. They also learned how cover crops, along with rotating livestock across growing areas, can decrease or eliminate the use of fertilizers that are detrimental to water systems.

“We had just studied eutrophication in class. When excess nutrients are put onto the land in the form of fertilizer and/or livestock waste and those nutrients run off into nearby waterways, a process known as eutrophication can occur in which the end result is a decrease in dissolved oxygen. With a lower amount of dissolved oxygen, many organisms become stressed (some to the point where they die off) and the composition of the affected streams or ponds can be significantly changed for the worse,” said C.A.

Students then saw these effects as a neighboring housing development’s grass fertilizer had made it into the farm's stream and a nearby pond where algal blooms were abundant (the first step in the eutrophication process).

A discussion of zoning laws and policies, along with their impacts on these environmental systems, then followed, allowing students to get a sense of how environmental science is very much a part of everyday decision-making – not just by scientists, but also politicians and citizens alike.  

The class wrapped up the day by sampling seasonal fruits and vegetables growing around the farm, including peppers, persimmons, and passionfruit.

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Lessons from the Land
  • High School
  • Science