Urban Farmers CLP

I attended the CLP showing of the short film Growing Cities, which is about the increasingly popular urban farms movement. One part of the film I thought was particularly interesting was the farm that had been established on top of an out of commission skyscraper, which turned out to be an extremely effective, and space efficient, way of producing food that I believe should be encouraged in cities across the US.

Relating to the Campus Sustainability Master Plan...

After perusing the Campus Master Plan for making Furman University carbon-neutral by 2026, while many courses of action will most certainly help to reach this goal, the most important parts of the plan are goals 1 through 3. These goals relate first to initiating a sustainability major, then raising awareness of sustainability initiatives being taken and making more of these initiatives and classes available to the student body as a whole to breed a campus wide mentality of conservation. The critical part of these goals is the educational element. Education through hands on experience, rather than through a top down method, is the best way to ensure students are invested in what they are learning. By extending the education of sustainable practices to the whole student body, conservation becomes a natural part of being a Furman student rather than something that just EES or SUS majors do. This will help bring about more widespread change at a faster rate, and since the actual "living" part of sustainable living is being carried out by the students themselves, they will be more invested in these practices and will be more likely to carry them on after college. 

"An Ode to Swan Lake"

"An Ode to Swan Lake"

By Mitchell Freyermuth


Four Friends: Three Farmers
And an (Unpaid) Intern
Take a Walk around Swan Lake.

Dodging Cyclists, taking 
embarrassing Selfies that show
how artsy and awkward We are. 

The crackle of leaves 
underfoot; Paris Mountain
reflected in a grimy mirror.

A picture as quirky,
timeless, and perfect
as this one.

The Furman Farm

Since my first couple weeks at Furman, I've been volunteering at the Furman farm. Located adjacent to the Shi Center and the Eco Village, the farm is a completely self-sufficient produce farm that yields seasonal, fresh produce for weekly sale. Operating on a fairly small track of land, the actual yields from the farm are proportionally massive. This productivity owes itself partially to water conscious planting methods (such as double digging), microbe-rich homemade compost, and the planting of many different crops each season to prevent the issues that come with monocropping. All of these practices are carried out with strict attention to detail by Bruce, the farm manager, Allie, the assistant farm manager and fellow ECOS member, Tindall, the compost manager and also an ECOS member, and the volunteers (that's me).

 
My lettuces before and after!

Traveler's Rest Farmers Market

Every Thursday, local farmers, artists, musicians, and food truckers alike can meet at the Traveler's Rest Farmers Market to feed, entertain, and engage in conversation with people who commute from all over the Greenville area. Among those commuters today were my classmate-friend-awesome human Lettie and I, as we enjoyed homemade cinnamon bread, barbecue, and bluegrass music along with probably 200 other people. What struck most about the market was the fantastic sense of community and mutual friendliness not only between fellow consumers but also between the consumers and the sellers themselves. I think that sort of connection is what sets the farmers market apart from a Walmart or Kroger. It's just as healthy and wholesome for the community as the food is for the consumer.

Biking on the Swamp Rabbit Trail

If you were to travel around Furman's Swan Lake from either direction, you would eventually come to a little wooded path that leads to the Swamp Rabbit Trail. The paved, well-traveled path is the main foot and bike travel artery between Greenville and Traveler's Rest, with Furman sandwiched in between. Since the initial weeks of this semester, I've biked the swamp rabbit in either diretion, and in it's entirety on several occcasions. Not only has it been a way to keep me active and fit, but it has also provided me with some memorable scenery and, well, occurrences, that have helped define this new stage of my life. Usually leaving before dusk, Bryan, my hall mate, and I, even at a challenging pace, don't return until after dark. While we aren't supposed to be on the trail after dark without bike lights, the setting is opportune for the telling of eerie ghost stories, listening to the sounds of cicadas and owls, and introspective conversations about the meaning of Led Zeppelin songs. 

The PAC: Sweat, Blood, and Renewable Energy

I'd like to take you on a brief tour of the sustainability initiatives being taken at Furman's PAC, where everyday we're reducing waistlines and energy bills at the same time! The PAC will be the focal point of my section of a student video project being put together by the ECOS members. To begin, all wastewater from the PAC is drained directly to Furman's "Living Machine," a small scale water treatment facility that uses plants to clean almost all waste from the water coming in so it can be pumped back to the PAC for use as toilet water. On the roof, the PAC houses Furman's largest solar panel array, as well as a solar thermal heating system. The photovoltaic cells generate up to 95 kW of clean energy, and the heating system provides the facility its hot water. The last stop on the tour, and probably  my favorite part of the PAC, are the elliptical machines that use a system called ReRev to capture heat energy from the movement of the machines and convert it into pure PAC power.